Citizenship and the constitution

Shortly after his election as Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn announced that the first pillar (of three) of his leadership would be ‘the democratisation of public life from the ground up’. This ‘new politics’ would signal a sharp break from the practices of the New Labour governments. Corbyn talked about instituting ‘a genuinely new political direction for the country’, based on the ‘thirst for a different kind of politics’, which had been building not only in the Labour Party, but in the country. The instruments of this change were to be online democracy, citizens’ assemblies, community control of local services and a constitutional convention examining the electoral system, House of Lords reform and the voting age.

It is worth remembering that Tony Blair similarly began his leadership of the Labour Party with a promise to enact ‘the biggest programme of change to democracy ever proposed by a political party’. Thirteen years later, Gordon Brown pledged ‘a new British constitutional settlement that entrusts more power to Parliament and the British people.’ For both – as for Corbyn – constitutional change was a way to signify a break with the abuses of the immediate past, and to demonstrate their commitment to good government and popular sovereignty. In Brown’s case, of course, that immediate past was Blair’s own period in office. Although a massive programme of constitutional change had indeed been enacted, by 2007 the need for democratic renewal seemed more urgent than ever. None materialised.

Corbyn comes from a strand within the Labour Party that has placed great stress on traditions of radical democracy. This takes a symbolic form, most obviously in its celebration of the historical ancestors, like the Levellers, and also a practical form, expressed through the desire to empower the Party’s grassroots against its leadership. This is in stark contrast to the approach of Blair, who sidelined members in the interests of Party cohesion and electability. However, Blair’s stance on constitutional reform must be understood against the background of Charter 88, which took much of its energy from long-standing attempts by the New Left to create a vigorous and participative democratic culture in Britain. Therefore, as Corbyn returns to this quest, it is worth examining the contradictions and obstacles against which previous attempts at reform have foundered.