TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > Politics > The Blair government’s constitutional reforms essay
The Blair government’s constitutional reforms only partly satisfy the principles of constitutional liberalism
Constitutional liberalism is underpinned by the fear that all systems of rule are liable tyrannies against the individual because of the inherently corrupting nature of political power. The principles of constitutional liberalism are thus reflected in a desire to fragment political power and to create a network of institutional checks and balances, through, for instance, cabinet government, parliamentary government, bicameralism, devolution and local government.
Labour had traditionally shown little interest in changing constitutional matters. However, during its long period in opposition between 1979 and 1997, the party became more interested in the constitutional changes proposed by liberals for a variety of reasons including an attempt to modernize its image and attract more voters.
Labour is not a liberal party and its motivation for constitutional change was never based on a strictly liberal constitutional agenda. One of the first major constitutional reforms legislated by New Labour was devolution to Scotland and Wales, this was brought into the light mainly due to New Labour seeking to become electorally successful in Scotland and Wales by appealing to the voters through the promise of devolution. Regardless of Labours reasons for offering devolution, devolution still reflects one of the desires of constitutional liberalism to decentralise power away from Westminster and bring it back closer to the citizens who are ruled. New Labour also implemented devolution into N.Ireland however the parliament at Stormont has only recently been and running again for a brief time after the parliament disbanded 2 times after devolution.
Proportional electoral systems also accompanied the devolved assemblies as well as for the European Parliament. The hybrid AMS electoral system was introduced for the Scottish Parliament, Welsh and Greater London Assemblies. However, a manifesto promise of offering a referendum vote on whether to choose a new electoral system for UK general elections was never acted on. This has been one of the most disappointing features of Blair's government for constitutional liberals, whilst proportional representation is common in many British assemblies the most powerful sector of government the national parliament still remains elected via first past the post only an introduction of PR at this level would satisfy constitutional liberals as it would allow a fairer and more representative legislature to become elected, and only a political parties which proportionately deserve landslide majorities would be elected on them unlike the situations in recent times with the Blair and Thatcher governments.
Despite numerous debates and policy ideas the Lords, the second chamber, is still fully unelected. In other words, it is still unaccountable to the public, yet has a major say in the legislative process. Contrary to expectations, an appointed upper house has proved to be far more rebellious than a hereditary one and the Lords have blocked numerous pieces of legislation – proposed, of course, by a democratically elected government. Despite removing all but the 92 remaining hereditary peers the Labour government has not been able to introduce a fully elected chamber partly due to a mixture of ideas of how the second chamber should be elected and opposition from the conservative party. This is an area where constitutional liberals believe Blair has not gone far enough, and with his departure from office now imminent the House of Lords remains unelected although legislation has recently been past to make the house elected. Cynics have argued that the House of Lords was only reformed by Labour to remove a Conservative majority which blocked many of Labours policies.
The adoption of the Human Rights act was seen by many as a key constitutional liberal piece of legislation, it goes some way to creating a Bill of Rights within the UK since it outlines a set of rights and liberties that cannot be overruled by other laws and which supersede legislation in other areas. Effectively it has incorporated the European Convention in Human Rights (ECHR) into UK law. Constitutional liberals are supportive of human rights acts as it sets out rights and liberties which everyone must enjoy, however the Human Rights act in the UK is not constitutionally entrenched and thus could be removed by future governments, the Labour party itself has talked of scrapping it even though it was introduced by them. As such, little progress has been made towards a codified constitution and the protections it delivers – parliament remains sovereign.
UK government lacks the level of openness and transparency that is usually associated with democratic government. Constitutional liberals seek information on how government conducts itself and how various state funded institutions are operating, it is for this reason that they have called for freedom of information to let all the citizens know how there democracy is being run. In order to appease the constitutional liberals and appear modern to the electorate New Labour produced The Freedom of Information Bill (2001) which increased citizens access to government decision-making and information on governmental processes. In theory, the public have access to all public documents, but the government can ask for exemptions if they believe that access will damage the public interest. However the powers within The Freedom of Information Act were weakened considerably during the period when the bill was drafted and the legislation is widely considered to be inadequate, still leaving a considerable degree of government secrecy.
Overall the Blair government has introduced a number of reforms which have appeased constitutional liberals, whilst not creating a fully liberal constitution. Constitutional liberals argue that proportional representation has not gone far enough and should be introduced at the national level in this respect the Blair governments reforms don't reflect constitutional liberalism. For many the Blair governments reforms are merely a step in the right direction and more reform is needed in the future to give the UK a liberal constitution.
Comments
This essay is aimed at people studying for A Level Politics, but will be suitable for other people too.
Originally submitted by lesususu on TSR Forums.
