Does Britain suffer from a Democratic deficit?

I would say yes, The UK have a huge problem when it comes to democracy, considering that the UK has had a huge decrease in political participation itself, the UK are struggling with many factors of democracy which many cities are starting to notice. Some of these problems lie with the House Of Lords which is unelected, The First Past The Post voting system which mean you do not need the majority to win the election (completely democratic I know!!) and the European Union which is also unelected and partisan dealignment where nobody feels represented by the MPs.

There are a few reasons to why there is a fall in political participation, all of the points about the reasons for the democratic deficit are reasons for the lack of participation yet so are other reasons. Citizens of the UK seem clueless about what goes on within parliament and this comes from the lack of education in which they have had in School. Increasing the education in schools about politics and current affairs will increase Political Participation when they turn 18 and are legally allowed to vote.

The Unelected House Of Lords is completely undemocratic. The fact that it is unelected shows that it is undemocratic. Although in 1958 and 99 the minimised the number of the passing down into the lordship as their "good" idea it is still undemocratic as the public do not actually get a say in the way they want to be represented. In 2000, the British Government decided to use an appointment panel, Who choses who can be appointed or not? a member of the public? Our representatives? No, of course not. That would be too democratic. instead we use people that have backgrounds in the type of industries that specialise in a certain subject or who have money and are at the top of the game. Although that might not be a problem for the UK to have specialists in subjects at the top of the chain, but how does that represent the "commoners" like us? Well to answer that question, it doesn't. This creates a democratic deficit as people just do not want to be involved in the British Government.

Imagine not having to get the majority of votes to win an election? Well in the UK you do not need the majority!! Just 20% of the votes like a candidate in a small area in Ireland can get you a seat. Democracy means Power by, for and of the people. For the candidate of 20% of votes, what happens to the 80% that did not feel that they were represented by that candidate. Well the FPTP system which the UK use in the General Election, is why this happens. Seems fully democratic.

The UK are really struggling in the Democratic deficit side. Things need to change to make this country more democratic.

Would a change in the voting system improve democracy in the uk?

Some would say that the voting system in the UK isn't the most democratic. For those who don't know the First past the post (FPTP) method which they UK have adopted. The  FPTP is a simple  electoral system in which the winning candidate only needs a plurality of votes i.e. one vote more than their leading opponent in order to win their seat.

Some say that the FPTP system isn't democratic because it might not show a fair representation of the votes cast of the area or the overall outcome. An example of this is that in the last General Election, UKIP gained 3,881,099 votes compared to the Scottish National Party gained 1,454,436  votes, yet UKIP had an outcome of 1 seat in the general election compared to the SNP who now has 56 seats controlling the majority of Scotland. See it doesn't seem fair? The system means that the majority doesn't mean it will be the overall outcome.

In 2011, there was a chance for the UK to change the voting system using a referendum. The new voting system was called "The alternative voting system". The Alternative voting system means that voters would order the candidates to who they would mainly want in. The problem with this voting system is that it isn't a proportional vote. Although this change didn't come in as it lost with a reasonable percentage. 

I would personally go for the change. I feel as that the FPTP system doesn't work and is out dated. There is upcoming smaller parties now and I don't think that the FPTP system just isn't a fair representation for what the UK  actually want.