The UK's Changing Democracy: The 2018 Democratic Audit

The UK’s Changing Democracy presents a uniquely democratic perspective on all aspects of UK politics, at the centre in Westminster and Whitehall, and in all the devolved nations.

The 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU marked a turning point in the UK’s political system. In the previous two decades, the country had undergone a series of democratic reforms, during which it seemed to evolve into a more typical European liberal democracy. The establishment of a Supreme Court, adoption of the Human Rights Act, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish devolution, proportional electoral systems, executive mayors and the growth in multi-party competition all marked profound changes to the British political tradition.

Brexit may now bring some of these developments to a juddering halt. The UK’s previous ‘exceptionalism’ from European patterns looks certain to continue indefi nitely. ‘Taking back control’ of regulations, trade, immigration and much more is the biggest change in UK governance for half a century. It has already produced enduring crises for the party system, Parliament and the core executive, with uniquely contested governance over critical issues, and a rapidly changing political landscape. Other recent trends are no less fast-moving, such as the revival of two-party dominance in England, the re-creation of some mass membership parties and the disruptive challenges of social media.

In this context, an in-depth assessment of the quality of the UK’s democracy is essential. Each of the 2018 Democratic Audit’s 37 short chapters starts with clear criteria for what democracy requires in that part of the nation’s political life and outlines key recent developments before a SWOT analysis (of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) crystallises the current situation. A small number of core issues are then explored in more depth.

Set against the global rise of debased semi-democracies, the book’s approach returns our focus firmly to the big issues around the quality and sustainability of the UK’s liberal democracy.

Andrew Blick is Senior Lecturer in Politics and Contemporary History at King’s College London.

Sonali Campion is a former editor of Democratic Audit and the UCL Constitution Unit blog. She now works at the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Colin Copus is Emeritus Professor of Local Politics at De Montfort University and a visiting Professor at the University of Ghent.

James Downe is Professor in Public Policy and Management in the Wales Centre for Public Policy at Cardiff University.

Patrick Dunleavy is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the LSE and co-Director of Democratic Audit there. He is also Centenary Professor in the Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis at the University of Canberra.

Michael Gordon is Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Liverpool.

Joelle Grogan is a Lecturer in Law at Middlesex University and the creator of @StickyTrickyLaw.

Jac Larner is a Fulbright Research Fellow at the Center for Political Studies at the University of Michigan and a PhD candidate at the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University.

Malcolm Harvey is a Teaching Fellow at the University of Aberdeen and an Associate Fellow of the Centre on Constitutional Change.

Toby S James is Head of Politics and Senior Lecturer at the University of East Anglia. He is Lead Fellow on Electoral Modernisation for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Democratic Participation and co-convenor of the Electoral Management Network.

Sean Kippin is a PhD candidate and Associate Lecturer at the University of the West of Scotland and a former editor of Democratic Audit.

Ewan McGaughey is a Senior Lecturer in Private Law at King’s College London.

James Mitchell holds the chair in Public Policy at Edinburgh University’s Academy of Government and is a member of the COSLA and Scottish Government Enabling Group on the reform of local governance.

Colm O’Cinneide is Professor of Constitutional and Human Rights Law at UCL.

James Pattison is a postgraduate research student in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Nottingham.

Artemis Photiadou is a Research Associate in the London School of Economics and Political Science’s Public Policy Group and a PhD candidate at LSE’s International History Department. She is also the Managing Editor of the LSE British Politics and Policy blog.

James Pow is a postgraduate research student at the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics at Queen’s University Belfast.

Diana Stirbu is Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at London Metropolitan University.

Ros Taylor is Research Manager at the London School of Economics and Political Science’s Truth, Trust and Technology Commission and co-editor of LSE Brexit. She is a former Guardian journalist and has also worked for the BBC.

Tony Travers is Visiting Professor in the Department of Government at the LSE and Director of LSE London. He is the author of London’s Boroughs at 50.

Tracey Warren is Professor of Sociology at the University of Nottingham.

Alan Whysall is Honorary Senior Research Associate at the Constitution Unit of University College London. Until 2015 he was involved in the Northern Ireland peace process as a senior British civil servant in the Northern Ireland Office, with spells in the Cabinet Office in London.

Ben Worthy is Lecturer in Politics at Birkbeck College London and writes on transparency and open data at opendatastudy.wordpress.com.