The Responsibilities of Democracy
By Nick Clegg and John Major
()
About this ebook
Amid pressing questions about the nature and limits of democracy, both in Britain and beyond, The Responsibilities of Democracy provides a clear-eyed perspective shared by two former politicians. Two central figures of the British political establishment, John Major and Nick Clegg, share their thoughts on where democracy is heading and how it can survive in the twenty-first century. Offering his perspective as a former prime minister, Major writes of the qualities on which a healthy democracy depends and expresses his deep concerns about the declining decorum of political exchange. Clegg brings a counter-perspective in discussing the ways in which political language has always involved trading insults and argues that echo chambers, although now more sophisticated, are nothing new. Compromise, Clegg insists, is not betrayal, but is instead the very substance of our politics and our democracy. The Responsibilities of Democracy explores the overall health of UK democracy, giving a balanced analysis of its values and flaws. It is also a clarion call to the electorate and politicians to nurture and protect the precious values on which democracy depends.
Read more from Nick Clegg
Loyal Dissent: Brief Lives of Westminster School Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLoyal Dissent: Brief Lives of Westminster School Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Responsibilities of Democracy
Related ebooks
What next for Labour? Ideas for a new generation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDead Right: How Neoliberalism Ate Itself and What Comes Next Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roads, Runways and Resistance: From the Newbury Bypass to Extinction Rebellion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Levellers: Radical political thought in the English Revolution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat about the workers?: The Conservative Party and the organised working class in British politics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTime to Act: A Resource Book by the Christians in Extinction Rebellion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsQuarterly Essay 37 What's Right?: The Future of Conservatism in Australia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHuman Wrongs: British Social Policy and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Clash of Ideas in World Politics: Transnational Networks, States, and Regime Change, 1510-2010 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsScarcity: A History from the Origins of Capitalism to the Climate Crisis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCivic Revolution: A Citizen's Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA History of the Modern Australian University Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWaves of Unreason: Australian Prime Ministers in the 21st Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConvivial Futures: Views from a Post-Growth Tomorrow Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGood Governance Gone Bad: How Nordic Adaptability Leads to Excess Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCaring for our Common Home: A Readers’ Guide and Commentary on Pope Francis’ Encyclical on the Environment Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRevolution to Devolution: Reflections on Welsh Democracy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn God They Trust?: The Religious Beliefs of Australia's Prime Ministers 1901-2013 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Economy of Salvation: Essays in Honor of M. Douglas Meeks Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Return of the State: Restructuring Britain for the Common Good Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrossing the Divide: A Call To Embrace Diversity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSustainable Peace in Northeast Asia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Legal Epic: "Paradise Lost" and the Early Modern Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Headstrong Daughters: Inspiring stories from the new generation of Australian Muslim women Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIllegal Migrations and the Huckleberry Finn Problem Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLiving Diversity – Shaping Society: The Opportunities and Challenges Posed by Cultural Difference in Germany Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhy It's Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Quarterly Essay 13 Sending Them Home: Refugees and the New Politics of Indifference Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsQuarterly Essay 33 Quarry Vision: Coal, Climate Change and the End of the Resources Boom Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVillage Diary of a Heretic Banker Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Political Ideologies For You
The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mein Kampf: English Translation of Mein Kamphf - Mein Kampt - Mein Kamphf Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Capitalism and Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The U.S. Constitution with The Declaration of Independence and The Articles of Confederation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Get Trump: The Threat to Civil Liberties, Due Process, and Our Constitutional Rule of Law Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gulag Archipelago: The Authorized Abridgement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Communist Manifesto: Original Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Quest for Cosmic Justice Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Anarchist Cookbook Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why We're Polarized Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Awakening: Defeating the Globalists and Launching the Next Great Renaissance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5While Time Remains: A North Korean Defector's Search for Freedom in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Psychology of Totalitarianism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The January 6th Report Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Responsibilities of Democracy
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Responsibilities of Democracy - Nick Clegg
Surtees.
Introduction
Claire Foster-Gilbert
The role of Westminster Abbey Institute is to nurture and revitalise moral and spiritual values in public life. It does not comment on policy nor campaign for any particular cause. It seeks to offer only those contributions to an active, noisy debate about politics and government that reach to the deep moral and spiritual roots of these institutions in a way that is timely, but also timeless. The essays by Sir John Major and Sir Nicholas Clegg in this book, first given as lectures in West-minster Abbey in 2017, have these qualities. They are only lightly edited because their observations about what threatens and what encourages a healthy democracy were salient at the time they were delivered and remain salient now.
It would be otiose, in a 2019 publication, to ignore the context of the Brexit challenge that is dominating British political and social life. Both Major and Clegg refer extensively to it. The challenge has not diminished in the two years since they spoke – on the contrary – and so this introduction will analyse further the implications for democracy of the Brexit years. It will do so in the spirit of the Institute’s role: not by taking sides, but by highlighting the underlying moral and spiritual stresses the Brexit years have brought upon our public service institutions and the people who work in them, looking in turn at Parliament and government; the Civil Service; and the Judiciary. It will make a plea for a greater understanding and cherishing of our long-established constitutional settlement, as well as for its continuing moral evolution, not its thoughtless destruction.
Parliament and government
The unwritten British constitution puts parliamentary sovereignty at its heart. Parliament is the supreme legal authority in the UK and it can create or end any law.¹ Though they will take its views into account, elected members of the House of Commons can override members of the House of Lords and so, in practice, it is our elected representatives who have the final responsibility to determine the law. This system makes democratic government pre-eminent, which means, rightly, that the people – the demos – determine who will govern their country.
Seeking election by the people means politicians need to feed and respond to the wishes and wants of the people, make themselves popular and, usually, show charisma. These qualities can sometimes make for unstable and unprincipled leadership. Politicians almost always seek office in order to improve the lives of others, but they want to be recognised for it too. They are willing to play for high stakes and risk sudden tumbles from grace, and they can have fragile egos behind their apparently tough public carapaces. If a politician is virtuous and wise, we are lucky: these qualities are not listed in a politician’s job description, and nor does the electorate tend to look for them. An astonishing and telling poll conducted by The Sunday Times during the July 2019 Conservative leadership contest showed that well over 50% of us would not buy a secondhand car from one of the contenders, but well over 50% of us would like him to be prime minister.² As Jonathan Sumption pointed out in his 2019 Reith Lectures, the 2015 election demonstrated that the electorate does not reward compromise, arguably one of the most important qualities in politics and certainly much needed now. We resoundingly did not vote for the Liberal Democrats who had compromised their policies in order to make the coalition Government of 2010–2015 work.³ Sumption calls elections ‘auctions of promises’, and Clegg in his essay concurs. Politicians who stand on doorsteps at election time confessing that they won’t be able to achieve much during their time in office because external events tend to dominate and influence most government agendas but that they will do their best under the circumstances, will not gain votes, however honest the confession. Election promises must be strong, substantial and certain, despite the reality that ensues once a party is in