Constitution Unit publishes new briefings on constitutional principles and the health of democracy

The Constitution Unit has today published new and updated briefings as part of its Constitutional Principles and the Health of Democracy project.

The project aims to inform debate about UK democracy and constitutional change. It also seeks to promote the importance of maintaining constitutional and democratic standards.

The new and updated briefings are available as webpages on the Constitution Unit's website. The three new briefings are additionally being posted on the Unit's blog. Every briefing is also available in printable PDF format.

The briefings are written by the Constitution Unit's in-house team, in partnership with external experts. They cover topics from the constitutional principles that underpin democracy to the role of citizens' assemblies.

The three new briefings are about:

• Free and fair elections
• The territorial constitution
• Northern Ireland politics

And the newly updated briefings cover:

• Protecting constitutional principles
• Democratic backsliding
• Checks and balances
• The rule of law
• Parliamentary scrutiny
• House of Commons procedure
• Citizens' assemblies
• Standards in public life
• Constitutional regulators
• The civil service
• Public appointments
• Constitutional monarchy
• Parliamentary oversight of international agreements
• The role of the media in democracies
• Healthy political discourse

The Constitution Unit has been publishing briefings on constitutional principles and the health of democracy since 2022. The briefings are routinely shared with policy-makers and have also proved remarkably popular with the public; those published on the Unit’s blog have over 200,000 combined views.

Key links:

• The Constitution Unit – visit our website.
• Constitution Unit briefings – browse the briefings and read their full titles.
• Constitutional Principles and the Health of Democracy – find out more about the project.