Sociology Report: Analyzing the UK Political System and its Flaws

This report critically analyzes the flaws within the UK political system, focusing on the arguments presented by Darren Hughes, Chief Executive of the Electoral Reform Society. The report examines the outdated nature of the system, including the lack of a codified constitution and the inclusion of members based on heredity, contributing to political instability and reduced citizen participation. It highlights issues such as the 'winner takes all' election dynamics and the violation of gentleman's agreements. The author argues that the system itself, rather than the politicians, is the primary cause of political chaos, particularly in the context of the No Deal Brexit. The report proposes localized constituency formations as an alternative to enhance the quality of solutions by ensuring the participation of both winning and losing members in decision-making. The conclusion emphasizes the need for comprehensive political reform to improve the quality of political interactions and enhance citizen engagement in the UK.

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
Sociology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Context:......................................................................................................................................3
Source/ Author:..........................................................................................................................4
Content:......................................................................................................................................4
Alternatives:...............................................................................................................................5
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................6
Bibliography:..............................................................................................................................7

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Introduction:
The modern political systems in majority of the countries across the globe, are
observed to provide considerably limited scope to the general citizens of the nation in putting
forward their opinions in a practical and effective manner. The paper discusses regarding one
such inappropriately managed political system which is of United Kingdom. The study
analyses various parts of the political system of the nation to identify the flaws it has in
considering the opinion of their general citizens in a professional manner. The study
evaluates the discussion piece of Darren Hughes for the elaboration of strength of the
political system of the nation and the loopholes that it has.
Context:
From the discussion, the main point of debate is the age old political system of the
nation. According to the author, the main reason of the political disturbance and the chaos in
the political set up of the nation, is the system itself. The dynamics of the election system in
the nation is observed to be converted into a football match where one wins and the other one
loses. With the loss of the other one, it seems the power of decision making and the capability
of contributing to the formation of the decisions is taken away and that creates the main
concerns for the society. Even if a candidate wins, a large section of the people are observed
to vote for that particular candidate and their participation in the parliament gets threatened
with the practice of the autocratic nature of the winner. As a result, a section of the members
who might have received considerably low percentage of vote considering the overall
percentage of votes, is rewarded with the power to form the government. Along with that, UK
parliament is seen to operate under the procedural rules, legislations and conventions which is
primarily a gentleman’s agreement in politics that get violated by the members in an easy and
frequent manner. The inclusion of the members in the parliament on the basis of heredity is

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one of the inappropriate techniques that get frequently applied in UK. The purpose of the
article is to influence the main stakeholders of the UK political system for initiate a reform of
their existing political system to ensure the fact that the participation of the general citizens of
the nation in the decision making process of the state and nation gets enhanced. The timing of
the article is also pretty accurate as UK government and the parliament of the nation faced
considerable number of challenges and factors that made political chaos in the nation in the
year 2019 with the introduction of the No Deal Brexit.
Source/ Author:
The author of the article is Darren Hughes who is the Chief Executive of the Electoral
Reform Society in UK. The position of the author and the responsibilities that he manages,
provides him considerable amount of scope to observe the UK politics and the functioning of
the parliament in a notably effective manner. At the same time, the role of the author enables
him to understand the concern of the general citizens regarding the incompetent exchange of
their opinion to the parliament. The basic motive of the author is to enhance the quality of the
electoral processes implemented in the nation through initiating an efficient reform. The
intended audience are each and every stakeholders of the nation which includes the law
makers of the nation, the members of parliament of the nation, the general citizens of the
nation and the democratic forums that work for putting forward the opinions of the general
citizens to the parliament.
Content:
The arguments that are forwarded in the article, are that the main factor that is
responsible for the declining quality of the political interactions in the nation, is the outdated
political system of the nation rather than the politicians of the nation. An established and
modern nation such as UK is observed to lack a framed constitution that will be considered

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for managing the implementation of the legislative actions inside the nation. At the same
time, the inclusion of the members in the parliament of UK in the basis of the heredity is seen
to be associated with considerable amount of detrimental impact for the society and for the
people of the nation. The arguments are observed to be well supported with the evidence and
that is visible with the mention of the number of members (92) included in the parliament on
the basis of the heredity out of 800 members. The sources that utilized for collecting data
which are primarily the government websites and database, make it credible. The explicit
assumption in the same, is the inaccurate management of the political system. It is visible that
the inclusion of the members on the basis of their heredity in the parliament, the absence of
an attractive codified legislation in the nation, the introduction of legislation such as No
Brexit deal which is getting used for breaching the gentleman’s agreement in politics is
decreasing the stability of the national politics. The implicit assumption is the necessity of the
reform in the political system of the nation which will be crucial in preventing governments
in going inappropriately on their stakeholders. Considering the current situation of nation, the
assumptions are observed to be notably realistic and that is prominent with the fact relativity
that the solution of a political reform has, on the challenge. With a detailed consideration
towards the issues that are taking place in the political scenario of the nation, the conclusion
of the political reform is expected to hold a great degree of success for the society. At the
same time, the changes in the mentality of one wins and the other loses in the elections, is
considered to be crucial in considering the opinion of the general citizens of the nation.
Alternatives:
The alternatives for the mentioned process will be a localised formation of the
parliament or more specifically the constituency. The participation of both the winning and
losing member in the decision making and discussion at the constituency level has a great
level of significance in tackling the challenge. As one of the main concern highlighted in the

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article is the absence of contribution from the part of the losing member, the proposed idea of
localised formation of the constituencies will be critical in enhancing the quality of the
solution. To be practical, the alternative solution provides better protection to the system
where the contribution of the losing member in the decision making is neglected. However,
the overall challenge of the political scenario of the nation gets partially managed with the
alternative.
Conclusion:
On an ending note, it is understandable that the political scenario of UK is facing
considerable amount of challenge which includes absence of framed legislations, selection of
the members on the basis of the heredity and low participation of the citizens of the nation in
the decision making. The formation of the political chaos in the nation is largely because of
the inappropriate political system of the nation rather than the politicians of the nation.
Having said that, the success of the nation in enhancing the quality of their political
interaction is largely dependent on the ability of their ability in reforming the political system
of the nation.

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Bibliography:
Electoral-reform.org.uk. 2020. Electoral Reform Society. [online] Available at:
https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/
Metro.co.uk. 2020. Our political system is to blame for what's happening in Parliament |
Metro News. [online] Available at: https://metro.co.uk/2019/09/05/our-outdated-political-
system-is-to-blame-for-whats-happening-in-parliament-10678207/
Newstatesman.com. 2020. The rise and fall of Britain’s political class. [online] Available at:
https://www.newstatesman.com/2019/01/rise-and-fall-political-class-0