Politics in Britain
The political system
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Domestic economy
Legislature
Court
Executive
Bureaucracies
Political parties
Domestic culture
France
Interest groups
Domestic society
Germany
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?
United Kingdom > Great Britain
• United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland
– created in 1801
• Great Britain
– England
– Scotland
– Wales
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
Monarch versus Parliament
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•
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
Unwritten constitution
• Lack of a written constitution
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
Majority party
voters
Parliament
Minority party
Prime minister
& cabinet
British government
• Government
– Queen’s, Tony Blair’s, or Labour government
• Whitehall Street
– executive agencies
• Downing Street
– prime minister’s residence
• Westminster
– parliament
Democratization continued
• 1832: Great
Reform Act (men’s
suffrage)
• 1911: Reform of
House of Lords
• 1928: Right to vote
for all adults
Electoral system
• Single-member district
• First-past-the-post (winner-take-all)
system
Election results
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
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
Domestic economy
Legislature
Court
Executive
Bureaucracies
Political parties
Domestic culture
France
Interest groups
Domestic society
Germany
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)
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
Margaret Thatcher
• Economic stagflation in 1970s
• Neither party was able to manage
economy well
• 1978-79 “winter of discontent” strikes
• Thatcher’s alternative vision
– cut taxes, reduce social services
– stimulate the private sector
– market and “businesslike” methods
Margaret Thatcher
• Served (1979 - 1990) longer
without interruption than any
other British prime minister in
20th century
Welfare state
• Even under Thatcher and Major, Britain
experienced real growth in both social
services and health care provisions
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”
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.”
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.
% Voted for Labour Party
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•
•
•
•
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Year
1974
1979
1983
1987
1992
1997
Working class
57%
50%
38%
42%
45%
58%
Women
38%
35%
26%
32%
34%
49%
Hypothetical voter distribution
n
left
social-economic spectrum
right
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
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
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
Interest aggregation