“….it seems to me that we are moving in the direction of an elective dictatorship,” so said Lord Hailsham in 1978 [The Dilemma of Democracy]. Is this an accurate assessment of the UK system of government/constitution?

Dictatorship can be defined as a form of government where political authority is monopolised by a single person or political entity, and exercised through various mechanism to ensure the entity’s power remains strong. Dictatorship is a type of authoritarianism, in which which politicians regulate nearly the behaviour of normal people. Dictatorships and totalitarianism generally employ political propaganda to decrease the influence of proponents of alternative governing systems as is the nature of nationalism of any governing systems.
An “elective dictatorship” (also called executive dominance in political science) is a phrase popularised by the former Lord Chancellor of the United kingdom, Lord Hailsham, in a Richard Dimble by Lecture at the BBC in 1976.

Elective dictatorship refers to the fusion of powers of the executive and the legislative; where the legislative is drawn from the executive therefore resulting in the dominance of the executive over the legislative. The executives majority in the House of commons reinforces the executive dominance. Elective dictatorship occurs in conjunction with this situation and that of the governing party, the executive. The party in power will by definition have more seats i.e more voting power than all the opposition parties. This means that any legislative or motion proposed by the governing party could be passed unless government MP’s dissents because only a simple majority is required. Due to the strength of the whip system to prevent MPs of the governing party voting against it, in practice government bills are extremely rarely defeated in the House of Commons. The government proposes usually around 95% of the bill passed. Another reason why Britain is considered to be an elective dictatorship is the limited powers of parliament, which has led to the undermining of parliamentary sovereignty.

Pressure groups have also meant that the executive have gained more power and dominance as they have often received advice from pressure groups resulting in increasing popularity within the executive.
Referendums have also undermined the sovereignty of parliament.
Referendums in 1970s were first instance via statute law, but the final decision was effectively taken out of its hands.
Most of the problems originate in the fusion of the legislative and the executive which has resulted in the dominance of the executive.
Under Tony Blairs government, Britain has been increasingly seen as an elective dictatorship as many people feel its moving from a parliamentary system of government to a presidential system of government. Firstly it is seen by the relationship between the cabinet and the Prime minister. Tony Blairs period as a Prime Minister since 1997 has renewed debate about the location of power with in the executive and the relationship between the Prime Minister and the cabinet. The Prime Minister dominates executive decision making without consulting the cabinet.
A Prime Minister can go to war even if the cabinet ministers disagree. An example is when Tony Blair went to war with Iraq even though most of the cabinet ministers voted against it and two of them resigned, Robin Cook and Claire Short. That is an Elective Dictatorship.
Even before the Tony Blairs government, Elective dictatorship existed in Margaret Thatcher term. i.e, Her key decision in poll tax, most of the cabinet ministers disagreed with her.
The limited power in the Select Committees also mean Britain can be said to be Elective Dictatorship. The function of the Select Committee was to survey the work of the executive and hold it accountable to parliament. However the power of the Select Committee have become very limited.

In the 1980s the Select Committee had established themselves as important contributors to the parliamentary functions of scrutiny, investigations and influence of the executive. However some modifications and features have meant that the effectiveness of the selected committees has been significantly reduced. Insufficient time and poor resources have meant that it has become more ineffective. Most analyst agree that Select Committee have done little to change the Balance of the power between the two houses, the executive and the legislative. Reformers suggest that they can be made more effective, by giving them larger budgets, more power, more access to documentation, and greater powers to interrogate ministers. However the limited powers to the Select Committees had led to the dominance of the executive and the legislative.

In the above arguments, Britain is seen as an elective dictatorship, but there are still some aspects of the political system that doesn't make it an Elective Dictatorship.
In between election election the government is still held accountable. The scrutiny and control of the executive is carried out in Prime Minsters questions time, opposition days and back bench rebellions. Also the presence of collective cabinet responsibility means the cabinet has to side with government policies and therefore the Prime Ministers usually has to have agreement from his cabinet.
A vote of confidence also means that Britain can be undermined as an Elective Dictatorship.
When a vote of no confidence is passed in Parliament, every minister and government official drawn from Parliament automatically resign in their role as the executive, the entire executive is dismissed.
Even though the power of the House of Lords is restricted they are still able to act as a check on the executive. This is because they are still involved in the process of legislation. The House of Lords has the power to amend and reject bills and also the House of Lords are able to delay bills.
The power of the executive has grown and the checks are in place to prevent abuse of this power. It is important for the legislature to keep a watch on the executive so the control is maintained and it does not slip into a dictatorship. These checks means that Britain is not theoretically an “Elective Dictatorship” as rules still exist which means the Executive can not have a dictatorship role.

However an article I read written by a reporter Francis Bennion of The Times who criticises Lord Hailsham’s use of “Elective Dictatorship”. He said “The enemies of parliamentary democracy are dangerous enough without Lord Hailsham adding weight of his prestige to their argument. The phrase ‘elective dictatorship’ is a piece of political cant. It has an appearance of validity which on examination is at once seen to be spurious, for it is a contradiction in terms” and he goes on to defend the parliament of being an elective dictatorship.

In many cases it is proven that Britain is moving in the direction of elective dictatorship. The power of the executive has grown and the checks are in place to prevent abuse of this power. It is important for the legislature to keep a watch on the executive so the control is maintained and it does not slip into a dictatorship. But currently it is not an Elective Dictatorship, as the parliament still has some effectiveness in scrutinising the executive, however as Britain is falling more into Prime Ministerial style government there is a possibility that Britain can become an “Elective Dictatorship”.

BIBILIOGRAPHY

KNIGHT C J S & EWING K D BRADLEY A W

www.oup.com

www.lawteacher.net

THE TIMES

www.democraticaudit.com