A democracy is the political system that best represents the diversity of opinions. However, it is fragile, as it can easily be overturned by autocrats who therefore can jeopardise the voices of people. What is the state of democracy in English-speaking countries?

IA strong democratic tradition

1 Democracies

Democracy has been adopted by most of the English-speaking countries and the United States is said to be one of the oldest democracies in the world. Another common point shared is the three branches of government: the executive (the President or Prime Minister), the legislative (lower and upper houses) and the judicial (the different courts).

Political pluralism whether it be federally or locally is also a strong mark of a democratic regime. In the USA, power is shared between local power (the 50 States) and the central government in Washington. In the UK, devolution has granted regional powers to Scotland and Wales in education, agriculture, transport… In 1997 voters chose to create a Scottish Parliament and a National Assembly for Wales.

2 Autocracies

Yet, there are authoritarian regimes in the English-speaking world. They are often run by one almighty president or head of state (Cameroon, Eswatini, Pakistan, Nigeria, Malaysia…). Even if there are elections, pluralism is not always respected during political campaigns. They are often marred by a high level of political violence, so the citizens are not accurately represented.

Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth in 2002 after an election widely seen as flawed, and then withdrew in 2003. The Gambia left the organisation in 2013 and rejoined it in 2018. Fiji whose membership was suspended three times because of military coup is now back in the Commonwealth.

IIParliamentary monarchy vs. republic

1 Britain facing the young American republic

In Britain there is no written or codified constitution: it is based on Common Law with a parliamentary or constitutional monarchy. Freed from Britain in 1783 (the end of the American War of Independence), a young republic, the United States of America, was born with a written constitution and a presidential form a government.

The American Constitution was signed in 1787 in Philadelphia. The aim was to reinforce the national government as states operated like independent countries. The Bill of Rights were ten amendments guaranteeing basic individual protections, such as freedom of speech and religion. They became part of the Constitution in 1791.

2 Being faithful to the Crown?

In today’s Commonwealth, some countries or territories want to cut loose from Britain to gain a better representation. This is the case for Australia and Scotland. In 1999, Australia held a referendum. One of the two questions was whether Australia should become a republic with a president elected by parliament. The “NO” polled 55% of the votes. In the latest survey, the “YES” obtained 52%.

Other territories held referendums such as Gibraltar and the Falklands. Yet both regions refused independence. Also, citizens from these two territories do not have the same identity claims as the Scottish do.

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2014: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”

An independence referendum was held in 2014 in Scotland. Scottish citizens were asked to answer this question “Should Scotland be an independent country?”. 55.3% answered “NO” while 44.7% said “YES”.

Only four council areas voted “YES”, but they are highly populated and urban, so they represent a high density of citizens. The largest councils are rural and less populated. It shows that the number and the size of councils are not relevant. Note that citizens from the Commonwealth were entitled to vote.

➞ Find out more about Scottish independence:

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