Download Publication Online Reader It is often remarked that the British constitution is not a single codified text. It contains both written and unwritten elements, but so do all constitutional systems. Even countries with detailed codified constitutions cannot make those constitutions workable without taking into account unwritten elements: precedent, convention, reasoning, norms, and historical practice. What makes the British constitution unusual is its political character. This is to say that […]
Richard Johnson is Senior Lecturer in Politics, Queen Mary, University of London The earliest use of the term ‘elective dictatorship’ in a British political context was by the former Conservative Cabinet minister Quintin Hogg during the 1966 general election. ‘Of all the democracies’, Hogg warned, ‘Britain is nearest to an elective dictatorship’. It was a charge Hogg would repeat many times (whenever Labour was in office) over the next […]
