Democracy Test your knowledge Rowena Hammal

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Democracy Test your knowledgeRowena Hammal
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How to take the quiz

• Write your answers down as you go.
• Find out your total score at the end of the quiz.

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Questions types of democracy

1. From which country does the word democracy
   originate?
2. What term describes the system of democracy in
   which citizens can vote on all issues?
3. What term describes the system of democracy in
   which citizens elect individuals to make
   decisions on their behalves?
4. What term describes the system of democracy in
   which elected individuals make most of the
   decisions but citizens are also given the
   opportunity to influence some decisions directly,
   for example through referendums?
5. What term describes the system of democracy in
   which the protection of individual freedoms is
   particularly emphasised?

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Questions referendums

• 6. Referendums are increasingly used in the UK to
  provide a mandate for which kind of change?
• 7. Which group of voters were allowed to vote for
  the first time in the 2014 Scottish referendum on
  independence?
• 8. Tony Blairs Labour government held
  referendums in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland,
  London and North East England. What was the issue
  at stake?
• 9. A referendum has only been held across the
  whole of the UK on two occasions. What were they?
• 10. Fill in the blank Low turnout is a problem
  in referendums as it weakens the __________
  provided by the referendum result.

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Questions UK turnout

• Match the elections to the turnout figures
• 31.1 65.2 15.1 35.4
  42.0 83.9
• 11. 1950 UK general election
• 12. 2010 UK general election
• 13. 2011 AV referendum
• 14. 2012 English local elections
• 15. 2012 police commissioner elections
• 16. 2014 European Parliament election

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Questions participation

• Fill in the blanks
• 17. 100,000 signatures are required on an
  _____________ to ensure that it is considered for
  debate in the House of Commons.
• 18. 4.1 of the electorate (1.69 million people)
  were members of a _________ ________ in 1980. By
  2010 the figure was 0.8 (397,000).
• 19. One way to ensure high turnout would be to
  introduce __________ ________, though this
  solution is disliked by liberals.
• 20. Another way to improve turnout might be
  continued reform of parliamentary institutions,
  for example by giving more power to _______
  governments.

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Answers

• When you are ready, go through the answers on the
  slides that follow.
• Add up your score 1 mark for each correct
  answer.

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Answers types of democracy

1. Ancient Greece
2. Direct democracy
3. Representative democracy
4. Participatory democracy
5. Liberal democracy

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Answers referendums

• 6. Constitutional change
• 7. Scottish 16- and 17-year-olds
• 8. Devolution
• (In 1997 Wales chose to have a Welsh Assembly,
  and Scotland chose to have a Scottish Parliament
  with tax-varying powers. In 1998 London chose to
  have an elected mayor and a London Assembly, and
  Northern Ireland chose to accept the Good Friday
  Agreement. In 2004 the North East chose not to
  have a regional assembly.)
• 9. 1975 membership of the EEC, and 2011
  electoral system change to AV
• 10. mandate

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Answers UK turnout

• 11. 1950 UK general election
• 12. 2010 UK general election
• 13. 2011 AV referendum
• 14. 2012 English local elections
• 15. 2012 police commissioner elections
• 16. 2014 European Parliament election
• 83.9
• 65.2
• 42.0
• 31.1
• 15.1
• 35.4

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Answers participation

• Fill in the blanks
• 17. 100,000 signatures are required on an
  e-petition to ensure that it is considered for
  debate in the House of Commons.
• 18. 4.1 of the electorate (1.69 million people)
  were members of a political party in 1980. By
  2010 the figure was 0.8 (397,000).
• 19. One way to ensure high turnout would be to
  introduce compulsory voting, though this solution
  is disliked by liberals.
• 20. Another way to improve turnout might be
  continued reform of parliamentary institutions,
  for example by giving more power to local
  governments.

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Final score

• Add up your marks to discover your score out of
  20, and which country you are
• 20-17 Congratulations! A superb effort! You
  areSwitzerland! This country is widely known for
  its clocks, alpine scenery and fantastic tennis
  players, but it is also home to a thriving (and
  highly unusual) form of direct democracy. To
  watch a short video about Swiss democracy, click
  here.
• 16-13 Not bad at all, but certainly room for
  improvement. You areBelgium! A well-established
  democracy with a proportional representation
  voting system, Belgium has perpetually high
  turnout as voting is compulsory. However, its
  parties often struggle to find common ground.
  Belgium was without a government for a year and a
  half from 2010 to 2011 as the parties failed to
  form a coalition. Click here for more details.

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Final score

• 12-9 Definitely a work in progress. You
  areVenezuela. Elections are hotly contested, but
  governments are too powerful once elected.
  Censorship and the lack of an independent
  judiciary mean that this country lacks a layered
  system of checks and balances to control the
  executive. Read more here.
• 8-5 More work needs to be done! You areChina.
  Home to over a billion people, China is a
  one-party state which allows its citizens to
  vote, in theory for a range of political parties
  or independent candidates, but in practice the
  ruling Communist Party is overwhelmingly
  dominant. Ordinary citizens are also limited in
  who they can elect they vote for representatives
  of the local Peoples Congress, those
  representatives then elect representatives to the
  next level of government, and so on.

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Final score

• 4-0 Bad news. You areNorth Korea. Elections in
  this totalitarian state are purely for show
  sadly, democracy is a distant dream for North
  Koreans. Click here for more details. Its time
  to hit the books and master some basics!