Toward a historical materialist account of British constitutional change

Abstract This article argues that British constitutional reforms are historically specific expressions of the mediation of significant antagonisms between competing social forces and/or shifts in the modalities of capitalism, the aim of which is to ensure the conditions for continuing accumulation. While most conventional theories of constitutional reform recognize the heteronomous nature of law reform as responding to extra-legal or economic forces, this article, drawing on a resurgent Marxist turn in legal studies, examines how historical materialist accounts might inform understandings of constitutional development. Outlining, but ultimately rejecting, an economistic orthodox Marxist reading of law, this article instead conceptualizes constitutions as a “moment” in the contradictory totality of capitalist social relations. Arguing that reforms to the British constitution are often preceded by significant social antagonisms, the article attempts to explain constitutional change as the capitalist state’s mediation of such antagonisms to secure the future conditions for capital accumulation, offering a reappraisal of the lead-up to and creation of the Parliament Act 1911 as an example.