How Language Works in Politics : The Impact of Vague Legislation on Policy

There were more colons used in legislation in 2015 than there were words enacted in 1900. Using analysis from machine readings of all legislation enacted between 1900 and 2015, this book discusses the social impact of increasingly elastic legislative language on the contemporary workings of the British constitution. The hot-button debates of our time — from immigration to European integration, to the creeping power of judges — have, at their core, battles over what policy instructions are authoritative. The book encourages readers to connect the dots of British statecraft, and to understand how, exactly, public demands are transferred into laws that are then implemented with greater and lesser degrees of success. Crucially, it shows that vague legislation has a tremendous impact on policy delivery, disproportionately affecting the weakest, in areas including immigration, homelessness and anti-discrimination. How Language Works in Politics is rooted in a massive research project: Matt Williams has used machine reading to study every single section of legislation enacted in the United Kingdom between 1900 and 2015. The resulting trove of data allows Williams to explore the effects of vague legislation on powers, duties, and rights in the making of policy around immigration, homelessness, and anti-discrimination. The book assesses the ways that Parliament has attempted to clarify its intent with law on human rights, freedom of information, and equality, and argues that changes to legislative language over the years, especially the increasing use of vague semantic and pragmatic parts of speech, have led to increasingly vague and ineffective legislation. Using analysis from machine readings of all legislation enacted between 1900 and 2015, this text discusses the social impact increasingly elastic legislative language on the contemporary workings of the British constitution