Achieving accountable government
We’re taking back control – but who’s going to wield it?
Britain voted to ‘take back control’ from the EU, and Theresa May’s Lancaster House speech made the repatriation of power to Westminster a priority. But it is far from clear what kind of Brexit Britons want, nor how many of these powers will go to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland rather than the UK Parliament. Katie Ghose […]
Book review | Transparency and the Open Society, by Roger Taylor and Tim Kelsey
In Transparency and the Open Society: Practical Lessons for Effective Policy, Roger Taylor and Tim Kelsey offers a systematic framework for establishing greater transparency across government, and civil society more broadly. While the book does raise a number of further questions about the capacity to engender a more transparent society, Andrew Reid recommends it to those […]
What to read in the age of Trump
We need to think about democracy – now more than ever. As Donald Trump becomes the 45th President of the United States, Democratic Audit asked Brian Klaas, Russell Dalton, Cas Mudde and Meg Russell what texts they are turning to in order to understand and learn from the Trump phenomenon. This post is a work in progress […]
They had a dream. Now Trump will scrub the melting pot clean
On 20 January, Donald Trump will become the 45th President of the United States. His victory is a definitive break with the vision of America that has prevailed for the past century: a land open to migrants and capable of assimilating different cultures and ethnicities, says Takis S Pappas. The great melting-pot is about to […]
May cuts Whitehall spads but keeps her own as she consolidates power in No 10
When she came to power, Theresa May announced she would cap the salaries of special advisers (spads) – leading to warnings that it would be difficult to recruit good candidates. Their numbers have fallen from 95 to 83 since the Cameron era, but almost all have gone from departments rather than No 10. Ben Yong […]
Shooting for freedom: what guns teach us about US political culture
The right to bear arms is a fundamental tenet of freedom for many Americans. But it is often met with incomprehension in the UK and Europe. Dylan McLean unpicks the origins of America’s gun culture, tracing it back to the militia in Tudor society, and explains how firearms are associated with personal freedom and the […]
Brexit, Corbyn, Article 50: in 2017, we need to take back our parliamentary democracy
Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn’s election and Article 50: 2016 saw three profound shocks to the integrity of Britain’s parliamentary system, writes Robert Saunders. Together, they amount to a quiet revolution – potentially the most significant recasting of how Britain is governed since the coming of universal suffrage. Understanding how this has happened, why it matters and what […]
Pick of 2016: the best of Democratic Audit
2016 was an extraordinary year. With Donald Trump’s presidency less than three weeks away, Article 50 due to be invoked in March, local and mayoral elections in the UK and ground-shifting votes in Europe, 2017 promises more seismic change. Here’s a selection of some of Democratic Audit’s most thought-provoking pieces from 2016. Similar Posts
Trump portrayed ‘identity politics’ as a form of corruption
Donald Trump attacked the US government and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign as a ‘swamp’ of corruption and vested interests. But corruption in the commonly-understood sense of bribery is relatively rare in the United States. Instead, Bo Rothstein says, Trump was able to persuade white, working-class voters that Democrat ‘identity politics’ was a form of corruption that disadvantaged them. […]
How ‘the story’ subsumed ‘The Vote’: we have no meaningful direction about the terms of Brexit
What did the 52% who voted to leave the EU want? In the first part of a lecture delivered at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, David Kershaw argues that pro-Brexit politicians and media have presumed to interpret the vote as a mandate to ensure Brexit results in the controls on free movement which are likely to […]
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