Chapter 4: Great Britain

1. Chapter 4:Great Britain

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 Thatcher’s policies and legacy • Impact of “New Labour” and Tony Blair

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

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 • Thatcher’s 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. The Conservatives Pragmatic Noblesse oblige Organization Thatcherism and after Labour Pragmatism Crisis-motivated radicalization Defeat-motivated moderation Blair’s waning popularity Political Participation

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.

19. The British State: Enduring Myths & Changing Realities • Bagehot’s 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

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 • Thatcher’s “politics of conviction” brought dramatic change, especially to economic life. • Blair’s 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 • Thatcher’s supporters say she saved the British economy by bring both inflation and unemployment under control and by creating a more dynamic private sector. • Thatcher’s 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 Thatcher’s and Major’s 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 • Blair’s supporters say he has create the Third Way – combining the best aspects of the socialist goals commitment to equality with a market economy. • Blair’s 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