In a major report for the Labour party, former prime minister Gordon Brown has proposed a number of reforms to address some of the UK’s glaring institutional problems. He recommends reforming the House of Lords, so that it is elected and far smaller than its current size, as well as major devolution across the UK. Yet evidence from political science suggests Labour leader Keir Starmer needs to go much further to bring about the real change in the power and standards of central government he claims to want.
The key scholar here is Dutch-American political scientist Arend Lijphart, who divides democracies into two categories. Those characterised by the concentration of power in single-party governments are “majoritarian” and those built around power-sharing are “consensus” democracies.
The UK is a key example of a majoritarian system. It features a first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system, single-party cabinets, massive concentration of power in the national government and an uncodified constitution which is very easy to change. These elements are arguably at the root of many of the UK’s recent problems.
