thinkpiecegovtpower

Martin Dorchester: Think piece govt power

In the UK political system, there are few checks and balances on the power of the

Government to do what it wants’.

“Government in the UK is predicated upon the rule of law and parliament has the

unfettered right to make law.” (Heffernan, 2005) As such the UK government retains

significant resources in terms of legitimacy, law making, and control of force, the

state infrastructure and revenue raising powers. Central power is not total power and

a variety of checks and balances exist to limit government power: devolution, local

and regional authorities, globalisation, public opinion, the media, the European

Union, the market economy, other political parties, Interest groups and the collegiate

nature of UK politics. These checks and balances will be discussed in greater detail in

the following paper as will the power of the Prime Minister in the UK.

The UK is a union state comprising England, Wales, Scotland and since 1922

Northern Ireland (Heffernan, 2005). A key feature of the political governance of the

UK has been its evolution rather than revolution and within that the role played by a

central authority. The UK political system can be described as a centralised and

unitary state, with an accountable and democratic government elected using a single

member plurality system that leads to a majoritarian democracy. This creates a strong

government, gives sovereignty to Parliament, legitimises it and gives it authority in a

democratic manner. The UK though has an asymmetrical bicameral party system so

the House of Commons can be in part checked by the power of the House of Lords.

The government of the day can be checked by its own legislature, as the legislature

may not always support the government: “it should not be seen as a toothless

tiger.”(Heffernan, 2005) and the reality is that the legislature provides the executive,

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therefore it is incumbent on the executive to lead rather than command as: “the

executive does not have a secure tenure in office because it can be removed at any

time”.

A check on the power of the government is devolution and the moves to transform the

UK into a decentralised unitary state (Heffernan, 2005). Westminster has over time

devolved a variety of functions to the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for

Wales and the Northern Irish Assembly. The UK government still retains control

over a number of functions such as: the constitution, foreign affairs, defence and

economic policy but a crucial point here is that a number of the core elements that

underpin a democracy are coming into play. Scotland is currently governed by the

SNP, democratically elected, therefore granted legitimacy and in some areas

sovereignty and authority. All three administrations are still in part controlled

through block grants. A smaller yet significant devolution of power is being afforded

regionally as a certain amount of authority has been ceded to the Greater London

Authority and eight English Regions. In part this is driven by the significance of

regions with the EU (Heffernan, 2005) but it is a further erosion of the centre power

of the UK government.

The UK has long had a history of political activity in terms of protest and dissent: fuel

protests in 2001, the miner’s strike 1984/85. These protests had significant impact on

the power of the incumbent government. Citizens legitimise and grant authority to

government via elections and although there is falling turnout citizens can use their

vote as a “signalling” device (Heffernan, 2005) to let governments know if they are

happy. Citizens may also use their vote as an issue vote if the concept of “rational

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choice” voting model is to be believed. For government therefore it is vital to work

with the public, consider electoral behaviour and act accordingly. The spin of

government can and often is balanced by the reaction and reporting of the media. It

could be argued that if the UK government is so powerful it would not need to resort

to spin and yet it is consistently accused of this. No empirical evidence exists to

validate the effect the media has in terms of effecting government but it would seem

reasonable to suggest that as an agenda setting instrument and a balancing instrument

the media carries considerable potency.

In the UK polity there is a formal hierarchical structure of representative government

where power is tiered with local government, the executive and the legislature.

Alongside this formal network is a more informal network comprising: policy

networks, elites, corporatism, associationalism and dissenting NGO’s (Heffernan,

2005). In the UK the BMA wields extensive power over health and health related

matters. Trade Unions influence a variety of employee related matters. Religious and

professional associations exert power over government actions as they create: “a

plurality of sites where the sovereignty of the people rests”. (Heffernan, 2005).

NGO’s such as Greenpeace and Oxfam provide a check and balance to government

through dissent rather than participation, propaganda rather than consensus and with

an external voice rather than an internal. Policy networks as described provide a

significant check and balance against government as they tend to be experts, address

issues with focus, may be formed from elites and many of them have sovereignty and

legitimacy through their membership.

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Aligned here is the concept of social capital. “Social capital expresses the degree of

citizen involvement in community affairs, which, it is argued, powerfully influences

the performance of the government and social institutions” (Heffernan, 2005). The

greater the connectivity of the people, the stronger their influence and power.

Networks have power but other forms of governmental control have emerged in the

form of quangos and policy units. Quangos arose from the reform of the public

domain and policy units were developed to advise ministers and government

departments. These developments serve to concentrate policy making back to the

centre and in many ways recentralise the policy making landscape.

The EU, Globalisation and the market are also important. “EU law takes precedence

over domestic law.” (Heffernan, 2005). The notion of “multi-level governance” is

thought to typify certain aspects of the EU and the UK is now taking a prominent part

in “commitology” thus increasingly experts are used in decision making procedures.

Globalisation, inflows and outflows of capital affect government control and power as

the UK operates in a free market economy. Globalisation, the EU and the market

could be viewed as “giant” networks and they restrict the power of the UK

government from within and externally.

The UK has an uncodified constitution, in that it is not written down anywhere and is

composed of: statute law, common law, European Law, Royal prerogative powers,

constitutional conventions and authoritative constitutional commentary (Heffernan,

2005). The UK constitution can be seen as flexible. However, as can be see in the

issues surrounding the reform of the House of Lords this does not make it

straightforward. A further check for government here is that successive governments

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can in fact change the constitution and reform it during their tenure so constitutional

reform is managed better through consensus and debate.

The collegiate nature of government means that a Prime Minister must work with and

through his government. The PM leads the executive; the executive leads the

legislature thus governing the country. The PM has the authority to manage and

shape the policy, employ ministers, create new departments of government or remove

both ministers and departments. The PM would therefore appear to have dominance

and authority over the executive and the country! In reality though, the power of the

PM is limited by a variety of checks and balances. The larger the majority the

stronger the power of the PM, but a PM must fulfil the requirements of: being an

elected MP, being the leader of a political party and normally being the leader of the

majority party in the House of Commons. The PM is also only in office at the behest

of the electorate and this will fall away if the electorate is alienated. The PM is also a

“first among equals” in the party and can be replaced theoretically at any time by a

fellow minister or MP. So dependent on their political capital at the time they can be

vulnerable as Tony Blair discovered over Iraq. The check and balance is one of

mutual dependency, political capital, governmental structures and the behest of the

electorate.

The nature of the UK as a centralised, unitary state using smps to elect its government

means that a strong government will lead the country. However a variety of checks

and balances exist to offset the power of the centre. The composition of a bicameral

political system means that in part the House of Lords can offset the House of

Commons. Devolution and regionalisation are creating new centres and peripheries.

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The UK has a long history of dissent and participation as evidenced by the fuel

protesters and strike history. A considerable amount of power is held by networks,

and this is amplified by external factors such as the EU, globalisation and the market.

Perhaps the most powerful checks and balances against the power of government is

the nature of the UK constitution and the requirement of the Prime Minister to work

through and with the executive. For incumbent governments the final check and

balance comes at election time when the citizens decide.

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