Are there too many MHKs?

Given that there are, pending the general election, currently no MHKs, it might be a good moment to think about this.

A fundamental challenge for small democracies is striking the balance between democratic legitimacy for all those exercising governance power, avoiding the concentration of power in a small number of hands, and avoiding paying for a disproportionately large number of people to exercise that power.

Sutton has argued that ‘in small societies it is relatively easy for a determined, unscrupulous, individual … to dominate all or most aspects of the country’s life’. With the demise of the plenipotentiary Lieutenant-Governor, the Isle of Man has moved some way from this, but it is clear that constitutional developments have increased the power of the 24 directly
elected members of the House of the Keys.

A comparison with other small democracies suggests that over-concentration may be a genuine problem for Manx democracy. In 2012 Johnston and McLean analysed the population per elected representative in the only or lower houses of all independent and semi-independent territories with a population between 50,000 and 150,000.Of the 22 considered, both the Channel Island jurisdictions analysed were amongst the most generous. Guernsey (1328) and Jersey (1920) were in the most generous five, along with Bermuda (1783), Greenland (1829) and the Marshall Islands (1645). The Isle of Man (3521) was at 13th place of the 22, bracketed by American Samoa (3083), the Cayman Islands (3083), the Federated States of Micronesia (3664), and Tonga (3692). The difference between the other Crown Dependencies and the Isle of Man is striking.

So, to answer the question in the title, I don’t think there are too many MHKs, and indeed there *might* be too few.

One possible way to address this would be to increase the size of the House of Keys. If the Keys was to be returned to its pre-twelfth century size of 32 members, the Manx ratio on Johnson and McLean’s figures would move to 2640, 8th most generous of the 22 small democracies, bracketed by Dominica and the Seychelles. The ratio of representation would remain notably less generous than that of the closest comparators to the Isle of Man – the fellow Crown Dependencies of Jersey and Guernsey. A significant concern over such an expansion of the House of Keys would be cost, both in terms of salary and infrastructure. This could be met by increasing resourcing of Tynwald – a politically sensitive argument, particularly as the Isle of Man continues to deal with very significant economic and fiscal challenges. Reconfiguring the MHK role as part-time, remunerated pro rata, risks, as was discussed during the Lisvane debate, reducing diversity in Tynwald. More significant resources could be freed up by the abolition of the Legislative Council, and a move to a unicameral chamber of the kind already found in Jersey and Guernsey. Unicameralism has been discussed in the Isle of Man for some time, but remains contentious.