UCL Constitution Unit

Peter Riddell steps down as the Commissioner for Public Appointments in September. The Commissioner’s role is to ensure fair and open competition, with the final choice made by ministers. His predecessor Sir David Normington had warned on departure that changes made by government would weaken OCPA.  Peter Riddell had different criticisms in his final annual report.  In this valedictory talk, he will reflect on the system of public appointments, and discuss what changes are needed to provide public confidence in the system.

Links:

Website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/constitution-unit

Mailing list: https://mailchi.mp/ucl/constitution-unit

Blog: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit

Democracy is what one social scientist once famously called an ‘essentially contested concept’ – one that we are never likely all to agree about. And disagreements over the form that democracy should take have lately sparked major political conflicts in many democratic countries. How far were politicians in the UK obliged to follow the so-called ‘will of the people’ as expressed in the Brexit referendum of 2016? Can the strongman democracy pursued by leaders in Hungary, India, and Brazil be called ‘democracy’ at all? And what should we make of contemporary arguments in favour of bringing more public deliberation into our democratic processes?

Questions such as these have prompted a new research project recently launched by the Unit called 'Democracy in the UK after Brexit'. Led by Dr Alan Renwick, working alongside Professors Meg Russell and Ben Lauderdale, the project will explore how people in the UK conceive of democracy and what kinds of democratic arrangement they prefer. 

Host: Professor Jennifer Hudson

Guests: Dr Alan Renwick, Professor Albert Weale and Professor Meg Russell.

Links:

Website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/constitution-unit

Mailing list: https://mailchi.mp/ucl/constitution-unit

Blog: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit

If the SNP win a majority in the Scottish Parliament elections in May, Nicola Sturgeon will declare they have a mandate for a second independence referendum. Boris Johnson has said he will refuse to allow one. But can he can really resist? Prof Aileen McHarg explains the legal issues; James Forsyth the politics, and the need for an alternative offer; and Dr Alan Renwick the referendum process, if the Scots are to make a fully informed decision.

• Prof Aileen McHarg is Professor of Public Law and Human Rights at Durham Law School
• James Forsyth is political editor of The Spectator magazine
• Dr Alan Renwick is Deputy Director of the Constitution Unit and Associate Professor in British Politics at UCL

Chair: Prof Meg Russell, the Director of the Constitution Unit and Professor of British and Comparative Politics at UCL

Background reading

James Forsyth, ‘A flat No to Nicola Sturgeon won’t save the Union’

Aileen McHarg, Blog on Pathways to Indyref2

Alan Renwick and the Constitution Unit's work on referendums:

Improving Discourse in Elections and Referendums

Independent Commission on Referendums

Links:

Website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/constitution-unit

Mailing list: https://mailchi.mp/ucl/constitution-unit

Blog: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit

We typically divide the modern state into three branches: the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. On a traditional view, the legislature makes the laws, the executive implements them, and the judiciary decides on disputes. 

In reality, in most states, the executive in fact plays a much bigger role than that. It not only executes the will of the legislature, but also shapes the policy agenda, develops legislative proposals, and conducts a great deal of foreign policy. 

And on some matters the executive can act without the consent of the legislature – even, in some cases, against its explicit opposition. Here in the UK, such powers are called prerogative powers, and they have been pretty controversial in recent years – relating, for example, to the government’s ability to suspend sittings of parliament. And they raised eyebrows in the United States too, when, on his first day in office, President Biden reversed a whole series of Trump-era policies just by signing a set of executive orders.

So what such prerogative powers exist? How do they work? And, in the context of modern democracy, should they be subject to greater constraints? This episode of 'UCL Uncovering Politics' explores these questions, and more.  

Host: Dr Alan Renwick

Guest: Professor Robert Hazell

You can read more about the  SSHRC-funded research project  on the prerogative powers which Robert Hazell is working on here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/prerogative-powers-project

Links:

Website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/constitution-unit

Mailing list: https://mailchi.mp/ucl/constitution-unit

Blog: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit

How do people in the UK view democracy? How do they think UK democracy ought to operate? What roles do they think should be played by parliament, government, the courts, and the public themselves? How do such attitudes vary across the population, and what shapes them?

The Constitution Unit has just embarked on a major new research project – Democracy in the UK after Brexit – that seeks answers to such questions. But what do we already know on these matters? What do we not know? And what can we learn from research conducted in other countries about the best ways to find out more? In this seminar, Alan Renwick – who leads the new project – will explore these questions with three of the leading experts in the field.

Speakers:

• Professor Jane Green, Professor of Political Science and British Politics, and Director of the Nuffield Politics Research Centre, University of Oxford
• Professor Claudia Landwehr, Professor of Public Policy, Department of Political Science, Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz
• Deborah Mattinson, Co-founder of opinion research agency Britain Thinks, and former pollster to Gordon Brown as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister

Chair: Dr Alan Renwick, Deputy Director of the Constitution Unit and Project Lead for Democracy in the UK after Brexit.

