REVIEWS
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1993.tb02860.x |
| Date | 01 January 1993 |
| Published date | 01 January 1993 |
[Vol.
56
The
Modern
Law
Review
REVIEWS
Dawn
Oliver,
Government in the United Kingdom: The Search for Account-
ability, Effectiveness and Citizenship,
Milton Keynes: Open University Press,
1991, 241 pp, pb 512.99.
Rodney
Brazier,
Constitutional Reform: Re-shaping the British Political System,
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991, 172 pp, pb E5.99.
Constitutional reform is a subject which has recently been very much in vogue.
The amount of academic and political literature on the subject has continued to grow
significantly: 199 1 saw the publication of important contributions from all major
political parties as well as Mr Tony Benn MP, Liberty, the Institute for Public Policy
Research, the Institute of Economic Affairs, the Radical Society and the two books
under review here. However, although constitutional reform may well now be on
the political agenda, the degree to which it is on the popular agenda is still uncertain.
In April 1991, a poll conducted for the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust by MORI
found that 72 per cent of respondents were in favour of a Bill of Rights being
introduced in the United Kingdom, whereas only the previous month another MORI
poll found that 59 per cent of respondents thought that Parliament works well, with
only less than 10 per cent replying that it works badly. Whilst these two statistics
are not directly contradictory, they do perhaps illustrate a certain ambivalence on
the part of the public about constitutional reform.
In their books, both Oliver and Brazier concentrate on the elements of constitutional
reform which they identify as being of practical interest: neither is or professes
to be a complete work on all aspects of the subject. Oliver’s book is the longer,
and is probably the more challenging of the two. The author sensibly divides the
book into four sections. First, she identifies the problems she wishes to address
and introduces the three themes of accountability, effectiveness and citizenship upon
which she wishes to centre her argument. Secondly there is some discussion of the
institutions of the constitution
-
Parliament, Central Government and the Civil
Service, Local Government, National Assemblies and Decentralisation, and the
Judiciary. Then the focus is shifted from institutional reform to what Oliver dubs
‘the political process itself,’ and the three issues of reforming the electoral system,
enacting a Bill of Rights and introducing freedom of information legislation are
considered. Finally, the book is concluded with a brief discussion of methodology:
should the reforms be introduced by way of a new Written Constitution or through
more gradual constitutional ‘renewal’?
Throughout her work, Oliver does not shy away from wearing her political heart
on her sleeve. But this is not just another offering from the Liberal school of
constitutional reform
-
Oliver disagrees, for example, with the formulae for change
prescribed by the Liberal Democrats in their Federal Green Paper of 1990,
We
The
People
.
.
.
and with the IPPR, especially in terms of methodology. Yet the book’s
discussion is of a familiar agenda, with the prioritisation of the introduction of a
Bill of Rights and electoral reform
-
topics long associated with the centre ground
both of politics and of academic commentaries. The danger with this
style
of overtly
political scholarship, however, is that the author must always beware of telling only
the expedient parts of the story. Oliver does not always steer completely clear of
this pitfall: examples being her references to the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights (throughout chapter 9), whereas no mention is made of the equally
important International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Similarly,
120
@
The
Modern
Law Review Limited
1993
To continue reading
Request your trial