Studies in British Government

184 Pages·1965·18.126 MB·English

by  N. H. Brasher (auth.)

STUDIES IN BRITISH GOVERNMENT
STUDIES IN
BRITISH GOVERNMENT
BY
N.H. BRASHER, M.A.
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
NEW YORK • ST MARTIN's PRESS
Copyright@ N.H. Brasher I965
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1965 978-0-333-04023-2
ISBN 978-1-349-81749-8 ISBN 978-1-349-81747-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-81747-4
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Preface
IN subject matter this book ranges over several issues of current
constitutional interest. It follows broadly the syllabuses set by
examining boards for pupils studying government. The growing
emphasis on general studies for both the Arts and Science student
should lead to a closer study of the workings of government by the
non-specialist also, and it is hoped that the book may be of value
for this purpose. Whatever else students may become they will cer
tainly be citizens, and knowledge of the present-day institutions of
government is still not a universal characteristic in schools.
The emphasis in the book, however, is on ideas, changing habits
of government, and possible reforms, rather than on the provision
of a mass of factual information. It is intended to be an accompani
ment, or sequel, to the textbooks, a bridge between them and the
study of specialist books. Much of it is directed towards the stimu
lation of discussion which forms such a large part of advanced work
in particular. An outline and theme are given at the beginning of
each chapter so that its pattern may be quickly grasped. Many of
the issues discussed are controversial. While it would have been
possible to prepare a cautious and uncommitted assessment of
present-day tendencies in government, I felt that this would blunt
the critical approach which the book is designed to foster. I have
thought it best to put forward my own views positively, not only in
the expectation, but even a little in the hope, that the views of
readers may frequently differ sharply from my own. I hope, too,
that the ideas put forward will rouse sufficient thought to lead
students to make constructive use of the specialist books in order to
support or reconsider their own views. If this happens a worth
while purpose will have been achieved. To help this process I have
added a book-list with comments. My own debt to many of the
authors mentioned there will be very plain.
A short book of this kind, dealing with a variety of important
topics, will inevitably have many omissions. There are also several
issues, potentially rich in controversy, to which it has only been
possible to make fleeting reference, though this may sometimes be
Vl PREFACE
a sufficient starting point for argument. Most of the book was
written during 1962 and subsequent events are only briefly men
tioned. What has concerned me chiefly, however, is less the pursuit
of topicality for its own sake than the examination of recent trends
in government which seem to be of permanent importance. In this
respect the book may also be of interest to the general reader.
Readers will discover a strong emphasis, for instance, on the growth
of central direction by modern governments. The fact that this is a
familiar theme makes it no less important. The formal barriers to
the authority of the Government in Britain are negligible; it is all
the more important, therefore, where public opinion is the only
ultimate restraint on Government action, to know which of the
traditional rights are expendable, and which are not. Making the
distinction is difficult, especially in the changing conditions and
emergencies of modern times, but there can be few matters of
greater importance. It would be one of the sadder ironies of our
history if the freedoms which have been so vigorously won and
defended should wither away through cynicism and ignorance of
their worth. Fortunately Britain has nothing worse to fear at the
moment than the benevolent despotism of the Cabinet or the in
voluntary dictatorship imposed largely by the pressure of outside
events. Yet it would be as well to remember that this is not the full
extent of the risk to be faced in a country whose traditional flexi
bility of constitutional habits is not an unmitigated advantage,
especially when there are pressures on the central Government to
tighten its control. Considerable attention has been given in the
book, therefore, to matters which are symptomatic of the more
authoritarian approach of modern governments.
Those who are familiar with the workings of government will
not, however, expect a consistent pattern to emerge. In the early
chapters, in particular, there are frequent references to the greater
centralisation of modern times. Yet in the chapter on local govern
ment it is apparent that, except in the unlikely event of the Govern
ment having intentions of the most Machiavellian subtlety, local
authorities have been given, or will be given, greater freedom than
they had before. Beyond this, the movement towards self-govern
ment of the new Commonwealth countries could, in a different
way, be regarded as an outstanding example of decentralisation. It
has not proved to be possible, therefore, to find a single theme
which can be said to characterise all aspects of the work of a modern
PREFACE vii
British Government. In a country where government is based
largely on empirical methods the absence of a consistent approach
is the less surprising.
Adequate acknowledgment to those who have helped in different
ways in the preparation of this book would be impossible. I must,
however, give particular thanks to Dr. D. G. Southgate, lecturer in
Modern History at the University of St. Andrews, and to Mr.
P. D. Whitting, G.M., B.A., who, until his retirement, was senior
history master at St. Paul's School. Their judicious blending of
encouragement and criticism has been of the greatest assistance to
