Is the UK truly democratic ?

Democracy is a general description of various political systems that are organised on the basis that the government should serve the interests of people. In liberal democracies it is also expected that citizens should influence decisions or make decisions themselves. The government are also expected to be accountable, in various ways to the people. It could be argued that the UK is truly democratic as well as not being democratic. 

The UK electoral system is claimed to be democratic for many reasons, the reason why it is seemed to be democratic is due to the citizens in the UK being able to elect the party they feel represents them best to govern the state.  As this year the Conservaitve party managed to win 331 seats within the House of Commons. According to estimates calculated by Ipsos Mori the people who supported the Conservative party 5 years ago still supported them in the 2015 election, which were mainly 65 and above, which was the highest turn out group with (78%). This suggests that the state is truly democratic as the people voted for the political party. How ever, it could still be argued that it isn't truly democratic due to not everyone is involved with politics, this is known as partisan dealignment, this is where people feel that no party actually represents them for many reasons; for example due to MPs backgrounds it could be argued they don't represent the average citizens. 

Another reason why the UK could be argued to be undemocratic is due to the electoral system they use which is first past the post. This problem is due to being under or over representive whereby the proportion of the seats gained is not equivalent to the proportion of votes. The system is also blamed for the apparent 'two party state'  which means that the smaller parties don't have much of a chance no matter how many votes they get. Also another reason why the UK could be seen as undemocratic is because there isn't no written constitution, which means government are able to pass any legislation they please if they have the majority of votes, which is pretty simply for the party who has the most seats in the House of Commons; this shows that it isn't democratic and also could be argued that the government has to much power which could cause individuals to become corrupt; however democracy was supposed to prevent the government to have to much power and disperse it. However the Prime Minister is able to declare war with out the consent of parliament, an example of this is in 2005 with the Iraq war which was heavily resented by majority of the public however wasn't able to have a say. 

Overall, Britain is seen to be democratic but also have many points which causes people to argue against Britain being democratic.