David Beetham

Oligarchy of the unelected December 2011
David Beetham examines the growing dominance of unaccountable corporate and financial interests

Best left unsaid January 2010
David Beetham, Stuart Weir and Stuart Wilks-Heeg write down our unwritten and undemocratic constitution

The party isn’t over May 2009
'When the bad combine, the good must associate,' wrote the arch-individualist Edmund Burke. David Beetham considers the continuing need for a political party of the left

Wind of change November 2008
The contrast between the condition of party and electoral democracy in the US and the UK is palpable, says David Beetham

The left’s unlikely ally August 2008
David Davis's by-election campaign against 42-day detention tapped into a widespread feeling that our traditional liberties are under threat from a much distrusted political class, says David Beetham. But don't hold your breath for a more liberal Conservative administration

What is Britishness? Citizenship, values and identity June 2008
The legacy of the British state militates against democratic citizenship, says David Beetham. Any discussion of 'Britishness' that ignores this reality is bound to be incomplete

Democratic deficits December 2007
Gordon Brown is urging a debate on Britishness. But Britain is an essentially imperial project sustained today by subservience to the US, argues David Beetham, and judging by the new green paper on governance a democratic Britain is not about to be born

Lord Hutton and all that October 2003
Anyone who comments on the proceedings of the Hutton Inquiry, and the mountain of documentation it has produced, is in danger of succumbing to the same loss of a sense of proportion that the inquiry itself represents. So, to keep things in perspective I think it would be useful to recall some basic facts.

The warfare state June 2003
Now that the fog of war has lifted and the post-war triumphalism has proved short-lived, it is time to assess the implications of Blair's drive to war for British democracy writes David Beetham

In for the count November 1998
Almost any system is more democratic, more empowering and more representative than that used in British general elections. We need to grasp the rare opportunity to campaign for change, says David Beetham