ABSTRACT
During the two decades which have elapsed since the end of World War II, the less sophisticated sections of public opinion in Britain, urged on by constitutional theorists both at home and abroad, have accelerated their efforts to secure the export of the ‘Westminster Model’ to a progressively increasing number of formerly dependent territories. Representative parliamentary democracy as practised at Westminster became almost synonymous with independence. A more useful distinction can be made between those parts of the Commonwealth to which the ‘Westminster Model’ went as ‘accompanied baggage’ and those parts to which it was sent as an ‘export’. In the constitutional arrangements which prevail in Britain, as indeed in the constitutional arrangements of other member states of the Commonwealth which have derived their inspiration from the ‘Westminster Model’, the relationships between the Executive and the Civil Service and Parliament are governed more by ‘conventions’ and less by ‘legislation’ than any other part of these arrangements.
