Democracy in Britain: A Reader

Democracy in Britain is an indispensable guide to the constitutional and political issues regarding representative and democratic institutions in Britain. As much a literary anthology as a political reader, it includes a rich and varied selection of key writings, from the debates around Britain′s representative and democratic institutions, from constitutional commentary and diaries to poetry and fiction; from Locke and Burke to Dryden and Auden; and from Magna Carta to Spycatcher.

Introduction.

1. Does the British Constitution Exist?.

2. Crown and Parliament, Government and People.

3. Representation of Groups.

4. Agreeing to be Governed.

5. Parties and Elections.

6. Democracy and Freedom.

7. Nations and Empire.

8. Democracy and the Economy.

9. A Democratic Culture?

Jack Lively is an Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of Warwick. Among his previous publications is Democracy (1970), also published by Blackwell.

Adam Lively is the author of four novels, most recently Sing the Body Electric (1993), and a pamphlet on constitutional reform, Parliament: The Great British Democracy Swindle (1990). He is currently working on a study of race and the imagination.

"An intelligent collection that brings disparate figures and ideas into fruitful dialogue." New Statesman & Society

"This is not an average anthology. At its best, which is much of the time, it is a sustained and marshalled analysis, a wide–ranging dialectical thesis with witnesses for both the prosecution and defence, a historical examination of the continuing, unresolved – and intensely topical – debate about democracy and the nature of the British state." The Guardian

"This collection of essays has something to enrage, inform, and sometimes startle everyone in Britain interested in how we got to here. More fleshed out than a dictionary, it is nevertheless full of succinct definitions." The Observer