Bill 1: Re-entering EU without Referendum

The phrase elective dictatorship is a term that has been developed by Lord Hailsham, an ex Lord Chancellor of United Kingdom. He has coined the term in the year 1976 while describing the doctrine of Giuseppe Garibaldi. According to him, parliament has become a shadow of the government and current government has dominated the parliament in every sphere of their works. This process has been regarded as electorate dictatorship.

According to the structure, UK has three-tier parliamentary system such as House of Lords, House of Commons and the Monarch. When a bill has gone to the parliament for assent, both the Houses should support it and the final consent of the Monarch is necessary. However, the powers of the houses are not equal and the consent of the monarch has become a formality. The Monarch has lost its power to reject a bill since 1708 and the Parliament Act of 1911 and 1949 has suspended the equal power of the House of Lords. According to this Act, if any collision has been observed regarding a bill between the two houses, the House of Common has the power to accept the bill and send it to the Monarch, where the monarch is compelled to give their consent. In this process, the assent of the House of Lords is not necessary. Further, almost majority of the Member of Parliaments in Commons are the representative of the government. Therefore, it can indirectly be stated that government drives the core processes of the parliament. This term has been known as electorate dictatorship.

The term elective dictatorship has become a burning topic in the countries like UK. In modern era, most of the countries are democratic in nature and according to the structure of democracy; it has been observed that people are the main resources. They elected the representative for handling the administrative works and those administrative are act for the best interest of the citizen. They can pass or amend the bill for the development of the public policy and maintain the entire statutory obligation regarding the matter. However, in United Kingdom, a different approach can be observed. According to the government system of the country, Monarch has the supreme power. However, there are certain problems and criticisms observed regarding the political transmission of UK. The first problem is based on the parliamentary supremacy and absence of separation of power. The high rise of parliamentary supremacy has given birth of the notion relating to the present topic, i.e. elective dictatorship. In this system, House of Commons is positioned in the supreme power for passing the bills. The role of the other house and the monarch is minimal in nature and the interference of the government in the sections like administrative, legislative and judiciary is quite critical in United Kingdom. All these features are against the democratic nature and therefore, certain political problems have been cropped up. It has been observed that the current government is enjoying the rights to pass any bill they want because of the parliamentary system.

Bill 2: Repealing Rule of law and Judicial Independence

According to the parliamentary system related to the passing a bill, it can be stated that consent of the monarch is just a formality. Further, due to the implementation of the Parliamentary Act 1949, the House of Lords has been suppressed by the House of Commons and in case of any contradiction with the House of Commons, the power of the House of Lords will not be exercised. Therefore, it can be stated that most of the powers are imposed and enjoyed by the House of Commons. Further, according to the parliamentary system, if the majority of the members give their assent to the bill, they will be regarded as accepted by the House of Commons. In this case, it is to be stated that most of the members of the House of Commons are the representative of the current government and therefore, it can be stated that the government is driving the whole process of bill passing indirectly. The power of the House of Lords regarding the legislative matters is being restricted and they can impose a temporary veto on the public bills.

The rapid application of the electorate dictatorship has created negative impression on certain grounds. According to certain critiques, judicial review is required to determine the authority of the adjudication board to exercise the power properly. According to the English Common rule of law, no one can exercise their power by exceeding their statutory limit; else it will be regarded as ultra vire of the power. This process is important to discuss the consequences when the will of the government clashes with the will of the public. Further, in UK, there is a rule that states that only that person who has immense of knowledge on the legal aptitude can exercise his judicial knowledge on the subject. The similar rule relating to the same has been engraved under section 31 of the Supreme Court Act 1981.

However, it has been observed in the reality that the parliamentary process of the UK has allowed the government to exercise their power on their majority and therefore, it is quite impossible to apply the judicial review power on them. Therefore, the government passes certain unreasonable bills. According to Lord Hailsham, this practice opposes the proper application of the natural justice and in this manner; the governmental structure of the United Kingdom is hampered. In his word, the doctrine related to the electorate dictatorship should be restricted and certain premises are required to be decided up to which the government can entertain their power related to the implementation of the bills or can amend the same.

The English court’s recognized the proper application of the Diceyan idea of parliamentary, where it has been implied that the legal process could not be challenged the substance of enactment.  Further, certain legal survey are constrained regulatory court that can challenge the assigned power if acted past the given power by the demonstration. It has been mentioned that the court cannot strike down even this statues in some regard unjustifiable and court cannot likewise move some privilege powers. Legal audit has been stretched out by utilizing regulation of proportionality under the Human Rights Act 1998 to survey of managerial activity to decide its similarity with Convention prerequisites anyway this likewise constrained. The power of judicial review provides an opportunity to the courts to challenge the delegated legislation to certain extent so that the member of parliaments and other state authorities could not exceed their power while dealing with the primary legislation.

