Is Britain Facing a Crisis of Democracy?

Abstract

This article contributes to the debate in this journal about the state of British democracy. I criticise the tendency to use a ‘demand–supply’ dichotomy in interpreting the strong distrust experienced by institutions and politicians, and especially the idea that all the blame for current problems is to be attributed to the inadequateness of the British political tradition (BPT). By referring to international data on democracy and to recent British trends in both public attitudes and institutional innovations, a more nuanced picture on the state of democracy emerges. I argue that the BPT is not incompatible with incremental changes that have already introduced innovations in the way politics works in Britain today, and that the task of empowering citizens is one of the most delicate aspects in this process of innovation.

Honesty above all else? Expectations and perceptions of political conduct in three established democracies

“…To take an extreme form of wrongdoing, the prevalence of bribery waxes and wanes, and some political systems are undoubtedly more conducive to its occurrence than others. As critics of Flinders note, any attempt to address citizens' disaffection with politicians requires some engagement with supply-side factors (see Baldini, 2015), in this instance an effort to improve actual standards of honesty and integrity in political life. But even in the cleanest political systems, there are limits as to how honest politics can be.…”

Democracy, Golden Ages and Balancing Acts—Comment on Flinders, M. (2015) The Problem with Democracy

“…The first is to identify some indicators that can be used to assess comparatively the significance of some of the seven problems, which I classify along three main streams. Operationalising the problems of democracy is no easy task, and what follows aims to see the extent to which the challenges faced by Britain today are also typical of wider trends affecting other European democracies (see also Baldini, 2015). While Flinders' examples travel across advanced democracies, some of the most influential works on the alleged crisis of democracy (on which see Merkel, 2014) have a peculiar British flavour: the country's comparatively high economic inequalities, combined with the low level of electoral participation and the power-hoarding nature of its institutions (starting from the plurality electoral system), mean that Britain is seen as particularly affected by multiple institutional crises (Richards et al, 2014).…”