Gv101

Introduction to Political Science

Dr Tom Quinn

Room K202
Office hours: Mon 3-5pm; Tue 2-3pm
T. Quinn. Gv101. 2003-04 1/17
 Textbooks on British Politics

Tony Wright, The British Political Process (2000)

B. Coxall, L. Robins and R. Leach, Contemporary

British Politics, 4th Ed. (2003)

P. Dunleavy, A. Gamble, R. Heffernan and G. Peele

(eds), Developments in British Politics 7 (2003)

Arend Lijphart, Patterns of Democracy: Government

Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries (1999)
T. Quinn. Gv101. 2003-04 2/17
 Lecture 2
Majoritarian Politics in the UK

The Westminster Model

and its Demise?

T. Quinn. Gv101. 2003-04 3/17

 Majoritarian and Consensus
Democracy (Arend Lijphart)
Majoritarian Consensus
• Majority rule • Plural societies -
• For homogenous majority rule can lead to
societies majority tyranny
• Composition of • Power-sharing
majorities changes over • Institutional dispersal of
time power
• Concentration of power • Majorities restrained
• Strong government

T. Quinn. Gv101. 2003-04 4/17

 The Westminster Model
• Executive power: highly
concentrated - one-party and
bare-majority cabinets
• Executive-legislative
relations: fusion of power -
cabinet dominance
• Legislature: Unicameral or
asymmetric bicameralism
• Party system: 2-party system
• Ideological/social cleavages:
one-dimensional (usually class)
T. Quinn. Gv101. 2003-04
• Electoral system: plurality
system (‘first past the post’)
• Distribution of power in state:
unitary and centralised govt
• Constitution: Uncodified
constitution and parliamentary
sovereignty
• Judicial review: no supreme
court to interpret/defend
constitution
• Central bank: controlled by
government
Source: Lijphart (1999: Ch.2) 5/17
 The Westminster Model in
Britain - The Constitution (1)

Absence of a codified constitution - no formal

document establishing relationship between state and
citizens, and among organs of the state

• No formal distinction between constitutional and other laws

• No special provisions for changing the constitution
‘If we [in Britain] have a constitution at all, it is a one-sentence
constitution stating that Parliament can make or repeal any law
whatsoever.’ (F.F. Ridley, 1988)
T. Quinn. Gv101. 2003-04 6/17
 The Westminster Model in
Britain - The Constitution (2)
Instead of a constitution, Britain has the doctrine of
parliamentary sovereignty:

‘The principle of parliamentary sovereignty means

nothing more nor less than this, namely, that Parliament
… has, under the English constitution, the right to make
or unmake any law whatever; and, further, that no person
or body is recognised by the law as having a right to
override or set aside the legislation of Parliament.’ (A.V.
Dicey, Introduction to the Study of the Law of the
Constitution)
T. Quinn. Gv101. 2003-04 7/17
 The Westminster Model in
Britain - The Constitution (3)
British constitution loosely understood to include:

• Relevant ‘constitutional’ statutes - e.g. Act of Union

1707

• Common law - judge-made law, legal precedents

• Conventions - unwritten ‘understandings’, e.g.

individual ministerial responsibility

But do these really check the power of the executive?

T. Quinn. Gv101. 2003-04 8/17
 The Westminster Model in
Britain - The Unitary State

Concentration of sovereignty (not always the same

as centralisation of power)

• British state was ‘unitary but not uniform’

• British local government has weakened since 1945

• Devolution since 1997 - quasi-federalism?

T. Quinn. Gv101. 2003-04 9/17
 The Westminster Model in
Britain - The Executive

• Fusion of executive and legislative power

• Single-party majority governments - coalitions
now rare
• Governing party controls House of Commons -
strong party cohesion
• Prime Minister and Cabinet are dominant
• PM becoming ‘presidential’?
T. Quinn. Gv101. 2003-04 10/17
 The Westminster Model in
Britain - The Legislature

• ‘Parliament is sovereign but the legislature

is weak’
• Difficult for legislature to pass no-
confidence motion in govt when governing
party has a majority
• Asymmetric bicameralism - weak and less
legitimate upper chamber (House of Lords)
T. Quinn. Gv101. 2003-04 11/17
 The Westminster Model in
Britain - The Judiciary
• No formal power of judicial review (no
constitution to interpret) - courts cannot strike
down legislation
• Administrative judicial review - courts can
check ministers and public bodies followed
proper procedures
• European integration - EU laws trump British
laws
• ECHR and Human Rights Act 1998
T. Quinn. Gv101. 2003-04 12/17
 The Westminster Model in
Britain - The Electoral System
• Single-member simple plurality system (‘first past the post’)
• Instrumental in reproducing majoritarian politics in UK
• Duverger’s law - plurality systems tend (not always) to
produce two-party systems
• Smaller parties are squeezed - e.g. Liberal Democrats
• Experiments in electoral reform - PR used in Scotland,
Wales
• Jenkins Commission on electoral reform for Westminster

T. Quinn. Gv101. 2003-04 13/17

 The Westminster Model in
Britain - The Party System
• Two-party system in House of Commons - facilitates
adversarial politics (govt versus opposition) - cohesive parties

• British voters are party voters (consequence of electoral

system) - few independent MPs

• 2 parties are broad coalitions of diverse interests

• Dominant social cleavage - class

• Partisan dealignment and/or realignment?

T. Quinn. Gv101. 2003-04 14/17

 Demise of the Westminster
Model? New Labour’s Reforms
• Labour scarred by experience of
Thatcherism (dominant executive)
• Disperse power among organs of state
• Could use the power of parliamentary
sovereignty to push through reforms
• Dilemma for Labour - does it want to
reduce executive power now it is in govt?
T. Quinn. Gv101. 2003-04 15/17
 New Labour’s Constitutional
Reforms
• Devolution - undercut Celtic nationalism
and shift away from unitary state - is this
quasi-federalism?
• Human Rights Act - shift of power to
judges - de facto judicial review?
• House of Lords reform - stronger form of
bicameralism?
T. Quinn. Gv101. 2003-04 16/17
 The Limits of New Labour’s
Constitutional Radicalism

• Electoral reform for Westminster!

• This could end the adversarial two-party

basis of British politics… but will the
Labour Party accept it?

• The ultimate challenge to majoritarian

politics (carried through in New Zealand)
T. Quinn. Gv101. 2003-04 17/17