Elective Dictatorship Analysis

Lord Hailsham used the term ‘Elective Dictatorship’ in multiple pieces of his works most notably being the Richard Dimbleby lecture in 1976. The dictionary definition of elective dictatorship is ‘a government that is elected but has won so many votes that it can do what it wants.’ This means that although the government has been elected by the people of the country it has enough power within parliament to do what it please and act like a dictatorship. Lord Hailsham himself described elective dictatorship as…
The unique uncodified constitution of the Uk makes is susceptible to elective dictatorship, this is because the legislature process is dictated by parliament which is made up with some members of the executive. This results in the in the …show more content…
We however know this is not true, we have ministers for different sections of power who are also MPs of certain districts showing that members of the executive are also members of the legislature/parliament. The French writer Montesquieu said that ‘when legislative power is united with executive power … there is no liberty’. This means that when these two powers integrate they create a system that means there is little liberty to the country when the executive are in the legislative branch of the state. The position of Uk parliament currently is that of partial separation, the different branches of the state all intermingle to provide efficiency but still with the risk of tyranny. This tyranny, which could be elective dictatorship, may be avoided if the doctrine of separation is at the forefront of the integration of the branches of state. In the Uk this is done by a set of checks, balances and accountability, where each branch checks another, held accountable for their actions and so forth. The Uk does know that it has problems when it comes to separation of powers; “we want to ensure that we clearly define the separation of powers, where it is appropriate, but that is not incompatible with having a partnership between the different branches of the state”. This quote is referencing the constitutional reform act which the executive and parliament …show more content…
Well mentioned earlier was the PMs current pairing with another party. This means that, although before the snap general election the PM had majority she wanted more to gain enough for a more effective elective dictatorship to help push her wanted hard Brexit. This backfired but the PM still wanted her elective dictatorship and therefore partnered with DUP. the evident need for power dictated how the PM handled the snap election and how she went back on what was promised in her run. the power of an elective dictatorship can corrupt, and as the well-known saying goes, absolute power corrupts absolutely and that what elective dictatorship is absolute