Politics in Britain - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Politics in Britain

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United Kingdom Great Britain. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland ... Great Britain. England. Scotland. Wales. Historical evolution: gradualism ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Politics in Britain


1
Politics in Britain
  • The political system

2
Russia
U.S.
Domestic economy
Legislature
Court
Executive
Bureaucracies
Political parties
Interest groups
Domestic culture
Domestic society
France
Germany
3
United Kingdom
  • Size
  • about two times that of the state of Mississippi
  • Population
  • about 59 million
  • non-white immigration since WWII
  • from South Asia, West Indies, and East Asia
  • 4.6 million (8 of total population)
  • Europeans?

4
United Kingdom gt Great Britain
  • United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
    Ireland
  • created in 1801
  • Great Britain
  • England
  • Scotland
  • Wales

5
Historical evolution gradualism
  • Historical challenges to all industrialized
    democracies
  • Building the nation-state
  • Defining the relationship between church and
    state
  • Establishing liberal democracy
  • Dealing with the impact of the industrial
    revolution

6
Monarch versus Parliament
  • 1215 Magna Carta
  • 1500s the Church of England
  • 1642-60 Civil War and Restoration
  • 1688 Glorious Revolution
  • 1701 Act of Settlement
  • royal succession
  • Early 1700s emergence of prime minister

7
Unwritten constitution
  • Lack of a written constitution

8
Parliamentary system
  • Parliament selects the prime minister
  • prime minister is not elected by popular vote
  • normally the head of majority party or coalition
  • Cabinet responsibility to parliament
  • major legislation and votes of confidence

Parliament
Majority party
Prime minister cabinet
voters
Minority party
9
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10
British government
  • Government
  • Queens, Tony Blairs, or Labour government
  • Whitehall Street
  • executive agencies
  • Downing Street
  • prime ministers residence
  • Westminster
  • parliament

11
Democratization continued
  • 1832 Great Reform Act (mens suffrage)
  • 1911 Reform of House of Lords
  • 1928 Right to vote for all adults

12
Electoral system
  • Single-member district
  • First-past-the-post (winner-take-all) system

13
Election results
14
Parliament
  • The House of Commons
  • 659 members
  • voting is 100 along party lines in most votes
  • party versus constituency interests
  • the House of Lords
  • is not elected
  • reforms

15
House of Commons
  • the government gets its way
  • MPs weigh political reputations
  • MPs in the governing party have opportunities to
    influence government
  • MPs talk about legislation
  • MPs scrutinize administration of policies
  • MPs publicizing issues

16
Russia
U.S.
Domestic economy
Legislature
Court
Executive
Bureaucracies
Political parties
Interest groups
Domestic culture
Domestic society
France
Germany
17
Parties and interest groups
  • Postwar collectivist consensus until 1970s
  • consensus about role of government for the
    collective economic and social good
  • state should take expanded responsibility
  • economic growth and full employment
  • state should provide social welfare
  • public education, health care, etc.
  • publicly owned sector (1/5 of total production)

18
Collectivist Consensus
  • Both Labour and Conservative gradually expanded
    the role of government
  • Party identification, electoral behavior, and
    occupation were strongly correlated
  • most of working class voted Labour
  • most of middle class voted Conservative

19
Margaret Thatcher
  • Economic stagflation in 1970s
  • Neither party was able to manage economy well
  • 1978-79 winter of discontent strikes
  • Thatchers alternative vision
  • cut taxes, reduce social services
  • stimulate the private sector
  • market and businesslike methods

20
Margaret Thatcher
  • Served (1979 - 1990) longer without interruption
    than any other British prime minister in 20th
    century

21
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22
Welfare state
  • Even under Thatcher and Major, Britain
    experienced real growth in both social services
    and health care provisions

23
Margaret Thatcher
  • 1979-1984 government spending actually rose from
    39 of GNP to 44 of GNP
  • 1890 8
  • 1910 12
  • 1920 26
  • 1989 survey less than 1/3 approved of the
    Thatcher revolution

24
New Labour Party
  • 1997 electoral victory
  • the largest majority in parliament (419/659) that
    the Labour Party has ever held
  • Conservative vote fell to its lowest share since
    1832
  • Tony Blair New Labour is a party of ideas and
    ideals, but not of outdated ideology. What
    counts is what works.

25
Tony Blair Third Way
  • Third way alternative to collectivism and
    Thatcherism
  • rejected the historic ties between Labour
    governments and the trade union movement
  • reversed the tendency to provide centralized
    statist solutions to economic and social problem
  • A vague philosophy to draw support from across
    the social-economic spectrum.

26
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27
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28
Voted for Labour Party
  • Year Working class Women
  • 1974 57 38
  • 1979 50 35
  • 1983 38 26
  • 1987 42 32
  • 1992 45 34
  • 1997 58 49

29
Hypothetical voter distribution
  • n
  • left social-economic spectrum right

30
Interest groups
  • Civil society
  • institutions independent of government
  • Interest groups influence politics
  • not by contesting elections
  • regardless of which party wins
  • Distance between party and interest groups
  • Interest groups criticize partisan allies

31
Interest groups
  • Organizations of British businesses
  • Confederation of British Industries
  • dominated by large firms
  • Organizations of British labour
  • Trades Union Congress (TUC)
  • 38 of workforce is unionized
  • 90 of unionized workers are affiliated with TUC
  • affiliation with the Labour Party

32
Interest aggregation
  • Political demands of individuals and groups are
    combined into policy programs
  • farmers, environmentalists, business, etc.
  • substantial political resources
  • popular votes, campaign funds, legislative seats,
    executive influence, etc.
  • competing policy goals are compromised to produce
    a single governing program

33
Interest aggregation
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