INTRODUCTION:
Democracy in the United Kingdom is based on a constitutional monarchy and a representative parliamentary system, where citizens elect Members of Parliament to the House of Commons. It is founded on principles of parliamentary sovereignty, and a governing executive accountable to Parliament, rather than a single written constitution
PROBLEM, SURVEY RESULTS AND ANALYSIS.
Based on data from 2024–2026, one of the main challenges facing the UK is the cost of living crisis, with 86% of adults reporting it as an important issue in June 2025, driven by high inflation and increased food and energy costs. This is closely intertwined with a fragile economy characterized by low growth, weak productivity, and sluggish investment following Brexit and the pandemic.
We have conducted a survey to analyse what young people think about this. According to the survey, 10% of people believe that the political system in Spain doesn’t work well, the 48,3% of people think that young people aren’t taken seriously in politics. 63.3% of people would vote if they could but 73,3% think that persons under 18 years shouldn’t vote. Also 83,3% of people think that politics should be taught in school.
These results show that this situation needs to change, because young people feel excluded and poorly educated in this matter. It’s important to have a political ideal, but if we’re not able to vote, we lose interest thinking it’s “grown up stuff». If we want this to change, and make young voices matter, the first step is awareness.
SOLUTIONS
Through films and series, we can show that the government is important and something we need to be informed and able to have an opinion about. In the films, we can see corruption and the young people getting hurt because they have no vote or voice, they can just survive and wait until they’re grown.
Therefore, we propose some recommendations for young people with our personal ratings, to read and watch to get an idea of these topics:
- Divergent by Veronica Roth. (5 stars). It is a film in which social differences are shown very well, so you can learn a lot from this trilogy.
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. (5 stars). It is an amazing saga of both books and movies. There is hardship and sacrifice, but also a symbol of hope: the Mockingjay.
- Prison Break (5 stars) shows that, even in a democratic system, abuse of power and corruption can threaten justice and individual rights.
- 1984 by George Orwell (5 stars) is a classic about totalitarianism and its danger in society. The author has a great way of writing that makes you transport to the place of the action.
Moreover, we have recorded some short videos following TikTok trends that you can see in the QR codes. In these videos, we try to address these problems from the perspective of people our age.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the fast changes of society require people to adapt and try to make people know about important topics through new media and forms of communication. In general, democracy in countries like the United Kingdom works well, but it could improve by listening to young voices.
REFERENCES
HM Government. (s. f.). How government works. GOV.UK. https://www.gov.uk/government/how-government-works
UK Parliament. (2019). How it works [PDF]. UK Parliament. https://assets-learning.parliament.uk/uploads/2019/12/How-it-Works-booklet.pdf
Authors:
Luna Bárcena Galaviz
Gabriela Alonso Aparicio
Yasmín Abda Rhinous
Asmae Yaala Yaala
Laura Ávila Rodríguez