Elections and democracy Constitution Rule of law Gina Miller 1 (2017) Gina Miller 11 (2019) Risks to Rule of law Democracy and its institutions - majority voting bloc oppresses a minority e.g. African Americans in the segregation era - Elections are no guarantee of liberal values and political stability; electoral violence in Kenya. New/incomplete democracies e.g. breakup of Yugoslavia - Future for china- from one party to. - Constitution: set of rules, written and unwritten. Seeks to establish duties, powers and functions of various government. - Purpose: bring stability, order and predictability of the workings of government, protect individuals from state - Can be classified on basis of the their rule, how easily it can be changed, the degree to which their rules is observed in practice - Work in certain conditions: when they correspond to and are supported by political culture - Separation of law from politics is achieved through attempts to make judiciary independent and impartial. Judicial independence is threatened by close involvement of political bodies. - Judge imposes meaning of law, cant be involved in policy process - English constitution praised in the 18th century for its separation of powers (executive, legislative, judicial) - Constitution rely on the legal system - Courts are there to defend individuals against state/representatives - Did the government need an act of parliament to trigger EU withdrawal after the referendum? - Theresa May's government argued it wasn't necessary because of 'Royal prerogative' - Gina Miller and her lawyers argued act of parliament necessary because EU withdrawal changes UK law and UK residents' rights - Supreme Court ruled against government 8 -3 - Can government suspend parliament and for how long - Boris argues is part of Royal prerogative - Miller and her lawyers argue government cannot suspend parliament without a good reason - Supreme Court would against government 11- 0 - Checks and balances provide institutional safeguards for the functioning of democracy - But the constitution also depends on people who exercise different functions and public support for them - Courts can lose public confidence if seen as politicized - Accusing legal system of political bias is a common tactic of Authoritarian leaders I .e. attack institution not the decisions - Aims to weaken support for independent institutions