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The Many Lives of Hailsham's Famous Phrase, the Elective Dictatorship

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The Many Lives of Hailsham's Famous Phrase, the Elective Dictatorship The many lives of Hailsham’s famous phrase, the elective dictatorship By Tonje Sofie Ranvik Supervisor: Atle L. Wold Master’s Thesis ENG4592 60 ECTS Submitted to the Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages, Faculty of Humanities UNIVERSITY OF OSLO Spring 2020 0 1 Abstract This thesis has explored how understandings about the concept of the “elective dictatorship” has evolved since Lord Hailsham popularized this phrase in the Dimbleby Lecture of 1976. He argued that the British political system amounted to an elective dictatorship because of changes that had occurred within the political system. Changes such as the absence of limits on the power of the executive and a shift in where parliamentary sovereignty resided within the system. This development was problematic as this ensured a majority government nearly unlimited power to carry out its agenda. His solution was extensive constitutional reform including creating a codified constitution. Following his Dimbleby Lecture, Hailsham returned to the topic of the elective dictatorship in three different publications from the late 1970s and early 1980s. This thesis therefore first studied how Lord Hailsham developed his own argument. It found that Hailsham moderated and changed his argument from focusing on the political system in its entirety to focusing on the judiciary and the legal system. Furthermore, Hailsham did not advocate radical reform in his two publications from the 1980s as he did in the 1970s. From there, the thesis discussed how the debate about the elective dictatorship had evolved. This by studying the debate thematically during four different prime ministers, Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990), Tony Blair (1997-2007), and Theresa May (2016-2019) and Boris Johnson (2019-). A variety of sources were consulted such as academic books, journal articles and newspaper articles. It found that although references were still made to Lord Hailsham and his publications from the late 1970s, scholars and journalists have expanded upon Hailsham’s argument and in some cases advocate reforms he did not consider necessary to protect against the elective dictatorship. Others have used the term without reference to its originator giving it its own meaning. 2 3 Acknowledgement A lot of people helped and supported me in the process of writing this thesis: First and foremost, I would like to thank to my supervisor, Atle Libæk Wold for his invaluable help and feedback, for all his encouragement and availability. A huge “thank you” is owned to the British Film Institute for granting me access to Lord Hailsham’s speech from 1976, which was the starting point for my thesis. Especially thanks to Kathleen Dickson who helped me with all the paperwork and who granted me access, and to the technician Stephen, who with his encouragement and cups of tea, made the hours transcribing Lord Hailsham's speech much easier. I would also like to thank my family for putting up with my almost constant discussion of a topic they did not understand, as well as all their support and encouragement during these last moths. This past year would have been very different without Ingunn Parker Bekkhus and Truls Bjerke Hoem, thank you for all the lunches, conversations and the support in times of need. A special thanks also goes to friends Cécile Beauvois and Ellen Johanne Weydahl whose support have been invaluable. 4 5 Innholdsfortegnelse Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 Delimitation and Purpose ................................................................................................................................... 2 Method and Sources ............................................................................................................................................ 3 Structure ............................................................................................................................................................. 4 Chapter 2: Lord Hailsham’s argument ......................................................................................................... 5 The Dimbleby Lecture “Elective dictatorship” ................................................................................................... 5 The reception of Hailsham’s argument ............................................................................................................. 16 The Dilemma of Democracy: Diagnosis and Prescription ............................................................................... 17 “The Lord Chancellor and Judicial Independence”. ........................................................................................ 31 The Hamlyn Lecture: Hamlyn Revisited: The British Legal System Today ...................................................... 34 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................ 39 Chapter 3: Margaret Thatcher in office, 1979-1990: More power to the government ................................ 40 Parliamentary sovereignty ................................................................................................................................ 40 Parliamentary sovereignty and Thatcher’s policies ......................................................................................... 42 The two-party system and the electoral system ................................................................................................. 48 A Bill of Rights .................................................................................................................................................. 54 The role of the Select committees ...................................................................................................................... 58 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................ 61 Chapter 4: Tony Blair’s government (1997-2007), the new elective dictatorship? ...................................... 63 Parliamentary sovereignty ................................................................................................................................ 64 The role of the Prime Minister and the elective dictatorship ............................................................................ 68 The House of Lords and the elective dictatorship ............................................................................................. 70 The Bill of Rights and the Judiciary .................................................................................................................. 73 The two-party system and electoral reform ....................................................................................................... 75 Constitutional reform and the elective dictatorship .......................................................................................... 80 No elective dictatorship after all? ..................................................................................................................... 83 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................ 84 Chapter 5: Theresa May (2016-2019) and Boris Johnson (2019-) – the turbulence of Brexit ..................... 85 Parliamentary sovereignty and the elective dictatorship .................................................................................. 86 Arguments about executive dominance and Parliament ................................................................................... 88 Parliamentary scrutiny and the executive in relation to Brexit ......................................................................... 91 6 Doctrine of mandate and manifesto .................................................................................................................. 95 Electoral system ................................................................................................................................................ 97 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................ 97 Chapter 6 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 99 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................................. 104 Appendix ....................................................................................................................................................... 1 7 Chapter 1: Introduction The British political system and its evolving constitution has been a topic of discussion among scholars, academics and journalists for centuries. There have been aspects and perspectives on the functions of Britain’s uncodified constitution. This thesis will discuss and explore a debate on what Lord Hailsham, a barrister and Conservative politician, termed “the elective dictatorship” in the late 1970s. 1 Its focus will be how this debate has evolved throughout the late 1970s to the present. The starting point for this discussion is the Dimbleby Lecture that Hailsham held in 1976 which elevated
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