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| 1 |
ID:
162585
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| Summary/Abstract |
Britain, Bruce Ackerman argues, has ‘muddled its way into a curious arrangement’ of asymmetric devolution, which has dis‐united the Kingdom, disempowered a significant proportion of the populace, and disregarded the risks of what he describes as ‘mono‐cultural rivalry’. However, whilst Ackerman's diagnosis is correct, his prescription of ‘fully symmetric’ federalism is unlikely to remedy this democratic malaise. As this response shows, there is limited political consensus as to where regional boundaries should fall and there is little public appetite for an additional layer of regional governance. Therefore, rather than bolting another layer of governance onto a flawed substructure, we should instead focus on its repair by reforming Westminster's electoral system and revitalising local government. These two proposals may be more modest than Ackerman's bold vision, but if implemented they would provide solid foundations for the development of a more deliberative and consensual way of doing politics that UK so sorely lacks.
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| 2 |
ID:
156777
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| Summary/Abstract |
Over the past year, a seemingly relentless barrage of Brexit-related challenges has besieged the British constitution, which together have called into question the legitimacy of the political system. Yet, although it is tempting to regard the decision to hold a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union as precipitating an acute constitutional crisis, this article argues that political and democratic dilemmas arising from Brexit are symptomatic of a wider constitutional malaise, the roots of which extend far beyond 23 June 2016. Flowing out of this, the article contends that the current crisis is one of ‘constitutional myopia’, fuelled by decades of incoherent reforms and a failure to address adequately democratic disengagement; and that the EU referendum and its aftermath have merely exposed the extent to which the foundations of the constitution have been eviscerated.
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