ABSTRACT
Political control by the executive of legislative process, and particularly control of the extent to which legislative authority is retained in its hands, is complete, and explains predominance of delegated legislation in present-day Britain more satisfactorily than the more formal, and usual, explanations in terms of technicality of subject matter of Statutory Instruments (although much of it is technical). Ministers like to retain for themselves a considerable area of manoeuvre, particularly in relation to their advisory agencies and the department’s clientele of pressure groups; extensive enabling clauses in parent acts procure this. Most pressure groups are organized to bring influence to bear at the level of the departments, and particularly at stage of administrative policy-making—a recognition of the structure of governmental power in Britain. The pep study of advisory committees referred to earlier regards the system of which they are part, together with informal consultation, as a necessary counter-system to popular democracy as a method of policy-making in some spheres.
