Democratic Integrity White Paper

With dwindling public confidence in the integrity of the political system, and growing concerns about the accountability of both the Executive to elected representatives, and the latter to those who elect them, steps are needed to restore trust in politics which is running at record low levels and reverse democratic backsliding and the decline to “elective dictatorship”.

In “Can Parliament Take Back Control?”, Nick Harvey and Paul Tyler warned that since Lord Hailsham, in his 1976 lecture, alerted the country to the perils of ‘elective dictatorship’, things have only got worse. In their book they set out a range of measures that could be implemented to address the unhealthy relationship and power imbalance between Parliament and the Executive.

The Democratic Integrity White Paper builds on their proposals, and others advocated by organisations such as the Institute for Government, the Electoral Commission, the Law Commission, the Governance Project and the Committee on Standards in Public Life.

It provides the government with clear recommendations which, if adopted, could accelerate restoring trust in politics and enable Parliament to take back control.