Direct Democracy and the Tories

An interesting take on the recent parliamentary vote on a European referendum which links in well with the Unit 1 Democracy topic is to be found in the Economist. Bagehot in One man, many votes - The Tories’ confused attitude to direct democracy asserts:

MORE than two centuries ago, the liberal philosopher Edmund Burke delivered a bracing warning to voters in Bristol, who had just elected him to Parliament. If his constituents had opinions, he announced, he would “rejoice” to hear them. But he would not be Bristol’s envoy to Parliament, nor take instructions from his electors. At Westminster, he would deliberate in the national interest, not theirs.

Nobody denounced Burke by name in the House of Commons on October 24th, when more than 80 Conservatives defied party leaders to back a referendum on Britain’s ties to the European Union. But today’s backbenchers unmistakably rejected Burke’s lofty vision of representative democracy

Given the mention of Burke, the balance in the UK between representative democracy and direct democracy it is worth a read! Also follow up with Bagehot’s Notebook which extends analysis towards the issue of referendums and the break up of the UK vis a vis Scottish independence.