The Will of the People_ Winston Churchill and Parliamentary Democracy - Martin Gilbert [0]
persistent will of the people. All this idea of a group of
supermen and super-planners … making the masses
of the people do what they think is good for them, without
any check or correction, is a violation of democracy.”
—Winston S. Churchill, House of Commons,
11 November 1947
THE CHURCHILL BIOGRAPHY
Volumes by Martin Gilbert
Volume III: “The Challenge of War” 1914–1916
Document Volume III: (in two parts)
Volume IV: “World in Torment” 1917–1922
Document Volume IV: (in three parts)
Volume V: “Profit of Truth” 1922–1939
Document Volume V: “The Exchequer Years” 1922–1929
Document Volume V: “The Wilderness Years” 1929–1935
Document Volume V: “The Coming of War” 1936–1939
Volume VI: “Finest Hour” 1939–1941
The Churchill War Papers, Document Volume 1:
“At the Admiralty” September 1939–May 1940
The Churchill War Papers, Document Volume 2:
“Never Surrender” May–December 1940 The
Churchill War Papers, Document Volume 3:
“1941: The Ever-Widening War”
Volume VII: “Road to Victory” 1941–1945 Volume VIII: “Never Despair” 1945–1965
Churchill: A Life
Churchill: A Photographic Portrait
Churchill’s Political Philosophy
Continue to Pester, Nag and Bite: Churchill’s War Leadership
CONTENTS
1. First Steps 1
2. The Parliamentary Arena
3. The Challenge of Legislation
4. The Parliamentary Scene in War and Reconstruction
5. The Democratic Process Outside and Inside Parliament
6. At Loggerheads with Parliament
7. Parliament in Time of Total War
8. Setbacks, Recovery and an Enduring Faith
Maps
Churchill’s Whitehall
Places in Britain mentioned in this book
Acknowledgements and Note on Sources
1
First Steps
Parliamentary democracy is an easy concept to grasp but a difficult one to sustain. Throughout the twentieth century, and into our present twenty-first century, the institutions and ideals of parliamentary democracy have been under continual threat. The power of totalitarian regimes to dominate their own people is—and remains—attractive to those who wish to control the life of a nation without checks and balances.
In Europe, for many decades of the twentieth century, Communism, Fascism and Nazism ruled through small elites, backed by secret police to ensure their dominance. An independent judiciary and a free press were both anathema to the rulers. In the twenty-first century, these democratic values, which are universal in their implications for the quality of life and fulfilment of each person on the planet, are still under threat in many lands.
Dictatorships of one form or another continue to control their people in many of the countries of the United Nations. The world’s most populous country, China, is a closed society. Fundamentalist Islamic nations adhere to anti-democratic norms. The rule of law and the rights of the individual are upheld in only a minority of the countries on the globe. Yet these principles have their champions everywhere, even in prison camps and under house arrest.
Parliamentary democracy celebrates diversity and dissent. It seeks to exclude no one from the benefits and protections of citizenship. Today, as in every decade in the past, its basic tenets are under threat: the male and female electoral franchise, the cut and thrust of parliamentary debate, the value of peaceful public criticism and opposition, the evolution of practical and egalitarian legislation, and, above all, the belief in impartial justice and the right of every adult citizen to determine his or her own destiny. The twin pillars of parliamentary democracy are the secret ballot and open debate.
More than a hundred years ago, this same system of parliamentary democracy, facing similar threats as it does today, including the apathy of those who are its beneficiaries, was championed by Winston Churchill. He was the scion not only of an aristocratic British lineage but also, on his mother’s side, of an American heritage. He was only twenty-five years old when he first entered Parliament and eighty-nine when he left it.
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