What is ?

Democracy Democracy means: Activities q Citizens can have a say about who makes the big 1. Read through the decisions in their country. information on this q Citizens can find out information about lots of sheet different things and share their opinions (e.g. read 2. Summarise in a the news and then talk about this with their friends) sentence what does q Citizens can make decisions and share their democracy mean. opinions about things that matter to them (e.g. 3. What doe the following discussing school uniform) words mean: Britain is a democratic country and citizens that live • Parliament here are encouraged to have their say and share • Prime Minister their opinions. • • Monarchy • Who makes the big decisions? • Constituency Every five years, citizens can vote for who they want to lead the country. 4. Why is it important to listen The UK is made up of lots of small areas called to opinions that are different constituencies. In each constituency, a small number to your own? Why is this of people are trying to win a seat in Parliament (the important in a democracy? special place in London where big decisions about the country are made). These people will normally be 5.Read the information a member of a much bigger group, these groups are about the . called . Each has different opinions about what should happen in the 6. Why is this an important UK, people vote for the person or political party that document for British they like the best. democracy? Whoever gets the most votes in each constituency wins the parliament seat and becomes the Member of Parliament (MP) for that area. Whichever political party gets the most seats on the whole, can form a government (run the country) and the leader of the Democracy and Human winning political party becomes the Prime Minister Rights (leader of government) For democracy to work, The government will play an important role in shaping need to be the country as they will make big decisions about promoted. It’s very health, education and lots of other things. They must important that people also make sure they are listening to the citizens of the can find out information country, as it is their job to help us! about what is happening But what about the Queen? locally, national and The UK has a monarchy, this means we have a royal globally and talk about family and the queen is . However, the this with others. British Monarchy is known as a constitutional Debating issues and monarchy. This means that, although the queen is sharing opinions is Head of State, the power to make and run the important for a country is passed to the government, as they were democracy to work. chosen by the citizens of the UK. The Magna Carta

The Magna Carta (Latin for “Great ”) was a document that gave certain rights to the English people. King John of England agreed to it on June 15, 1215. The Magna Carta stated that the king must follow the . He could not simply rule as he wished. It was one of the first documents to state that citizens had such rights. England’s nobles (called barons), church leaders, and the common people disliked King John. He demanded too much money from his people. The barons drew up the Magna Carta to limit his power. John was too weak to resist them. The Magna Carta dealt mostly with the rights of barons and the Roman Catholic church. However, it also guaranteed the rights of women and children who inherited . It stated that a person could not be punished for a unless they were lawfully convicted. Finally, the Magna Carta gave barons the right to declare war on the king if he did not follow the document. The Magna Carta was a first step in the creation of England’s . Many other countries later used the ideas of the Magna Carta in their , too.