Suchergebnisse

The Employment Acts of 1980 and 1982 and the Trade Union Act of 1984; Great Britain.

"A monetary policy that would break the coercive power of the unions by producing extensive and protracted unemployment must be excluded, for it would be politically and socially fatal. But if we do not succeed in curbing union power at its source, the unions will soon be faced with a demand for measures that will be much more distasteful to individual workers, if not the union leaders, than the submission of the unions to the rule of law: the clamor will soon be either for the fixing of wages by governments for the complete abolition of the unions."F. A. Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty

It is sometimes argued that what helps to limit the political influence exercised by elected representatives in the United Kingdom on behalf of those they represent is the inability of MPs to 'command the power of the executive'. Some MPs, however, are also members of the Government, and do command the power of the executive. This article examines the circumstances in which a fusion of constituency interest and executive power may occur. It concludes that as regards individual grievances, 'constituency specific' policy decisions, and matters of 'high policy' with a particular impact on their own constituencies, a variety of safeguards and constraints considerably restricts, if it does not eliminate entirely, the scope for constituency-motivated influence on Ministerial decisions.