me. Imperfections which remain are my own, but I am well aware
how many more there would have been without the help of these
two advisers. I have also received very generous information from
the Electoral Reform Society and from the research department of
the Labour Party, although, as it happens, on the specific issues
concerned I differed from their views. Mr. Malcolm Shaw, the
Director of Studies and Information of the Hansard Society for
Parliamentary Government, the staffs of Her Majesty's Stationery
Office, and of the Orpington and Bromley Libraries have been
most helpful in the verification of references. My publishers have
been admirably patient; so, too, have been my wife and family who
have contrived to give me the peace without which the book could
not have been written at all.
N.H. B.
Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
I THE MoNARCHY I
2 THE SUPREMACY OF THE CABINET I9
3 PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET 36
4 MINISTERS AND CIVIL SERVANTS 48
5 THE REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES 63
6 THE HousE OF CoMMONS - SoME PROCEDURAL
PROBLEMS 75
7 VoTING SYSTEMS 92
8 THE HousE OF LoRDS I04
9 PROBLEMS IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF JuSTICE 117
IO LOCAL GOVERNMENT- SOME RECENT AND PROS-
PECTIVE CHANGES 128
I I THE CoMMONWEALTH - THE PROBLEM OF INDE-
PENDENCE I42
I2 THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF THE BRITISH
CoNSTITUTION I 57
COMMENTS ON FURTHER READING I65
INDEX I73
I
The Monarchy
Decline of monarchies. The flexibility of the British monarchy
illustrated from its historical development. Its powers and limi
tations, with examples from nineteenth- and twentieth-century
history. The monarchy does not need to be justified simply by its
practical political duties. Value of the monarch's social duties.
Relationship to the Commonwealth countries.
THEME: The powers of the British monarch are neither danger
ous nor superfluous.
I
n a world where social upheavals have become commonplace
the power of the British monarchy to survive makes it of special
interest. Its existence, rooted deeply in the past, is based on the
concept of a definite hierarchy in society of which it is the apex. It
might seem, therefore, to represent a view of society which is ana
thema to the social reformer. Criticism of it is to be expected and
involves no novelty in itself, for the institution of monarchy has
been subjected to the most violent attacks for over three hundred
years. The events of the seventeenth century culminating in the
Bill of Rights of 1689 marked the fiercest phase of the conflict, but
ripples of the controversy continued to be felt until the end of the
nineteenth century. By the beginning of the twentieth century,
however, the Crown had tacitly accepted the position that for
almost all practical purposes personal intervention by the monarch
in politics was undesirable. This largely removed the long-standing
grievance against despotic or arbitrary actions by the monarch,
but has led to criticisms of a different kind, that, as the political
powers of the monarch have dwindled away almost to vanishing
point, the retention of a non-functional institution is merely a
social pretence out of keeping with the modern world, like
medieval battlements on a New York skyscraper.
This criticism that the monarchy has become redundant in
2 STUDIES IN BRITISH GOVERNMENT
modern times attracts a certain measure of support. It is true that
it is no longer possible to defend the institution of monarchy with
the mystical arguments used in the time of James I, when the
theory of the Divine Right of Kings to govern made criticism on a
par with impiety. That theory was violently discredited when, on
January 3oth, 1649, in Whitehall, the head of Charles I was dis
played to the crowd attending the execution. A more significant
stage still was reached on January 21st, 1793, when the guillotine
severed the neck of Louis XVI amid cries of 'Vive Ia nation!', for to
the French Revolutionary leaders the movement against the
monarchy had become an idealistic campaign. The Parliamentarians
in England were waging a struggle against a monarch: the early
French Revolutionaries wanted to wage an international struggle
against monarchy, and their influence was correspondingly greater.
The precedent, once set, was swiftly imitated. Monarchs were no
longer sacrosanct, and revolution continued to find new victims. In
France, revolutions in 1830 and 1848 disposed first of Charles X,
then of Louis Philippe. In 1848 there was a brief experience of
Republican government before the monarchical principle was re
vived under Napoleon III, but in 1870, following the Prussian
defeat of France at the battle of Sedan, the monarchy was finally
discredited and Republican government has been adopted ever
since. Spain, having witnessed the deposition of Queen Isabella in
1868, reverted to a monarchy only to dispense with it in 1931 when
King Alfonso XIII was deposed. In July, 1918, the Tsar of Russia,
who had governed with the kind of despotism reminiscent of the
Bourbons before 1789, was murdered at Ekaterinburg in central
Russia, as a result of the 1917 Russian Revolution. A few months
later his recent enemy the Kaiser was in exile in Holland, with
theatrical demands being made by some of his opponents that he
should be hanged. Along with the Kaiser there had disappeared the
Austrian Emperor and the whole penumbra of minor German
Kings. In modern Italy the monarchy after years of humiliating
subordination in the Fascist state was replaced by a republic in
1946. Altogether the Royal casualty list makes impressive reading.
Apart from Britain no major European power has retained a
monarchical system, and though some of the smaller powers have
done so, the hostility of many nations to such a system is only too
clear.
Critics who point out, therefore, that Britain, in retaining a