There has been a lot of commotion in the last years about the instability of liberal democracies, and particularly established democracies which have made a considerable amount of people question their validity and efficacy. A particularly interesting example of this is the recent resignation of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Keir Starmer won a very large parliamentary majority on July 4th 2024, so what made him resign and how is this related to the democratic system in the UK? This recent event is not an isolated one because the political climate in the United Kingdom has been conflictual, fragmented and increasingly disreputable regarding parties and their reliability. I think that his plummeting polls and election losses came as a result of the Labour Party’s inability to change conservative policies, technocratic politics and recent scandals related to his figure. 

Starmer became the leader of the Labour Party following the aftermath of Jeremy Corbyn’s defeat in 2019. He won 56.2% of the votes with the promise to rebuild the Labour Party’s credibility and broaden its electoral appeal. In an effort to combat the division between the Conservative and Labour Party, he moved toward the political center, which would win the party’s lost voters back. In the 14 years of Conservative led government, there was a lot of dissatisfaction throughout the population concerning high costs of living, unsuccessful economic management especially in public services and immigration policy. However, these issues are present even in well established democracies; the issue with the British political system was that people had lost trust in their governing abilities and their transparency. According to Levitsky and Ziblatt, institutional forbearance, that is restraining from using every legal power available to them if it undermines democratic competition, is important in maintaining democracy. In this context, the period of Brexit showed how the government used their legal powers to prorogue Parliament even though the courts found it unlawful. This move created precedent, and even though Starmer promised a change in political culture, he retained a lot of tools set in place by the Conservatives. The point is that it is easy to promise change when you’re in opposition, it is even easy to believe in your party’s capacity to change structures, but it is tempting to use legal tools that secure your position in power, even if it means frustrating Parliament and its ability to solve problems.

Starmer did not dismantle the framework when he won in 2024. The government actually supported additional legislation regarding the protest legislation in 2022 where the power of police and protest related offenses were seen as a violation of civil rights even if they were passed by Parliament. These laws formally preserve the right to peaceful assembly, while legally placing a lot of restrictions using police forces and the court. This example relates to Ozan Varol’s stealth authoritarianism, where the government uses ordinary democratic laws and institutions to undermine democratic norms. Being in government at a conflictual time both for parties and the general public, makes governing risky and harder. Of course, it is more difficult to govern if there is parliamentary blockage from opposition and popular backlash from upset citizens. These conditions give rulers incentives to stabilize their positions while they are in power, so that their risk of losing in the following elections is lower. However, this can have an adverse effect, where popular backlash is so high that some rulers, like in the case of Starmer, are forced to resign because of the public’s ability to vote against them. This means that while the UK is seen as an ineffective, or technocratic government, the power of elections holds. Nonetheless, it is important to know that democratic erosion is incremental and slow, meaning that steps toward authoritarianism can also affect the validity of the elections. 

A UCL polling showed that people’s perception that Starmer was disconnected from the ordinary people has doubled since he got to office. During his premiership he focused on rational problem-solving and competent administration over responsiveness to popular preferences. Sheri Berman says that technocracies focus on giving authority to people who are capable of efficient solutions, but they undermine the democratic norms of citizen representation and social interest. If the ruling government is seen as being disengaged from the public or “out of touch” as the poll says, it decreases the people’s trust that the government is doing a good job at representation. This type of government actually leaves space for populist figures to increase the gap between government and public even more, making leaders like Starmer less popular even within the Labour Party. The rise of populist figures is noticeable even in the UK, with figures like Nigel Farage who emphasize the importance of immigration as a pressing issue in the public sphere, thereby positioning himself as a “representative of the people”. It is important to consider that the resignation of Keir Starmer has come as a result of intersecting issues not just regarding policy and popularity, but also his relation to Peter Mandelson and his stances on Gaza which the younger constituency opposed heavily. 

The resignation of Keir Starmer shows that liberal democracies are having difficulties maintaining their status not only within governments, but also within parties. The UK has shown to be efficient in changing leaders, meaning its constitutional machine functions as intended, but this has not changed the country’s economic and social standing. The resignation of leaders indicates instability, and a volatile political environment which has given rise to both left and right populist figures and parties. This means that the established parties (particularly Western countries), are weaker and they create political cleavage for populist figures to gain more following as the people abandon their established parties. These sudden changes give rise to bigger questions like: Who can fix the system and how do we find them?