Links:

Website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/constitution-unit

Mailing list: https://mailchi.mp/ucl/constitution-unit

Blog: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit

In partnership with The UK in a Changing Europe two seasoned Conservative parliamentarians and the director of the Constitution Unit look back at Boris Johnson’s relationship with parliament, reflect on the highs and lows, expectations and reality, and lessons for the future.

Speakers:

• Mark Harper MP
• Lord Young of Cookham
• Professor Meg Russell

Chair: Jill Rutter

Links:

Website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/constitution-unit

Mailing list: https://mailchi.mp/ucl/constitution-unit

Blog: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit

'Taking Back Control: Why the House of Commons Should Govern its own Time' is a Constitution Unit report which explores why MPs lack control of their own institution, what problems this causes, & what should be done. The Constitution Unit hosted a launch event to discuss the findings of the report. 

Speakers:

• Karen Bradley MP, Chair of the House of Commons Procedure Committee.
• Valerie Vaz MP, Shadow Leader of the House of Commons.
• Sir David Natzler, former Clerk of the House of Commons, also formerly Clerk of the Wright Committee.
• Professor Meg Russell FBA (co-author), Director of the Constitution Unit, Senior Fellow at the UK in a Changing Europe, and former specialist adviser to the Wright Committee.
• Dr Daniel Gover (co-author): Lecturer in British Politics at Queen Mary University of London.

Chair:

Jill Rutter, senior research fellow of UK in a Changing Europe.

Links:

Website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/constitution-unit

Mailing list: https://mailchi.mp/ucl/constitution-unit

Blog: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit

As the final part of the Constitution Unit’s 25th anniversary celebrations, we look at devolution and the Union. Devolution had a deceptively easy start in the UK, thanks to Labour-controlled governments in London, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the breakthrough of the Good Friday Agreement in Belfast, and lack of interest in England.  But with the election of governments of different persuasions tensions have grown, and been hugely exacerbated by the rupture of Brexit. To chart this increasingly bumpy ride, and discuss whether the Union can survive, four academic experts, one from each part of the UK, joined the conversation.

Speakers:

• Professor John Denham
• Professor Cathy Gormley Heenan
• Professor Michael Keating
• Professor Laura McAllister.

Chair:

Professor Robert Hazell, former Director of the Constitution Unit.

Read about 25 years of the Constitution Unit: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/about-us/about-us/constitution-units-20th-anniversary/constitution-unit-25

Read the interim report by the Working Group on Unification Referendums on the Island (referenced by Cathy Gormley-Heenan) here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/research/elections-and-referendums/working-group-unification-referendums-island-ireland

Links:

Website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/constitution-unit

Mailing list: https://mailchi.mp/ucl/constitution-unit

Blog: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit

The Working Group is independent of all political parties and governments and is funded by the British Academy and Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. The Group takes no view on whether such referendums should take place or what the outcome should be.  

The report concludes that referendums should not be called without a clear plan for the referendum processes that would follow, and it identifies difficult issues that need discussion and analysis. For example, what evidence would inform the decision to call a referendum on Northern Ireland’s constitutional status? Would referendums take place before or after proposals for the shape of a united Ireland had been developed? How would the referendum campaigns be regulated? These are just a few of the questions explored in the interim report.  

Speakers:

• Dr Alan Renwick, Chair of the Working Group and Deputy Director of the Constitution Unit
• Alan Whysall, Working Group member and former senior civil servant in the Northern Ireland Office
• Clare Salters, former senior civil servant in the Northern Ireland Office
• Martin Kettle, writer for the Guardian.

Chair:

Professor Meg Russell, Unit Director.  

Full report: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/sites/constitution-unit/files/wgurii_interim_report_nov_2020.pdf

Executive summary: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/sites/constitution-unit/files/wgurii_executive_summary.pdf

Links:

Website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/constitution-unit

Mailing list: https://mailchi.mp/ucl/constitution-unit

Blog: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit

There are concerns about the rise of populism and erosion of democratic standards throughout the world. Examples include countries such as Hungary, Poland and Brazil, growing support for populist parties in western Europe, and recent development in the US. Populism has grown through new challenger parties, but also through capture of previously mainstream parties.

This Policy and Practice seminar discuss these worldwide trends, how to counter them, and how worried we should be about a populist rise in the UK. Three international experts joined the discussion.

Speakers:

• Anne Applebaum, author of Twilight of Democracy: The Failure of Politics and the Parting of Friends
• Rory Stewart, former Cabinet Minister and 2019 candidate for the Conservative Party leadership, now Senior Fellow at Yale University
• Professor Nadia Urbinati, author of Me the People: How Populism Transforms Democracy

Chair: Professor Meg Russell, Director of the Constitution Unit

Further Reading

• Anne Applebaum - How my old friends paved the way for Trump and Brexit
• Anne Applebaum - How to beat populists when facts don't matter
• Rory Stewart - What is wrong with us?
• Nadia Urbinati  - Populism? It’s not fascism, and also democracies Are “Elastic”
• Nadia Urbinati  - The pandemic hasn’t killed populism

Links:

Website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/constitution-unit

Mailing list: https://mailchi.mp/ucl/constitution-unit

Blog: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit