Achieving accountable government
Book review | Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States
In Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States, James C Scott contributes to his longstanding intellectual project of re-evaluating the role of the state in political thought by looking at the development of the early agrarian states to challenge narratives of progress founded on state formation. While acknowledging that a number of objections can be […]
The new prison framework will be inflexible, costly and do nothing to ease chronic overcrowding and violence
The Conservative manifesto planned to create a series of legally enforceable standards that prisons, and those who work with inmates, will have to meet. Nasrul Ismail and Nick de Viggiani (University of the West of England) have interviewed 30 prison policymakers about the proposed new framework. They warn its inflexibility will lead to a ‘compliance […]
Everyone loves select committees these days. But have they really changed?
The Wright reforms have been widely credited with reinvigorating select committees. Stephen Bates, Mark Goodwin (University of Birmingham) and Steve McKay (University of Lincoln) take issue with this assumption. They found the reforms have made little or no difference to MP turnover and attendance, which are driven by the parliamentary cycle. When MPs are jostling […]
Does protest really work in cosy democracies?
Does protest work? And is it more effective when it takes places in countries ruled by repressive regimes, or those with democratically elected governments? Steve Crawshaw (Amnesty International) argues that if we think nothing will change, as people often do in democracies, that lack of belief becomes self-fulfilling. Similar PostsBook Review | A Duty to Resist: […]
Disgusted by Donald Trump? Turning away from the spectacle isn’t an option
Almost nine months into the Trump presidency, it may be harder than ever to make sense of what is happening. How do we fully understand what seems to be a hybrid of Lewis Carroll and Stephen King imaginaries – of the Mad Hatter and Pennywise the Clown? Ron Pruessen considers his own frustrations and speculates about what […]
A helping hand? Tracking changes in support to All-Party Parliamentary Groups since 2001
There are over 600 All-Party Parliamentary Groups in the Westminster Parliament. Paul EJ Thomas (Carleton University) discusses the monetary and in-kind support these informal groups receive, and their role in the policy-making process. He concludes that the increasing influence NGOs and charities enjoy as a result of funding APPGs deserves more scrutiny. The All-Party Parliamentary […]
What happens when a strongman dictator creates his own political party?
Around 40% of dictatorships are headed by a strongman ruler: Gaddafi in Libya and Idi Amin in Uganda were obvious examples. Erica Frantz (Michigan State University) finds that these regimes are more likely to democratise if their leaders create their own political parties. Most do this in order to reduce the risk of a military […]
Book review | Guilty Men – the Brexit Edition, by Tim Oliver
Brexit is as big and dangerous a mistake as that of appeasement in the 1930s. So argues Cato the Younger in his book Guilty Men: Brexit Edition, reviewed here by Tim Oliver. Taking up the pen of his great grandfather, whose 1940 book of the same name destroyed the reputations of those responsible for appeasement, Cato the Younger is no […]
Grenfell’s lessons for democracy: listen to our podcast
On 12 October the author Lynsey Hanley, Conservative London Assembly Member Shaun Bailey, Prof Colin Copus, Prof Patrick Dunleavy and campaigner Clare Coatman launched our 2017 Audit of UK Democracy at the LSE with a discussion of the Grenfell Tower fire. What lessons does the disaster hold for the way local government functions, for regulation […]
Many government consultations are more about meeting legal requirements than listening
Consultations are often a legal requirement for government departments – but this sometimes means they are formulaic and ineffective. In an extract from his report, Creating a democracy for everyone: strategies for increasing listening and engagement by government, Jim Macnamara (University of Technology Sydney/ LSE) looks at some of the failings of government consultation, and […]
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