Politics in Britain

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Politics in Britain

• The political system

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Russia
U.S.
Domestic economy
Legislature
Court
Executive
Bureaucracies
Political parties
Interest groups
Domestic culture
Domestic society
France
Germany
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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?

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United Kingdom gt Great Britain

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

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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

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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

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Unwritten constitution

• Lack of a written constitution

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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
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British government

• Government
• Queens, Tony Blairs, or Labour government
• Whitehall Street
• executive agencies
• Downing Street
• prime ministers residence
• Westminster
• parliament

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Democratization continued

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

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Electoral system

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

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Election results
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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

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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

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Russia
U.S.
Domestic economy
Legislature
Court
Executive
Bureaucracies
Political parties
Interest groups
Domestic culture
Domestic society
France
Germany
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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)

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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

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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

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Margaret Thatcher

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

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Welfare state

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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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Hypothetical voter distribution

• n
• left social-economic spectrum right

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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

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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

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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

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Interest aggregation