Bagehot smiling: Gordon Brown's 'new constitution' and the revolution that did not happen

Political Quarterly

Volumn 81, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 57-73

  Flinders, Matthew ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Blair Brown; Constitutional reform; Crisis; Democratic renewal; Governance of Britain; MPs expenses

Indexed keywords

EID: 77949495391     PISSN: 00323179     EISSN: 1467923X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-923X.2009.02063.x     Document Type: Article

References (48)

1. Quoted in J. Morrison, Reforming Britain, London, Reuters, 2001, pp. 509-10.
2. V. Bogdanor, The New British Constitution, London, Hart, 2009, p. 231.
3. A. Lijphart, Thinking about Democracy, London, Routledge, 2008, p. 178.
4. A. Kelso, 'Parliament on its knees: MPs expenses and the crisis of transparency at Westminster', Political Quarterly, vol. 80, no. 3, 2009, pp.453-54.
5. L. Lowell, The Government of England, London, Macmillan, 1908, p. 507.
6. B. Worcester, Three in Four believe that Britain's Governance Needs Improving. IPSOS/MORI Research Report, 3 June, 2009.
7. J. Kingdom, Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies, Boston, MA: Little Brown, 1984.
8. O. Furley and J. Katalikawe, 'Constitutional reform in Uganda', African Affairs, vol. 96, 1997, pp.43-60.
9. See D. Erdos, 'Aversive constitutionalism in the Westminster world', International Journal of Constitutional Law, vol. 5, no. 2, 2007, pp. 343-69.
10. A. King, The British Constitution, Oxford, Oxford University Press, emphasis added, 2007, p. 353
11. See Bogdanor, The New British Constitution, pp. 10-14.
12. M. Kohn, 'MPs must be told what we expect before trust can blossom again', The Times, 22 June 2009.
13. See J. Finkel, 'Judicial reform in Argentina in the 1990s: how electoral incentives shape institutional change', Latin American Research Review, vol. 39, no. 3, 2004, pp. 56-80;
14. J. Finkel, 'Judicial reform as insurance policy', Latin American Politics and Society, vol. 46, no. 4, 2005, 87-113.
15. D. Marquand, 'Populism or Pluralism?', Mishcon Lecture, University College London, 1999.
16. P. Hennessy, The Prime Minister, London, Penguin, 2001, p. 501.
17. Quoted in P. Norton, 'Tony Blair and the Constitution', British Politics, vol. 2, 2007, p. 269.
18. M. Flinders, 'Constitutional anomie', Government & Opposition, vol. 45, no. 1, 2010.
19. Norton, 'Tony Blair and the Constitution', p. 269.
20. V. Bogdanor, 'Conclusion' V. Bogdanor, ed., London, British Academy, The British Constitution in the Twentieth Century, p. 719
21. King, The British Constitution, p. 345.
22. Ipsos/MORI, Blair's Britain: The Political Legacy, London, Ipsos MORI, 2007.
23. For a review of Gordon Brown's statements on this topic, see R. Hazell, Towards a New Constitutional Settlement, London, Constitution Unit, 2007.
24. Her Majesty's Government, The Governance of Britain, Cm. 7170, London, The Stationery Office, 2007, p. 5.
25. See M. Flinders, Democratic Drift, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009.
26. Political Studies Association (PSA), Failing Politics? A Response to the Governance of Britain Green Paper, Newcastle, PSA, 2007, p. 6.
27. R. Hazell, 'The continuing dynamism of constitutional reform', Parliamentary Affairs, vol. 60, no. 1, 2007, pp. 3-25.
28. The Guardian, 26 March 2008
29. HL166/HC551 Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill, Joint Committee on the Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill, p. 1.
30. Commons Hansard, 10 June 2009
31. M. Flinders and D. Curry, 'Deliberative democracy, elite politics and electoral reform', Policy Studies, vol. 29, no. 4, 2009, pp. 371-92.
32. A. Hamilton, 'Brown's reforms won't restore trust', Independent, 11 June 2009.
33. Her Majesty's Government, Building Britain's Future, Cm. 7654. London, The Stationery Office, 2009.
34. See 'Puerile politics', The Telegraph, 17 June 2009.
35. See K. Schepple, 'Aspirational and Aversive constitutionalism', International Journal of Constitutional Law, vol. 1, no. 2, 2003, pp. 296-324..
36. G. Brown, 'The servant state: towards a new constitutional settlement', Political Quarterly, vol. 63, no. 4, 1992, p. 403.
37. M. Evans, Constitution-making and the Labour Party, London, Palgrave, 2004; quoted J. Morrison, London, Pearson, Reforming Britain: New Labour, New Constitution? 2001, pp. 509-10.
38. P. Dunleavy, 'Facing up to multi-party politics', Parliamentary Affairs, vol. 5, no. 3, 2005, pp. 453-69..
39. King, The British Constitution, p. 86.
40. On the issue of crises and constitutional change, see King, The British Constitution; on the role of constitutional reform pressure groups, see D. Erdos, 'Charter 88, constitutional reform and New Labour', Parliamentary Affairs, forthcoming special issue, 2009.
41. D. Marquand, 'The strange career of British democracy', Political Quarterly, vol. 79, no. 4, 2008, pp. 466-75..
42. See M. Taylor, 'Labour and the Constitution', D. Tanner, ed., Labour's First Century, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2000
43. A. Wright, 'British socialists and the British Constitution'; Parliamentary Affairs, vol. 43, 1990, pp. 322-40.
44. M. Flinders, 'Conserving the Constitution?' Political Quarterly, vol. 80, no. 2, 2009, pp. 248-58..
45. See R. Cook, The Point of Departure, London, Simon & Schuster, 2003.
46. T. Wright, British Politics: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 97-8.
47. Bogdanor, The New British Constitution.
48. A. Giddens, The Third Way, London, Polity, 1998.