Everything has changed - including our democracy

Sarah Clarke, Unlock Democracy

 

What are the challenges that times of crisis present for democracies? What does our government’s response to coronavirus say about the state of our democracy? And where do we go from here?

This blog series, Democracy in Times of Crisis, will explore these questions.

This is Part 3 of that series. You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

 
 

Democracy in times of crisis

Part 3: Everything has changed - including our democracy

The public health emergency has created many uncertainties about what our society and economy are going to look like. But it has already turned these systems - social, political, and economic - on their heads.

In many ways the future is up for grabs, there to be shaped by those that dare to imagine and mobilise to build something different. Life after lockdown is going to look very different to anything we’ve seen before - and so too will our democracy. But different doesn’t necessarily mean better, and if we want to build a better democracy we’re going to need to imagine and act. 

The state of our democracy

The last blog in this series offered up two paths that the COVID-19 crisis could take us down: one that is democratic, and one that is authoritarian. 

The role of our government has already drastically changed in the space of just a few weeks. It has taken on a new and interventionist role - with a sizeable bailout for businesses, an expanded safety net, and a suspension of civil liberties and rights. The crisis has also seen the UK government handed expansive emergency powers.

With the state’s new taste for intervening in our everyday lives, we - the public - are left uncomfortably close to a scenario in which the legacy of this crisis is an an erosion of our already troubled democracy. And two unique features of the UK’s current political system means we are particularly vulnerable to such an erosion:

  • Despite the devolution deals of the late-1990s, the UK is one of the most over-centralised democracies in the world. The UK Parliament - and moreover, the UK Government - wield significant power from London, with decisions the interests of the City of London receiving disproportionate benefit.

  • The UK is also just one of three democracies to have no written constitution - a single document, accessible to all of the public that sets out what rights and liberties should be protected from government interference, and what constraints there are on government power.

When taken together, these issues make the UK’s democracy uniquely fragile and precarious, particularly in times of crisis.

Time for a new social contract?

Democracy in the UK, and the role of our government in it, is going to change - more than it already has in the last few weeks.

But all too often, when the winds of change touch democracy in the UK, the boundaries of change are limited, and the alternative, possible, and better futures we imagine are quashed. Political power remains centralised, and opportunities for deepening democracy fall by the wayside.

“All too often, when the winds of change touch democracy in the UK, the boundaries of change are limited, and our imaginations quashed. ”

Time and time again, our democracy is left to wither rather than flourish, with tinkering, half-measure reforms. Our political system is one in which millions of voters are made voiceless at elections because of First Past the Post. Our upper chamber (the House of Lords) is still unelected, and still has reserved places for hereditary peers. At the same time, dark money floods our political system, drowning out the voices of those who cannot afford to purchase access and influence.

The pandemic has highlighted the precariousness and inadequacy of a system to which there is no going back. What system emerges from this crisis is all to play for. Looking to the future, the editorial board of the Financial Times proposed that:

“Radical reforms — reversing the prevailing policy direction of the last four decades — will need to be put on the table.”

Once we get through lockdown, our way of doing things in our society - and that means in our politics and economy - should change to reflect what we collectively value. It already has, in so many ways. So if the relationship between state and society is going to change, what do we want that relationship to be? What is the new social contract?

 
 
 

Further reading

Image attribution: "Palace of Westminster" by Mubarak Fahad is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0  

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