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Finer’s Sixth Constitution: The Continuing Debate on a Written Document for Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Geraint Parry
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Extract

It is a Recurrent Theme of Comments on Sammy Finer's writing that, like his talk, it dazzled. Perhaps, as he himself said of his Compurutiue Government text compared to his own lectures, the written version might be ‘less picturesque and Mediterranean’ but it could still enliven the most apparently dull topics within political science. Thus it may seem curious to draw attention to a work of his which betrays fewer of these qualities. The work is Five constitutions published in 1979.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 29 , Issue 5 , 01 December 1994 , pp. 652 - 675
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1994

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References

1 Finer, S. E., Five Constitutions, Harvester/Humanities Press, Brighton/ Atlantic Highlands, NJ, 1979, p. 16.Google Scholar

2 ibid., p. 15.

3 Foley, M., The Silence of Constitutions, London, Routledge, 1989.Google Scholar

4 Neumann, Franz, The Democratic and the Authoritarian State, New York, Free Press, 1957, pp. 22–68.Google Scholar

5 Elster, Jon, ‘Introduction’ in Elster, J. and Slagstad, R. (eds), Constitutionalism and Democracy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1988, p. 6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar This is a valuable collection of essays with notable contributions especially from Elster, Stephen Holmes and Bruce Ackerman. See also W. F. Murphy, ‘Constitutions, Constitutionalism and Democracy’ in Greenberg, D., et al. (eds), Constitutionalism and Democracy: Transitions in the Contemporary World, New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1993.Google Scholar

6 Finer, Five Constitutions, p. 21.

7 For an excellent discussion see Stephen Holmes, ‘Precommitment and the Paradox of Democracy’ in J. Elster and R. Slagstad, op. cit, pp. 195–240.

8 Paine, T., Rights of Man, Part I, Collins, H., (ed.), Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1969, pp. 93–4.Google Scholar

9 See the distinctions drawn in his critique of neutrality by Raz, Joseph, The Morality of Freedom, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1986, pp. 112–3.Google Scholar

10 Ely, J., Democracy and Distrust: A Theory of Judicial Review, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Pess, 1980.Google Scholar

11 Ely, op. cit., especially pp. 73–104.

12 T. Paine, The Rights of Man.

13 See Stephen Holmes, ‘Precommitment and the Paradox of Democracy’ in J. Elster and R. Slagstad (eds), op. cit. See also Ackerman, B., Social Justice and the Liberal State, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1980.Google Scholar

14 Raz, op. cit, pp. 114–24.

15 Ackerman, op. cit, p. 310.

16 Hailsham, Lord, The Dilemma of Democracy, London, Collins, 1978.Google Scholar

17 Washington DC, American Enterprise Institute, 1980.

18 See P. Norton, ‘In Defence of the Constitution: A Riposte to the Radicals’ in Norton, P. (ed.) New Directions in British Politics? Essays on the Evolving Constitution, Aldershot, Edward Elgar, 1991, pp. 145–72.Google Scholar

19 Johnson, N., In Search of the Constitution: Reflections on State and Society in Britain, Oxford, Pergamon, 1977.Google Scholar Mount, F., The British Constitution Now, London, Heinemann, 1992.Google Scholar Vibert, F., ‘Constitutional Reform in the United Kingdom: An Incremental Agenda’ in Vibert, F. (ed.), Britain’s Constitutional Future, London, Institute of Economic Affairs, 1991.Google Scholar Benn, T. and Hood, A., Common Sense: A New Constitution for Britain, London, Hutchinson, 1993.Google Scholar

20 McAuslan, P. and McEldowney, J. F., ‘Legitimacy and the Constitution: The Dissonance Between Theory and Practice’, in McAuslan, P. and Eldowney, J. F. (eds), Law, Legitimacy and the Constitution: Essays marking the Centenary of Dicey’s Law of the Constitution, London, Sweet & Maxwell, 1985.Google Scholar

21 Vibert op. cit., p. 24.

22 F. Mount, op. cit., p. ix.

23 Oakeshott, M., On Human Conduct, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1975, pp. 158, 182.Google Scholar

24 Oakeshott, op. cit., p. 184.

25 S. E. Finer, The Changing British Party System, pp. 189–231.

26 Alleged remark of US Congressman on hearing British system praised, quoted by Finer, Five Constitutions, p. 14.

27 Appropriately in the context of work dedicated to the memory of a great Manchester teacher I should like to acknowledge the benefit of discussions of this section of the article with Jason Hughes, a recent graduate of the School of Politics and Modern History.

28 The text is most conveniently reprinted in T. Benn and A. Hood, op. cit.

29 Benn and Hood, op. cit., p. 78.

30 Benn and Hood, op. cit, p. 95.

31 On the importance of the principle of ‘compossibility’ to any system of rights see Steiner, Hillel, An Essay on Rights, Oxford, Black well, 1994, pp. 2–5, 86–101.Google Scholar

32 Vibert, op. cit., p. 36.

33 ibid., p. 29.

34 ibid., p. 33.

35 Institute for Public Policy Research, The Constitution of the United Kingdom, London, IPPR, 1991.

36 On judicial independence and the rule of law see de, G. Walker, Q., The Rule of Law. Foundation of Constitutional Democracy, Melbourne, University of Melbourne Press, 1988.Google Scholar

37 Dworkin, R., A Bill of Rights for Britain, London, Chatto & Windus, 1990, pp. 45–51.Google Scholar

38 Dworkin op. cit., pp. 51–6.

39 IPPR, op. cit, p. 108.

40 See Hirst, P., Associative Democracy: New Forms of Economic and Social Governance, Oxford, Polity Press, 1994;Google Scholar Burnheim, J., Is Democracy Possible?, Oxford, Polity Press, 1985;Google Scholar Fishkin, J., Democracy and Deliberation, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1991.Google Scholar

41 See Radnitzky, G., The Social Market an the Constitution of Liberty in Vibert, F. (ed.), Britain’s Constitutional Future, London, IEA, 1991, pp. 1–13.Google Scholar

42 Barnett, A. et al, Debating the Constitution: New Perspectives on Constitutional Reform, Oxford, Polity Press, 1993.Google Scholar

43 Benn and Hood, op. cit., pp. 77–8.

44 Radnitzky op. cit., p. 9.

45 See F. Mount, op. cit., pp. 226–33.

46 See the contribution by Vernon Bodganor to this issue.

47 Harden, I. and Lewis, N., The Noble Lie: The British Constitution and the Rule of Law, London, Hutchinson, 1988, pp. 223–312.Google Scholar

48 F. Mount, op. cit., p. 266.

49 Finer, op. cit., p. 231.