{"id":2999,"date":"2019-11-19T15:22:48","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T15:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/?p=2999"},"modified":"2019-11-19T15:23:39","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T15:23:39","slug":"democratic-reform-in-the-uk-bold-moves-needed-to-restore-trust-in-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/?p=2999","title":{"rendered":"Democratic reform in the UK: Bold moves needed to restore trust in politics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gripping, isn\u2019t it? Our once-entitled politicians have reverted to vulnerable candidates for six weeks. Trust in politics is low, yet candidates are campaigning to win the public\u2019s confidence \u2013 and with it, their votes. Could democratic reform in the UK be the answer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

December\u2019s general election comes at a time when faith in our democratic institutions is so shattered they are even derided by the politicians. For example, in the past month alone, the government has accused parliament of preventing it from delivering the will of the people. Furthermore, the Opposition has accused the government of presiding over a rigged system serving vested interests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is little wonder that public\ntrust in politics remains so low<\/a>. The corrosive influence of big money\ncontinues to undermine the integrity of our political system. Gaps in the law\nprovide an opening for money\nof unknown provenance to enter our elections<\/a>. And loopholes in regulations\nand weak enforcement allow for interference\nby foreign governments in our democracy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Piecemeal change<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The situation is grave, and UK politicians themselves\nare calling for electoral law reform, albeit piecemeal. In July, the cross-party\nDigital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, chaired by Conservative MP Damian\nCollins, called for emergency legislation to protect against online electoral interference.\nIn August, Labour proposed a crackdown on big money in politics to prevent the\ncorrupting of democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government has plans to consult on electoral integrity reforms, which may look at transparency of digital advertising, loopholes on foreign spending in elections, preventing shell companies from sidestepping current rules on political finance<\/a>, and action to tackle foreign lobbying. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comprehensive democratic reform in the UK is needed<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

However, although these steps are welcome, none\nconstitute a commitment to comprehensive reform. There is a fairly transparent\npattern to Westminster\u2019s interest in political integrity: each party supports reforms\nfrom which they stand to gain \u2013 or at the very least those from which they\ndon\u2019t stand to lose. The road to our current predicament is littered with cross-party\ntalks on political finance reform that ultimately\nfailed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reformers are impaled on the horns of a dilemma. On the one hand, piecemeal reform risks incentivising the use of new loopholes and triggering seesaw policymaking in which successive governments reform the political finance landscape to their advantage. On the other hand, wholesale democratic reform in the UK requires cross-party political will and compromise \u2013 neither of which is in abundance in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, avoiding the issue has proven to\nbe a losing game. Our electoral system is open to cheating, corruption and\ninterference, those in public office aren\u2019t trusted to act in the public\ninterest, and anti-establishment anger and threats of violence are growing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To remain relevant in rapidly changing and\nuncertain times, UK politicians seriously need to win back public trust in\npolitics \u2013 and fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trust in politics is about process, not\njust outcome<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

You will hear public trust framed as being about outcomes. For instance, some suggest that Brexit must be delivered or the public\u2019s trust will be irretrievably lost. Meanwhile others hold the view that the outcome of a referendum won by breaking the rules shouldn\u2019t be delivered \u2013 again, citing reasons of preserving public trust. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trust, however, is as much about the process\nas the outcome. This is why Transparency International along with eleven other\nleading anti-corruption organisations has been calling\nfor all parties to back reforms to tackle big money, dark money and foreign\ninterference<\/a> in our elections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undoubtedly behavior, or good \u2018conduct\u2019, also\nmatters: more obvious adherence to the Nolan\nprinciples of public life,<\/a> for example, would mean fewer examples of\nbehavior which a reasonable member of the public might call corrupt. Whatever\nyour preferred political outcome, its legitimacy in the eyes of the public \u2013\nand ultimately its durability \u2013 is dependent upon the winners playing fair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So while democratic reform in the UK is unlikely to be the decider of this latest general election, the first question politicians should ask themselves is not what do I stand to gain<\/em>, but where am I willing to give ground<\/em>. This requires courage and a strong sense of public duty that outweighs their desire to win at all costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That may feel like a big ask of politicians\nin 2019, but we award them the responsibility to serve in the public interest\non the basis that they actually will.<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s the general election and trust in politics is low. Could democratic reform in the UK be the answer to our political malaise?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":3001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1395,1399,1405,1396],"tags":[2045,1651],"coauthors":[1613],"class_list":["post-2999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-comment","category-elections","category-government","category-uk","tag-democratic-reform","tag-trust"],"amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Democratic-reform-in-the-UK-Bold-moves-needed-to-restore-trust-in-politics-bernard-hermant-OLLtavHHBKg-unsplash-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2999"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=2999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}