The Democratic Audit of the United Kingdom

The Democratic Audit was set up in 1993 to assess the quality of democracy and political freedom in the United Kingdom. Until recently it was a research unit of the Centre and is now an independent research organisation under a board on which Essex academics play a significant role.

To date, three audits of the United Kingdom have been carried out:

  1. The Three Pillars of Liberty by Francesca Klug, Keir Starmer and Stuart Weir (Routledge, 1997), audits Britain's arrangements for protecting political rights and civil freedoms.
     
  2. Political Power and Democratic Control in Britain by Stuart Weir and David Beetham (Routledge, 1999), analyses the extensive and flexible powers of the UK executive.
     
  3. Democracy Under Blair by David Beetham, Ian Byrne, Pauline Ngan and Stuart Weir (Politico's, 2002), examines whether Britain has become more or less democratic under the premiership of Tony Blair. It finds that while the Blair Government has introduced major reforms, like devolution and the Human Rights Act, it has also employed the overweening powers of the British executive to make central government even more powerful. 
     

Further papers and publications

Democratic Audit also carries out research into topical democratic and human rights issues. Its latest work, Unequal Britain: the Human Rights Route to Social Justice, was published by Politicos on 4th September 2006. This book argues the case for introducing economic, social and cultural rights into the UK. 

In 2005, we collaborated with the Federal and One World Trusts on a pioneering study of the lack of accountability in the making of the UKs foreign, trade and aid policies (Not in Our Name, Donnelly, D, et al, Politicos, 2005). The Audit has also published two reports on the British National Party assessing its electoral appeal and exposing its racist and fascist tendencies. The Audit published The Rules of the Game, a scoping report on the UKs counter terrorist laws in 2005, and will publish a second full report in autumn 2006.

Since 1992, the Audit has published 16 reports on other democratic matters, including path-breaking studies of the quango state and the UK electoral system. Audit publications have been widely acclaimed and used by policy-makers and others. Professor Weir, the Audit Director, and Professor Beetham, the Associate Director, developed its pioneering methodology for democracy assessment for use universally with the Stockholm-based Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) and the Human Rights Centre, under Dr Todd Landman, has now entered into partnership with IDEA to bring this work up to date and spread its use around the world. The Audit draws not only on scholars from the University of Essex in its researches, but also academics from other universities, lawyers and journalists.

 

Democratic AuditMore information

For more information on the Democratic Audit, please visit its website Democratic Audit