curtail the powers of rulers. But a criticism of liberal democracy is that our rights and freedoms are not all that free. So although we, as British citizens have freedom from arbitrary arrest, we can be arrested on suspicion; although we have freedom of expression, we are not free of libel; although we have the right to be free from surveillance without due process, it can be given by a judge, and although we have the right to the freedom of movement, we are still controlled by passports. It has been thought that liberal democracy has come to embody the limited claim that the working class has the right to compete with the established state institutions and society. This is because no one voice is louder than another, liberal democracies are representative, political authority is based on popular consent, the wishes of the masses. Today liberal democracy has become very closely linked with representative democracies. The idea for representative democracies, is that the citizens elect representatives to make decisions on their behalf. This works in Britain by voters electing Members of Parliament, the person that they think will best represent their views. These MPs meet in an assembly, the House of Commons, which is responsible for making laws. Every MP has the right to speak and vote on proposed laws, either for or against. Proposals become law if a majority of MPs vote in favour of tem. By voting for a representative, the voting citizen is handing over the responsibility for decision making to someone else. Although voters hand over the responsibility for decision making to their elected representatives, they still have a further part to play in the system. There is accountability; the representatives are accountable to the electorate, so the electorate in someway exercises power over its representative. For, unless the representative acts in a way that meets the approval of their electorate, they will not be reselected...
