Parliamentary Affairs - current issue

Charter 88 and the Constitutional Reform Movement: a Retrospective

Erdos, D. — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:20:22 PDT

This paper argues that Charter 88 was fundamentally both the product and catalyser of an ‘aversive’ constitutionalist reaction on the Left and Centre of British politics to the perceived excesses of Thatcherite Conservative rule. Alongside this, other longer term, secular trends were also important including the growth of a postmaterialist politics and the intellectual collapse of Marxism. However, although a number of Charter 88's domestic reforms were implemented by New Labour post-1997, the complete closing of this ‘aversive’ constitutional moment shortly afterwards proved fatal to the continued dynamism of this movement. Despite this, both the Charter's vision of a genuinely pluralist democracy in Britain and its legacy of a renewed vitality in constitutional debate remain potent within the contemporary constitutional reform landscape.

Some Intellectual Origins of Charter 88

Howe, S. — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:20:22 PDT

Charter 88 was not (despite some hostile critics' claims) a movement mainly founded on abstract ideas, nor one specifically of, by or for intellectuals. Yet it had a very diverse set of intellectual roots and influences, drawing on many currents of thought ranging from global developments in democratic political theory, through essays in rethinking the histories of Britishness, to specifically Scottish and Welsh intellectual innovations—as well as ranging from the (former) disciples of Leon Trotsky to those of Edmund Burke. This article seeks to trace some at least of those multiple currents of intellectual input into the movement, and suggests that both the greatest achievement and the greatest mystery of Charter 88 is how successfully and on the whole very amicably their adherents managed to work together.

Revisiting Charter 88

Rustin, M. — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:20:22 PDT

This article reviews the emergence of Charter 88 as a response to a particular political conjuncture in British politics. It argues that its programme of reform was not so much an attempt to resolve a political crisis that had proved unmanageable within the existing constitutional settlement, as an attempt to redefine and achieve the political goals of the liberal left by constitutional means. The article discusses the considerable successes of the Charter, limited only by the fact that the incoming New Labour government of 1997 could afford to dispense with the formal Liberal Democrat support on which the full implementation of the Charter 88 reform programme depended. The article describes how the deeper aim of the Charter to give radical politics in Britain a new democratic republican shape has thus been stalled, caught between the continuing sovereignty accorded by New Labour to market imperatives and their emerging new forms of governance, and a residual collectivist centralism.

Charter 88, Democratic Constitutionalism and Europeanisation: Ambiguous Relationships?

Erdos, D. — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:20:22 PDT

This paper examines the complex and ambiguous relationship between Charter 88, its philosophy of democratic constitutionalism and the Europeanisation of the UK. On the one hand, increased European linkages have proved helpful to the achievement of many of the Charter's domestic goals. Nevertheless, the modalities of European political integration sit in a relationship of tension with the Charter's democratic constitutionalist philosophy. As an organisation, Charter/Unlock Democracy has shown only a limited awareness of this tension and, in particular, has failed to appreciate the considerable difficulties of creating a genuine demos at the European level. This article argues that democratic constitutionalism would best be served a more modest and focused EU which respects popular sovereignty and matches its competences to those legitimately managed by transnational governance mechanisms.

Putting the Ombudsman into Constitutional Context

Kirkham, R., Thompson, B., Buck, T. — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:20:22 PDT

This article argues that in debates on constitutional reform more attention should be paid to the potential contained in the office of the ombudsman. To illustrate the point it demonstrates that four of the constitutional demands made by the Charter 88 movement are already partially fulfilled by the ombudsman. The argument is also made that both within and outside the UK there have been a number of developments in ombudsman practice in recent years that suggest that more is already being made of the ombudsman institution than previously understood.

Assessing How Far Charter 88 and the Constitutional Reform Coalition Influenced Voting System Reform in Britain

Dunleavy, P. — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:20:22 PDT

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.

Despite these latter setbacks a large-scale transition of UK voting systems has already taken place. British voters are increasingly used to proportional representation and the defence of plurality rule is intellectually dead (as the weaknesses of King's analysis inadvertently demonstrate). So the overall story is one of unprecedented success for electoral reformers, of a piece with the ineluctable transition to complex multi-party systems across all the nations and regions of the UK.

Charter 88, New Labour and Constitutional Anomie

Flinders, M. — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:20:22 PDT

Charter 88 was committed to achieving one central aim—shifting the nature of British democracy from a highly majoritarian polity to a more pluralistic or consensual model of democracy. This article argues that New Labour has not demonstrated a clear commitment to a more consensual or pluralist model of democracy but has instead implemented a bi-constitutional system whereby a system of ‘modified majoritarianism’ has been retained at the national level while at the same time creating more consensual and pluralistic polities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. However bi-constitutionalism within a unitary state is unlikely to prove unstable in the long-term. A focus on future dynamics opens up space not only for the assertion that it may still be too soon to comprehend the legacy and impact of Charter 88 (because the organisation's work planted certain seeds that may in the long-term indirectly lead to systemic change of the nature it campaigned for) but also because there exists a contemporary need for groups like Charter 88 in providing a new narrative in the form of a holist approach to understanding and shaping the constitutional configuration, thereby providing a form of constitutional morality and ending the current situation of constitutional anomie.

Taking the Temperature of the Political Elite 4: Labour, Chronicle of a Defeat Foretold?

Kenny, M. — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:20:22 PDT

Engagement and Participation: What the Public Want and How our Politicians Need to Respond

Fox, R. — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:20:22 PDT

Following the parliamentary expenses scandal, an array of parliamentary and constitutional reforms has been proposed as a means to re-establish public trust and confidence in MPs and Parliament. Populist measures designed to enhance public engagement and participation through more direct and participatory decision-making mechanisms have particularly gained traction in this debate. But many of these proposals fail to take account of what the public really wants in terms of engagement and participation. A more nuanced policy approach, which takes account of the complexity of public views, is required. Utilising the Hansard Society's annual Audit of Political Engagement this article analyses these complexities and suggests that two reforms in particular—enhanced political literacy education and a new House of Commons Petitions (Public Engagement) Committee—would make a difference in developing and sustaining public engagement and participation in the long-term.

The Future Governance of Citizenship

de Jong, S. — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:20:22 PDT

The Architecture of Government: Rethinking Political Decentralization

Jones, E. — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:20:22 PDT