Albert Venn Dicey: Writings on Democracy and the Referendum

What are the limits to parliamentary sovereignty? When should the people be able to vote directly on issues? The constitutional theorist Albert Venn Dicey (1835–1922) was a cogent advocate of the referendum. While his enthusiasm for the institution was widely acknowledged in his own day, thereafter this dimension of his career has been largely neglected. This fall into obscurity is partly explained by the fact that Dicey never collected his writings on referendums into a single volume. Consequently, during the prolonged crisis over Brexit, the implications of Dicey's thought were unclear, despite his standing as a foundational figure in British constitutional law. This timely modern edition brings together Dicey's sophisticated and intricate writings on the referendum, and it covers his attempts to construct a credible theory of democracy on a new intellectual and institutional basis. An original scholarly introduction analyzes Dicey's thought in light of its contemporary context.

Gregory Conti is Assistant Professor of Politics at Princeton University. He is the author of Parliament the Mirror of the Nation: Representation, Deliberation, and Democracy in Victorian Britain (Cambridge University Press, 2019) as well as numerous articles about the history of liberalism, democratic theory, political representation, toleration, and freedom of speech.