er democratic countries. It is also important to note, that the Athenian democracy excluded the majority of people from political participation, only male citizens born in Athens over twenty could vote. This reduced the amount of people that could take part in the Assembly, who counted as a citizen, so all women, slaves and foreign residents were excluded. But it has been suggested that with the rapid rise of communication technology, it may be possible in the future to at least consider it. At the moment, our only form of direct democracy is at referendums, and in Britain’s history, there have only even been five. A model that has been developed to explain who holds power in democratic Britain is the pluralist model. According to the pluralist model, power is exercised by the mass of the population, rather than by a small elitist group. They argue that if a majority of people do not like what their representatives are doing, they can vote them out of office at the next election. They also argue that people should take a more active role, between elections, for they can join interest groups, for amongst other thing, political parties, trade unions and pressure groups. They argue that group activities such as these are vital for a successful functioning political system. Pluralists are not interested in whether power is even or uneven, but weather or not it is widely dispersed. According to this model, as the state acts impartially, responding equally to the demands of different pressure groups, so single group can dominate in society. This ensures that people can exert influence over decision makers, to ensure that the power is dispersed and not concentrated, at the same time allowing minority voices to be heard. This is all in favour of Britain being a democracy as it is a way of letting the masses, the many, rule, or at least have more influence over the ruling. We, living in a liberal government, have a representa...
