WeeklyWorker

18.04.1996

Constitution for a democratic republic

Following the SLP national meeting on March 2 debates have continued on a number of the policy meetings and documents presented. The ‘Republican Constitution’ working group document reproduced below is a result of those debates and will be presented to the May 4 launch conference

1. The British Constitution

1. The unwritten constitution of the United Kingdom is the legal framework for the exercise of bureaucratic and political power. The constitution is based on the traditions and laws of constitutional monarchy and unionism, set out in the Bill of Rights (1689), the Act of Settlement (1701), the Acts of Union, the Parliament Acts (1911 and 1949) and the Representation of the People Acts (1948 and 1949).

2. Authority vested in the Crown is exercised by ministers, civil servants, judges, police and secret service chiefs and the commanders of the armed forces. Under the Acts of Union (1535 and 1707) and the Government of Ireland Act 1922, the authority of the Crown extends to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

3. The Union state is neither a centralised nor federal system of democracy. A central parliament exists along with separate national bureaucracies, the Northern Ireland Office, the Scottish Office and the Welsh Office. Scotland retains its own legal system, but not its own means of law-making. The people of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have no elected assembly to control their national bureaucrats.

4. The people of Northern Ireland have a unique position within the Union under the Government of Ireland Act 1922. They were separated from the majority of the Irish people by the forcible partition of Ireland in 1922. The division of Ireland was in violation of the right of the Irish people to self-determination, expressed in the 1918 general election. Northern Ireland was founded on anti-democratic principles based on religious and political discrimination.

5. Whilst a majority of the protestant population of Northern Ireland are loyal to the Union, a significant nationalist minority have never accepted the legitimacy of partition or the British Crown. The Northern Ireland parliament at Stormont (1922-75) was not a genuine democratic assembly. It was the instrument of protestant ascendancy, ensuring discrimination against the catholic minority and the repression of Irish republicans.

6. Throughout the Union, Her Majesty’s Government is conducted by ministers and civil servants in the name of the Crown. Normally this is dependent on the support of a parliamentary majority. Political power is therefore divided amongst the bureaucratic, hereditary and elected parts of the constitution. As head of the government, the prime minister is in a powerful position as the linchpin in the system, linking the monarchy and bureaucracy with the political parties as represented in parliament.

7. The Monarchy and the House of Lords are hereditary parts of the constitution. These institutions have an important influence, but limited power. The House of Lords can scrutinise and amend legislation. The monarch can appoint prime ministers and dissolve parliament. These powers are limited both by law and convention. Nevertheless in times of political crisis the discretionary powers of the monarch would be of crucial importance. They provide the legal authority for the state to govern without recourse to parliament.

8. Under normal circumstances, the Royal Prerogative enables servants of the Crown to act outside parliamentary control. In the name of the Crown, ministers and civil servants can enter diplomatic relations with other states, conclude treaties, command the armed forces, declare war, make peace, appoint judges, initiate criminal prosecutions, pardon offenders, appoint ministers, including the prime minister, summon and dissolve parliament, confer honours, create peers and appoint bishops.

9. Privy Council advises the monarch on the use of royal powers. In normal times, it enables ministers and leading members of the Opposition, loyal to the Crown, to meet in private and agree common action in support of the state. This ensures that narrow party interests and rivalries do not undermine the fundamental interests of the state.

10. The real function of the Privy Council is to subvert parliamentary democracy, ensuring a united front between the leaders of the main parliamentary parties, especially in time of war or civil crisis. It could, if necessary, override parliament and assume dictatorial powers.

11. The House of Commons, elected by universal suffrage, represents the democratic part of the constitution. The first-past-the post electoral system divides the majority of seats between the two main parties, which form Her Majesty’s Government and Loyal Opposition.

12. The distribution of seats is unrepresentative of the national electorate, and discriminates against small parties. Shifts in population and periodic changes in constituency boundaries leave the system open to gerrymandering by the ruling class.

13. Even in the most democratic bourgeois republic, parliamentary assemblies do not exercise real control over the state. But certain features of the British constitutional monarchy render the House of Commons even more supine and ineffective as a representative body.

14. Members of Parliament do not exercise any real control over ministers or civil Servants. The House of Commons cannot convene itself, nor control its own agenda nor compel civil servants to reveal information which might embarrass the government. The system enables the executive to effectively control parliament and establish a near monopoly of political power.

15. The subordination of the House of Commons to the executive is further reinforced by its ancient traditions and rituals. It has more in common with a Victorian gentleman’s debating society than a real democratic assembly. The House of Commons is a political circus whose real function is to entertain the population with the illusion of democracy.

16. The central principle of the constitution is the sovereignty of the Queen-in-Parliament. Legal authority does not come from the people as citizens, but from the monarchy, Lords and Commons. The people of the United Kingdom are subjects of Her Majesty and Her Majesty’s Government. This is often misleadingly called “parliamentary sovereignty” to perpetuate the illusion that the government of the people is carried on by the people and their representatives in parliament. In reality neither the British people nor the House of Commons are the sovereign authority either in theory or practice.

17. The British constitution is an obsolete facade, concealing the real nature of bureaucratic and political power. Government is conducted in the name of the Crown with a substantial degree of independence from parliament. In conjunction with official secrecy, press censorship and news management, the constitution helps protect and conceal the activities of the corrupt and repressive state bureaucracy.

2. The aim of the SLP

18. The SLP should set its longer term aim of establishing a radically new democracy. The workplace rather than the geographical area should be the basic constituency. The purpose of this would be to link the economic management of our resources with political decision making.

19. In each workplace constituency, all workers would have the right to elect a Workplace Council charged with the responsibility of supervising the management. Each Workplace Council should send delegates to a Local Area Council with responsibility for coordinating and managing the economic and social development within the Area. Local Area Councils would in tum elect delegates to a Regional Council. These Councils would elect delegates to a National Parliament of workers’ delegates. All executive and legislative authority would be vested in the National Parliament as the supreme democratic authority within the state.

20. Sovereignty would be vested in the whole of the economically active or productive population. Special representation would be included for consumer groups such as students, rail users, retired workers, hospital patients etc.

3. The current programme of the SLP

21. The SLP should aim to win support of working people for a radical extension of democracy. This would entail a republican programme summarized by the demand for a federal republic of England, Scotland, Wales and a united Ireland.

22. This republican programme would not contradict our longer-term aim, but move us closer to it. At the next election the SLP should stand candidates on this programme. The purpose of our electoral work would not be an end in itself but rather preparation for political campaigning and mobilisation after the election.

Our democratic demands should include:

We are for: