Transition to Democracy: A UK Success Story

The United Kingdom (UK) is very democratic. On Freedom House’s ranking from one to one hundred of authoritarian to democratic governments, respectively, the UK came in at 95, one of the highest rankings received (1). From the mid 1800’s to early 1900’s, the United Kingdom transitioned from a monarchy to a democracy, and has remained one ever since. The transition to democracy was so successful because of the presence of many positive conditions that could keep democracy alive after it began; conditions such as: committed elites, national unity, private enterprise, and freedom of information. Because of these key conditions, the UK succeeded unlike many other countries that have attempted the transition to democracy, but failed. These countries

In 2011, the Fixed-term Parliament Act determined elections would be held at least every five years. Elections can, however, be held sooner than every five years if a vote of no-confidence is successful and parliament is dissolved. Elections are “first-past-the- post” in single-member districts, meaning that there is no proportional representation. The party that wins, gets the seats.

According to Duverger’s law, single-member districts usually promote a two-party system. That was true until 1974 when the Liberal Democratic Party received an increased proportion of the votes and became a threat to the Conservative and Labour Parties. Slowly, more and more smaller parties have emerged, not only to gain votes, but some seats in parliament.

The current form of democracy in the United Kingdom has proved successful as a form of government that has failed in other countries. It’s hard to argue with success, but I feel a change to allow multi-member districts would result in proportional representation allowing more citizens to feel their votes are valid and align with their political values. However, even in the absence of a shift to proportional representation, the UK is currently evolving to become a multiparty