Populist-inflected governance in a mature democracy: Bureaucratic de-legitimation and executive control in the United Kingdom (2019–2024)

IMPACTThis article is of direct practical relevance to UK policy-makers and officials, including elected politicians, senior civil servants, regulators, parliamentary staff and practitioners working in relevant accountability institutions. It shows how populist and anti-democratic forces can influence governance, even in a mature democracy like the UK: attacks on professional advice, pressure on formally independent bodies, and attempts to force policy through legal or administrative obstacles. By examining anti-civil service ‘blob’ rhetoric, reforms to regulators, and the Rwanda asylum scheme, the article offers practitioners a framework for recognizing these dynamics as they emerge. For politicians and policy-makers, it highlights the risks of treating bureaucratic resistance, legal constraint, or regulatory independence as politically motivated obstruction. For officials and campaigners, it identifies where safeguards may be weakest. Its real-world value lies in helping actors who support democratic governance preserve and strengthen mediating democratic institutions, including in other national and sub-national contexts.