,
16 tweets,
5 min read
Read on Twitter
To many, Brexit is abt “Taking Back Control,” a legitimate perspective in times of increasing interdependence and growth of int'l institutions. However, the undertone is often that control has been relinquished *without good reason.*
Here’s the political science perspective: The flipside of democratic control, #responsiveness, can be policy instability. If majoritarian decisions can always b overturned, some policies r dysfunctional bc actors won't investments (financial or social) necessary to make it work.
The prime example usually given for a policy that requires a certain degree of policy stability to work is monetary policy. Without the insulation of monetary decisions, there's a good chance of excessive inflation (among other problems.
How do #democracies achieve policy stability? There are at a minimum three ways: 1) #delegation, 2) veto players, and 3) #disenfranchisement.
Political scientists typically describe the EU as an institution that provides policy stability through a combination of 1) and 2).
The member states delegate authority to the EU as they used to delegate authority to national agencies. At the same time, the number of actors required to change this arrangement is so high that it is very difficult to do, and so a policy becomes “locked in” at the EU level.
Coming back to the U.K., what would happen if it “took back control”? The UK doesn't have a written institution and has fewer veto players than many of its European counterpart, which makes it in principle more responsive to the preferences of its citizens.
At the same time, it is also more likely in the UK context than in other polities that one government's policies are overturned by the next one.
In this context, how will the UK achieve policy stability, the long horizon necessary to realize a (#socialist or #libertarian) vision for a UK post Brexit?
The first post-Brexit government wd have 2 find alternative 2 the policy stability that the UK presently derives from its EU membership. To realize its vision, it would yet again hv 2 take away control from the citizens and, thus, from future governments with different visions.
In this post-Brexit Britain, a new constitutional battle would ensue in which governments revert to delegation and the disenfranchisement of alternative viewpoints in order to “lock-in” their preferred vision.
Given the social and geographical polarization of the UK, this is going to be a nasty struggle that will define UK politics for decades to come.
So unless Brexit is cancelled or softened, don’t expect politics to return to normal after Brexit. It won’t.
cc: @simonjhix @rdanielkelemen @jonworth @jrhopkin @Erik_Jones_SAIS @stefwalter__ and others I forgot.
And don’t buy the snake oil of libertarian or social Brexiters, for they can't tell you how to realize their long-term vision of post-Brexit Britain can be achieved in this polarized society without taking away control from those who don't share this vision.
