ABSTRACT
An overview of the regulation of governmental power Although administrative law primarily concerns the legal regulation of the exercise of public power by governmental bodies, it also embraces non-legal controls outside
the strict court system. In general terms, government power is regulated in the following ways:
(i) Public pressure – Government is infl uenced by public pressure and may therefore react to public opinion (for example, the replacement of the controversial community charge ‘the poll tax’ with the council tax by virtue of the Local Government Finance Act 1992). Sometimes by reacting to public opinion, the government may act illegally (see ex parte Venables and Thompson (1997) at section 5.7.8 where the Home Secretary acted unlawfully in taking into account public concern regarding the length of Venables and Thompson’s detention for killing James Bulger). Ultimately, of course, governments (or more accurately, MPs in the government) need to seek re-election every fi ve years and obtain the support of the electorate (see the notion of political sovereignty at section 7.2.2).
