When people criticised the democratic deficit inherent in the EU\u2019s structure, many remainers responded that Britain was hardly an example of unvarnished democracy itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They were correct about this, although wrong about the implications. First, having two layers of flawed democratic government is worse than having one. Second, the UK has a much better claim to represent a political \u2018people\u2019 than the EU, which is a desirable quality in a democracy. And third, even if the UK were less democratic than the EU, the prospects for Britons to reform it are much better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Boris Johnson\u2019s government is certainly interested in leaving the EU, fulfilling the promise made by politicians to voters when the referendum was held in 2016 (and ignored by anti-democrats who backed a second referendum as a means of cancelling the first). But it seems little interested in reforming government to make it more responsive to voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paranoiacs have squealed about a section of the Conservative election manifesto which talked about setting up a commission to examine the constitution, but the setting up of a review body does not suggest the issue is a priority for the government. As the lawyer and pundit David Allen Green wrote<\/a> in Prospect<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n This new administration is certainly capable of seeking to rig the constitution in its favour. But on the face of the Queen\u2019s Speech, serious constitutional shenanigans are not an immediate danger and there are so many other things ministers need to use their majority for.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Johnson will repeal the Fixed-term Parliaments Act (which nobody much rates anyway), probably introduce voter ID requirements, and at a stretch tinker with the House of Lords, but nothing substantial is likely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This leaves any hope of democratic strengthening in the hands of Labour, which is about to undergo the convulsions of another leadership election. If the Corbynite membership remains as before it seems likely a successor to Jez will be chosen, rather than somebody more Blairite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n