Bill 3: Repealing Human Rights Act Sections 3 and 19

In the case of the Westministers [1980], it has been observed that the government should have to think about the well-beings of the common people so that their interest could not be hampered. However, if the government has ample of power to exercise, they will be arbitrary in nature. In UK, the legislative wings have no power to question the validity of any Acts or bills. This weakens the governmental structure and the administrative authority gets all, the scope to interfere in every sphere of the parliamentary position. Further, it has been observed that the government does not want to include the judiciary with the administrative power. The main reason behind the same is to restrict the courts so that they could not interfere in their policies and implementations of those policies. Therefore, a strong negative sense has been shown by the government to include principle of judicial review in the parliamentary system of UK. Further, this is the reason why the government do not support the separation of power. Considering this, it can be stated that all these policies are against the democratic nature of the government.

Certain problems have been arisen regarding the application of the prerogative powers in UK. It has been observed in the case of Keyser’s Royal Hotel, where the court has denied the exercise of prerogative powers for the suspension of the statutes. However, the electorate dictatorship has again created certain contradictory adversary problem in this case. In certain recent cases, it has been observed that the government has implemented certain policies regarding the labour power over the trade unions by applying the prerogative powers and it becomes quite troublesome for the judges to restrict the application of those powers. Further, due to the majority, the government has certain opportunity to make the path of passing the bills easier and certain obstacles have bben created in the democratic contexts of the state.

Hailsham has criticised the problem regarding the elective dictatorship and according to him, this process has made the whole system of government weak. All the policies taken by the government of UK has reflected the undemocratic views and this process is required to be restricted immediately. The reformers have made certain reformation policies and voices have risen by the Liberal Democrats against those policies. However, due to the arbitrary nature of the government, such allegations are remained in vain. A report has been submitted in the year 2006, where certain policies have been adopted regarding the power to the people. Further, certain recommendations have been made in this regard where the power of the government authority has been identified and restricted.

One of the main problems for the implementation of all the policies is the unwritten constitution of UK. Certain proposals have been made in the Charter 88. According to the Charter, a proposal to codify the constitutional rules and Articles has been made. The main purpose of the Charter was to solve the problem relating to the executive dominance. However, application of this rule remained impossible due to electorate dictatorship. Elective autocracy alludes to the combination of forces of the official and the lawmaking body, where the council is drawn from the official in this manner bringing about predominance of the official over the assembly. Right off, the official’s larger part in the House of Commons fortifies the administrator’s strength. Elective autocracy happens in concurrence with this situation and that of the administering party that are named as the official. The assembly in power by definition has more seats, i.e. more voting power compared to all the confrontation parties. This reveals any ratification or movement proposed by the overseeing congregation could be passed except if government MP’s differences, on the position that exclusive a straightforward lion’s share is required. The reason for the quality of the thrash outline to keep MP’s of the representing party casting vote against it, virtually stating supervision bills are to a great degree infrequently vanquished in the House of Commons. The legislature proposes for the most part around 95% of the bills passed. Further, certain new provisions have been observed in this regard.

Since 1997, when Tony Blair was chaired in the Prime Minister post, it has invigorated restored banter about the region of power inside the authority and the association between the Prime Minister and the agency. Blair’s presidential style is reflected in his dresser organization. The social occasions are short, and are held less regularly. The Prime Minister rules official decision, settling on key decisions without directing the department. For instance, an “Elective Dictatorship” inferred Tony Blair was prepared to proceed with the Iraq war regardless of the way that a vast bit of his bureau could not resist negating him, and two of his chest of drawers ministers, Robin Cook and Claire Short surrendered. Anyway, faultfinders can in like manner say that a Prime Ministerial style government has been around before Blair. Margaret Thatcher similarly had a Prime Ministerial style government; for example, she clashed with a vast speck of her bureau in key decisions. As needs be, Britain can be said to have had an “Elective Dictatorship” before the Blair government.. Further, House of Lords still have certain powers to exercise certain powers on the executives and there are certain rules that prevent the executives to exercise their powers arbitrarily. However, the House of Lords is enjoying less power compared to the House of Commons and the majority vote passing  system is still applied in England. Therefore, it can be stated that UK still has elected dictatorship in the present time.

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