ABSTRACT
The idea of conducting a democratic audit of a country’s public life and institutions is a novel one, and fraught with difficulties. Our starting point has been the widespread sense of unease among both the public and political elites about the quality of government and public life in the UK and the deteriorating relationship between the people and their government. This unease is long-standing and cumulative. The public now tend to believe that their country is becoming less democratic; they want more power than they now have between elections; and they have lost confidence and trust in elected politicians (Rowntree Reform Trust 1991-96; Channel 4 1994). There has been a broad gap in the 1990s between people’s satisfaction with their own lives and with public life, politics and democracy in Britain (Whiteley et al. 1998).
