Does The United States Fall Under The Majoritarian Westminster Or Consensus Democracy I

Why is a constitution important in a democracy?

Let us suppose there are different sections of people living in an area and the society regularly goes through conflicts and disputes and create chaos. So one fine day, the people decide to establish some basic rules which will be agreed by and applied to all so that peace is maintained. Now this is the birth of constitution.Then the people decide who will write these basic rules and implement these for you. This is how government is formed.Then you have some safeguards so that the government does not take away your basic rights(fundamental rights).Now a democratic country has some principles like liberty, equality, free and fair elections, etc. All these things are written in the constitution to ensure that these constitute the basics of the country.So we can see that how constitution is important to a democracy.

What is the difference between democracy and liberal democracy?

A democracy is simply a form of government in which power rests in the hands of it's people. The primary example of this is voting. There are many types of democracies. Direct democracies place decision making directly into the hands of individuals. Indirect democracy puts decision making into the hands of an elected official. Most democratic societies have a mixture of direct and indirect.A liberal democracy is a form of democracy which emphasizes and protects individual freedom. Certain rights are viewed as inalienable, meaning they are intrinsic to the individual and cannot be transfered or revoked. This is usually accomplished through constitutional or statutory declarations of and prohibition of interference with these rights. The benefit of this is that no majority in power can suppress these rights without violating these protections.Illiberal democracies do not make assurances of protection of rights. Instead all rights are viewed as granted at the pleasure of the government and are subject to revocation. Any minority can be subjected to suppression by the will of the majority.

What is the difference between democracy and liberal democracy?

A democracy is simply a form of government in which power rests in the hands of it's people. The primary example of this is voting. There are many types of democracies. Direct democracies place decision making directly into the hands of individuals. Indirect democracy puts decision making into the hands of an elected official. Most democratic societies have a mixture of direct and indirect.A liberal democracy is a form of democracy which emphasizes and protects individual freedom. Certain rights are viewed as inalienable, meaning they are intrinsic to the individual and cannot be transfered or revoked. This is usually accomplished through constitutional or statutory declarations of and prohibition of interference with these rights. The benefit of this is that no majority in power can suppress these rights without violating these protections.Illiberal democracies do not make assurances of protection of rights. Instead all rights are viewed as granted at the pleasure of the government and are subject to revocation. Any minority can be subjected to suppression by the will of the majority.

Is the Conservative Party (UK Political Party) similar to the Republican Party in the U.S.? If so, how?

Political parties, whether in the Westminster parliamentary tradition or in the U.S. two party tradition, live and die on how well they serve the needs and aspirations of their target constituencies, so in this sense, all political parties are 'similar'.What distinguishes one party from another is the constituency they serve and the system of government they operate under.  The UK Conservatives are a parliamentary party in a country with no federal government.  There are no states or provinces, just a single national government responsible to parliament ( I won't get into the weeks of what the implications are for say, the Scottish parliament...).  As a result, UK political parties have policy platforms that encompass much broader issues that do American national parties where state and federal purviews are constitutionally divided.Politics rarely translates well from country to country because every country has a different set of concerns.  The so-called 'Atlantic alliance' has been a major political issue since the second world war and continues to be so, but it is completely incidental to American politics where the definitive public issue concerning foreign policy is Israel.  Environmental issues are of a different character in the UK than they are here in the U.S.  Western lands is huge in American politics as is agricultural policy--not so much in the UK.The main similarity, is the tension between economic liberalism and statism in both nations.  Republicans and Conservatives represent more progressive, wealth-producing economic policies, while Democrats and Labour prefer bureaucratic control of the economy for the benefit of entrenched economic and political interests. (Sorry if that isn't even-handed enough, but I've lived under that system and it's miserable...)The bottom line is that if you are a Marxist, the the UK Conservatives and US Republicans are exactly the same.  If on the other hand you are a political scientist, you would regard the respective parties as products of independent evolution filling the same ecological niche.

How would you feel about direct democracy?

Here in the US, 26 states already have some direct democracy in the form of ballot initiatives and referendums: States with initiative or referendum - Ballotpedia. (Initiatives are initiated by the voters by signing petitions; referendums are referred by the legislature to the people for a vote. There are also what are sometimes called veto referendums, in which voters petition to repeal a law made by the legislature.)I live in Colorado, which uses initiatives and referendums more than any other state besides California and Oregon. Our record of initiatives in the last 18 years is FAR better than the record of ANY state legislature: Direct democracy in Colorado beats representative democracy anywhereSo I feel great about Colorado's direct democracy. One reason it works better than in most states is that it takes less signatures to get on the ballot here than in most states.Here in Boulder Colorado, we're making it even easier by allowing ONLINE petitioning: Campaign Finance/Elections Working Group: Issue 2G brings democracy into 21st century This just passed by a vote of 71 to 29%. Now we have to get the city council to follow through and make it happen.It's important to remember this is a hybrid system, not a pure direct democracy. We still have representatives to carry out the details of our decisions by initiative and referendum. And this hybrid provides more “checks and balances,” which is what made the US Constitution famous.