As our ConstitutionUK Constitutional Convention approaches, Professor Bill Kissane considers the questions of constitutional change, identity and public identity in the UK today

Kissane, Bill

LSE Research Online

7/5/2017 Constitution UK | Constitution UKhttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/constitutionuk/2015/04/20/does-engaging-the-public-in-the-constitutional-process-depend-on-the-existence-of-a-constitutional-ide… 1/2Does engaging the public in the constitutional process depend on theexistence of a ‘constitutional identity’? As our ConstitutionUK Constitutional Convention approaches, Professor Bill Kissane considers thequestions of constitutional change, identity and public identity in the UK today. When contemplating the Constitutional Convention consider one aspect of the UK’s constitutionalculture that might bedevil its work. The recent attempt to reform the ‘first past the post’ electoralsystem revealed the difficulty politicians have in engaging the public with a reform agenda. When theSelect Committee on Constitutional and Political Reform explored the case for a written constitution,this was one concern. The 2014 referendum on Scottish independence showed that constitutionalchoices can engage people in a meaningful way. Yet the rest of the UK were not similarly engaged.Does the ability to engage the public depend on the existence of ‘constitutional identity’? The ideathat constitutions – like persons or states – have identities, has been developed most notably by GaryJacobsohn whose (2010) work focuses on post-revolutionary states such as India, Ireland and Israel.The question cannot be avoided when a state decides that there are principles so fundamental thatthey ought to be protected from legal amendment. Yet Jacobsohn focussed on relatively new statesthat were engaged in debates about their founding values when they adopted their constitutions. Forthe UK the question is whether a society that has not experienced a revolutionary break can havesuch an identity? Moreover, a conservative could argue that the idea of personal identity presupposesabove all continuity over time, and its constitutional analogue requires – as a prior condition – aconstitutional culture. If such a culture is valuable, change to its core values is not advisable.What if necessity also proves to be the mother of invention in this field? In ‘The Rise of WorldConstitutionalism’ Bruce Ackerman (1997) made the case that constitutional documents do not simplyprovide a framework for government; they are symbolic milestones in the life of a nation. Legalsymbolism and the use of referendums to legitimate constitutional changes have certainly becomemore important in the UK. Moreover, many younger voters can only be engaged in constitutionalpolitics through a cultural prism. Yet there has been a turn away from the cultural turn. Constitutionalcontroversies have followed the eurozone crisis in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, Iceland,Ireland, and Spain: the issues are about governance. In Britain too changes in the party system pose7/5/2017 Constitution UK | Constitution UKhttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/constitutionuk/2015/04/20/does-engaging-the-public-in-the-constitutional-process-depend-on-the-existence-of-a-constitutional-ide… 2/2April 20th, 2015 | General | 0 Commentsquestions about the framework of government which require more than symbolic gestures. It is atestimony to their complexity that two staples of the nineteenth century constitutional diet – thebalance of power between parliaments and their executives, and the relationship between central andregional government – have become entwined in a decisive way. The prospect of the DUP or theSNP having the power to break minority governments after the May election provides an ugly focusfor identity politics, and may galvanise interest in serious constitutional change. Then think ofAckerman’s other thesis about constitutional moments; major change originating not in newbeginnings but in constitutional failure.___________________Bill Kissane has been teaching politics at the Government Department of the LSEsince 1999. This article gives the views of the authors, and not the position of ConstitutionUK, norof the London School of Economics. References:Ackerman, Bruce, 1997. ‘The Rise of World Constitutionalism’. Faculty Scholarship Series. Paper129. Yale Law School.Jacobsohn, Gary 2010. Constitutional Identity. Harvard University Press.

Does engaging the public in the constitutional process depend on the existence of a ‘constitutional identity’?

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

LSE Research Online