Chapter%204:%20Great%20Britain

1
Chapter 4Great Britain
2
(No Transcript)
3
(No Transcript)
4
Thinking About Britain

• Key Questions
• Gradualism the belief that change should occur
  slowly or incrementally.
• Relative economic decline and its political
  implications
• The end of collectivist consensus Margaret
  Thatchers policies and legacy
• Impact of New Labour and Tony Blair

5
(No Transcript)
6
Thinking About Britain

• The basics
• The Kingdoms
• The cleavages
• Geographic
• Religious
• Economic
• Social class

7
The Evolution of the British State

• Sequential, not simultaneous crises
• Building the nation state
• Defining the role of religion
• Establishing liberal democracy
• Industrial revolution
• The broad sweep of British history
• More and more democracy
• Persistence of class divisions
• The collectivist consensus leaders from both
  parties agreed on a variety of social policy
  goals the golden era of British politics

8
(No Transcript)
9
(No Transcript)
10
British Political Culture

• The civic culture and collectivist years
• Widespread sense of legitimacy
• Tolerance of diversity
• Nationalism

11
British Political Culture

• The politics of protest Toward an uncivic
  culture?
• Confrontational political participation and civic
  unrest racism militancy of unions clash
  between the left and the right created a far more
  polarized political system, but the majority of
  the populace did not take part and grew
  frustrated with the confrontational politics.

12
British Political Culture

• The civic culture holds
• Thatchers stand against the left helped sharply
  reduce the political tensions that seemed to
  imperil traditional British institutions and
  practices.
• The analysts who predicted the end of the civic
  culture overstated the dangers the protest
  movements posed revolution was never on the
  horizon.
• Dissatisfaction with the recent governments had
  not translated into dissatisfaction with the
  regime.

13
British Political Culture

• Will there always be a Britain?
• Polarization and catch-all parties
• Devolution
• Cultural and racial diversity
• European Union

14
Political Participation

• The Conservatives
• Pragmatic
• Noblesse oblige
• Organization
• Thatcherism and after

• Labour
• Pragmatism
• Crisis-motivated radicalization
• Defeat-motivated moderation
• Blairs waning popularity

15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
Political Participation

• The Liberal Democrats merger of the Liberals
  and the Social Democrats (SDP) the number three
  party and in some ways the most radical
• Minor Parties the rise in Scottish, Welsh, and
  Irish nationalism has led to moderate growth in
  support for regional parties.
• The British electorate
• Interest groups
• Little of the lobbying one finds in the U.S.
• Interests groups focus their attention on
  decision makers ministers, party leaders, and
  senior civil servants try to influence the
  drafting of a bill, not how it is dealt with on
  the House floor.
• The TUC with Labour and the Confederation of
  British Industry with Conservatives wield
  disproportionate influence
• Corporatist arrangements during collectivist
  years Thatcher government effectively froze the
  unions out of the decision making.

18
(No Transcript)
19
The British State Enduring Myths Changing
Realities

• Bagehots dignified and real parts of the British
  system
• The Monarchy and the Lords Still dignified?
• Very little power proposals for reform
• Parliamentary Sovereignty, sort of
• Parliamentary parties
• Collective responsibility
• Party discipline

20
(No Transcript)
21
(No Transcript)
22
The British State Enduring Myths Changing
Realities

• Cabinet government?
• Many analysts argue that Britain has prime
  ministerial government
• The rest of the state
• Weakness of the bureaucracy
• Diluted sovereignty of cabinet and parliament
  because of regulatory agencies and QUANGOs
• The courts have never had a policy-making role

23
Public Policy The Thatcher and Blair Revolutions

• Break with the past in domestic policy
• Thatchers politics of conviction brought
  dramatic change, especially to economic life.
• Blairs government has accepted privatization and
  the core of Thatcherism
• Continuity in foreign policy

24
Public Policy The Thatcher and Blair Revolutions

• Domestic politics
• Margaret Thatcher
• The retreat from the commanding heights
  Nationalizing and privatizing
• Rolling back the welfare state
• Thatchers supporters say she saved the British
  economy by bring both inflation and unemployment
  under control and by creating a more dynamic
  private sector.
• Thatchers detractors say she created new
  problems and exacerbated existing ones by
  widening the gap between rich and poor and by
  allowing public services to deteriorate.

25
Public Policy The Thatcher and Blair Revolutions

• Domestic Politics, cont.
• Tony Blair
• Not rolling back Thatchers and Majors reforms
• Government spending as a percentage of GNP shrank
• Welfare that gives recipients skills to find jobs
  rather than just benefits
• The New Deal
• Tuition increase
• Tolling London drivers to reduce traffic
  congestion
• Blairs supporters say he has create the Third
  Way combining the best aspects of the socialist
  goals commitment to equality with a market
  economy.
• Blairs detractors say he sold out the left and
  created Thatcher lite.

26
Public Policy The Thatcher and Blair Revolutions

• Foreign policy
• Europe
• European Monetary Union?
• Ratify the draft constitution for the EU?
• Iraq
• Political ramifications of backing George W. Bush
  on war with Iraq

27
Feedback

• British media far more centralized than U.S.
• Broadsheets and tabloids
• Very little local news on television national
  news at different times of the day networks tend
  to be impartial, but journalists are not
  necessarily so interviewers grill politicians