Reforming the Constitution Debates in Twentieth-Century Britain

This collection takes as its subject how and why the British constitution developed during the course of the 20th century. In chapters that analyse in detail the evolution of various aspects of the constitution, this work explores debates about how the constitution ought to operate and the political goods it ought to secure among politicians, jurists and academics. In addition, it looks at the influence of political parties, nationalism, social and economic change, European integration, and the contests in over particular reforms in Parliament, courts, media and on the hustings.
This book examines the way and extent to which constitutional practice elsewhere has shaped the debates in Britain - whether the challenges posed by the emission of a colonial empire, developments in the USA and the Commonwealth, or the influence of European practice of devices, such as the European Convention on Human Rights. In the process it provides a comprehensive account of the continual evolution of the British constitution from secrecy to citizenship, and of the way in which this constitution mediated the relationship between the British state and people in the 20th century.

Introduction; Chapter 1 ‘Efficiency with Freedom’? Debates about the British Constitution in the Twentieth Century, Peter Catterall; Chapter 2 The Decline and Rise of Radicalism: Political Part ies and Reform in the Twentieth Century, Wolfram Kaiser; Chapter 3 Constitutional Law Reform: Inside the Motor, Joe Jacob; Chapter 4 House of Lords and Monarchy: British Majoritarian Democracy and the Current Reform Debate about its Pre-Democratic Institutions, André Kaiser; Chapter 5 The Politics of Electoral Reform since 1885, Peter Catterall; Chapter 6 Transforming Relations of Gender: The Feminist Project of Societal Reform in Turn-of-the-Century Britain, Ulrike Walton-Jordan, Jutta Schwarzkopf; Chapter 7 The Concept of Citizenship in Twentieth-Century Britain: Analysing Contexts of Development, Eugenia Low; Chapter 8 ‘Home Rule All Round’: Experiments in Regionalising Great Britain, 1886–1914, Elfie Rembold; Chapter 9 Territorial Politics and Change in Britain, James Mitchell; Chapter 10 The British State and Northern Ireland: Can the National Question be Reformed?, Brian Girvin;

Peter Catterall, Wolfram Kaiser, Ulrike Walton-Jordan