This article appears in the following Parliamentary Affairs issue: CHARTER 88 AND THE CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM MOVEMENT: TWENTY YEARS ON [View the issue table of contents]
Assessing How Far Charter 88 and the Constitutional Reform Coalition Influenced Voting System Reform in Britain
Professor of Political Science and Public Policy
London School of Economics
Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
UK
Correspondence: p.dunleavy{at}lse.ac.uk
Led in large part by Charter 88 and the Scottish Constitutional Convention, the activities of the constitutional reform movement since the early 1990s have clearly helped to introduce new proportional voting systems into UK politics. Yet, at the same time, the Labour governments after 1997 decisively rejected voting reform for the House of Commons and dragged out Lords reform to prevent any direct election of a second chamber. To explore how Charter 88 and other groups influenced this process, I first examine and critique the conventional wisdom that the reform movement's had minimal influence, as expressed by Anthony King's 2007 book, The British Constitution. Second, to illuminate the processes that King leaves so obscure, I chart three critical games played largely inside the Labour party from 1994 to 2003:
- – the pre-election game that led to Blair's initial pledge of a referendum on voting reform;
- – the ‘new institutions’ game that produced a welter of new proportional voting systems everywhere else but Westminster; and
- – the post-landslide game that led to Labour reneging on the voting system referendum pledge, plus taking no action on Commons or Lords electoral reform.
- – the ‘new institutions’ game that produced a welter of new proportional voting systems everywhere else but Westminster; and