Continuity without Consensus: the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings, 1971–81

Abstract

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGM) has passed in fairly rapid succession through several stages. From being a kind of imperial cabinet of white members whose empathy and common origins made broad agreement possible, it became a more diverse and thereby contentious forum, spanning the racial, ideological and developmental divisions of the post-colonial world. In this second phase the Commonwealth found it difficult to agree on a satisfactory common denominator to guide its deliberations and, at certain junctures, its future was in some doubt. However, it weathered those traumatic moments. Chastened by the experience on all sides, it willingly entered a new period of compromise far removed from both the outdated hegemonic assumptions of the established white members and the equally unworkable multilateral ambitions of some of the new radical intake. The outcome of this process was, in fact, not ultimately destructive, and prepared the membership for the challenges yet to come.

‘Did you perceive, He did solicit you in free contempt, When he did need your loves …?’

Coriolanus, William Shakespeare