Democratic Audit: Labour's Record So Far

Abstract

IN 1996 and 1998, the Democratic Audit published two benchmark studies of the state of political freedom in the United Kingdom and the quality of this country’s democratic arrangements.1 They measured democracy in the United Kingdom as it stood in May 1997 when the Labour party won a huge parliamentary majority on a minority of the falling popular vote. The Labour government assumed power committed to a wide range of constitutional reforms and a pledge to restore trust in government and politics in the United Kingdom. At the end of its tenure of power, Democratic Audit will publish a full follow-up democratic assessment, using the benchmark studies as the base from which to measure progress. The previous studies employed 30 ‘democratic criteria’, deriving from the principles of popular control and political equality and covered four main areas—free and fair elections, open and accountable government, political freedom and democratic society. We have since developed the areas covered in an attempt to universalise the assessment process and we will be employing some 84 criteria for the follow-up assessment.2 This article, however, will not take a long march through the new criteria but a short-cut from 1997, surveying the peaks and troughs and assessing the position in the year 2000.