Chapter 4:
Great
Britain
Thinking About Britain
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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
Thinking About Britain
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The basics
– The Kingdoms
– The cleavages
• Geographic
• Religious
• Economic
• Social class
The Evolution of the British State
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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
British Political Culture
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The civic culture and collectivist years
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Widespread sense of legitimacy
Tolerance of diversity
Nationalism
British Political Culture
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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.
British Political Culture
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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.
British Political Culture
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Will there always be a Britain?
• Polarization and catch-all parties
• Devolution
• Cultural and racial diversity
• European Union
Political Participation
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The Conservatives
• Pragmatic
• Noblesse oblige
• Organization
• Thatcherism and
after
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Labour
• Pragmatism
• Crisis-motivated
radicalization
• Defeat-motivated
moderation
• Blair’s waning
popularity
Political Participation
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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.
The British State: Enduring
Myths & Changing Realities
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Bagehot’s dignified and real parts of the British
system
The Monarchy and the Lords: Still dignified?
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Very little power; proposals for reform
Parliamentary Sovereignty, sort of
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Parliamentary parties
Collective responsibility
Party discipline
The British State: Enduring
Myths & Changing Realities
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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
Public Policy: The Thatcher and
Blair Revolutions
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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
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Continuity in foreign policy
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.
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.”
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
Feedback
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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