This is a podcast from the archives of the BBC Reith Lectures.

This lecture in the series Government and the Governed, given by Douglas Was, was originally broadcast in 1983.

On the 13th of July this year, the House of Commons voted by large majorities not to reintroduce capital punishment.

Market research surveys at the time, however,

showed that the mass of public opinion was in favour of restoration.

The wide gap between the popular preference

and the preference of our elected representatives

is something which should trouble us all.

It is symptomatic of some malfunctioning of the democratic process. It does not seem to me to be

satisfactory, either to say that the representatives should have deferred to the wishes of those they

represent, or to claim that they need take no account of their constituents' views, that their duty,

once elected, is simply to obey their own conscience.

We need to ask ourselves why there's such a gap between the public and its representatives on this as indeed on other issues.

The gap must result from the different perceptions each of them has of where the public interest lies,

and those perceptions differ in part at any rate

because of differences

in the quality of the debate and differences in the information available. Raising the quality

of public debate and providing the public with the material on which to make an informed

judgment on matters of public policy are two major requirements, if we're to make the government

process operate efficiently and responsibly.

I referred a moment ago to the public interest. It's a phrase I rarely use,

for it conveys the dubious impression that there is some national interest

...