Democracy originated in Ancient Greece where all of the adult male citizens exercised power directly(Lowe C.&Owen V,2011:14).Whereas it cannot be acceptable due to the huge dimension of a community(Lowe C.&Owen V,2011:14).Simply because it apparently takes too much time to let everyone make decisions on numerous and complicated issues on a daily basis in the contemporary era(Lowe C.&Owen V,2011:15-16).Hence,to solve the problem,representative democracy,which is applied to British politics,emerged and it,to some extent,works well.The British public elects representatives. Power is conferred upon members of Commons in the sense that they are elected. They enforce authority on behalf of the public. In other words,”members have a general duty to act in the interests of the nation as a whole;and a special duty to their constituents” (www.parliament.uk/about/mps-and-lords/,27/10/11). And what is an MP’s main role? The former or the latter? Opinions on this argument vary from person to person.
As far as I am concerned,the viewpoint that the main role of an MP is to represent his constituents is much persuasive. The reasons involve the recognition that the election of an MP from one constituency fundamentally has nothing to do with another constituency.Namely,an MP will particularly be responsible for his constituents. It follows that we sometimes call them constituency MPs(Lowe C.&Owen V,2011:21). As is universally acknowledged,the time of an MP is going to be divided into three parts according to their work fields:working in the constituency,working for their political party and working in parliament(www.parliament.uk/about/mps-and-lords/members/mps,27/10/11). First of all,I would like to talk about the main job of an MP in the constituency in order to represent his constituents. An MP often carries a ’surgery’ in his office. It means local people are more than welcome and they can come to talk over any relevant matters to them to their MP. An MP at first will either write a letter to a related official or make an appointment privately. Then the chances are that he,by putting it forward in the House of Commons,will publicize the issue,where it will be officially taken into account and could presumably turn out to change into a focus among the media and the broad masses of the people(www.parliament.uk/about/mps-and-lords/members/what,27/10/11). Finally,it may become the stimulation that puts the officials into action. If these do not work,the constituents may seek to have a petition or lobby their MPs,for MPs are representing and in charge of them straightforward(www.parliament.uk/about/mps-and-lords/members/what,27-10-11). MPs also participate in social events, interviewing with local newspaper journalists and go to see schools as well as businesses in that it is usually true in most instances that “this gives MPs further insight and context into issues they may discuss when they return to Westminster” (www.parliament.uk/about/mps-and-lords/members/mps,27-10-11).
Generally,constituents usually do not elect their representatives in terms of their expertise or capacity. Instead,they pay highly attention to whether the candidate is a member of the party that they stand by. On account that few people could spell out the main differences of each party,the political parties formulate and set out a wide range of policies at the time of a General Election that they are going to implement on condition that they win the election eventually(Roberts D.et al.2005:237). The documents they draw up are what we call Manifestos. That is to say “almost all MPs are elected on a party ticket on the basis of a party manifesto”(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15482397,07-11-11). It is obvious that the much a Manifesto caters to the public,the more seats the corresponding party will gain in the House of Commons. To be more precise,whether or not a Manifesto is going to be accepted largely depends on the degree of consideration taken about the