GV460 BRITISH GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS Jonathan Hopkin (Department of Government)

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1 GV460 BRITISH GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS Jonathan Hopkin (Department of Government) Lecture Schedule 1. Introduction: British Politics in Theory and in Practice 2. The Westminster Model: Constitutional Basics 3. Still a Majoritarian Democracy?: The British Party Systems 4. Voting Behaviour In Britain: From Class Voting to Consumer Choice 5. Party Organizations in Britain: The Death of the Mass Party 6. Party Ideologies in Britain: New Consensus or New Polarization? 7. Constitutional Change: Has New Labour Made a New Britain? 8. Westminster, Devolution and Local Government 9. Governing the British Economy: State and Market 10. Governing British Society: Is Britain a Welfare State? Assessment 1 essay of 2000 words 25% 1 2 hour exam 75% Readings 1. Introduction: British Politics in Theory and in Practice Suggested Introductory Readings (read any one of these textbooks for a preliminary grounding in the key features of the British political system) Budge, Ian et al (2001). The New British Politics. Longman, 2 nd ed. 1

2 Jones, B. (ed.) (1999). Political Issues in Britain Today. Longman. Jones, B. et al (1998). Politics UK. London: Prentice Hall, 3 rd ed. Dearlove, J. and P. Saunders (2000). Introduction to British Politics. Cambridge; Polity, 3 rd ed. Kavanagh, Dennis (2000). British Politics. Continuities and Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4 th ed Kingdom, J. (2001). Government and Politics in Britain. Cambridge: Polity. Holliday, Ian et al (eds), Fundamentals in British Politics (1999). Hay, Colin (ed.) (2002). British Politics Today. Cambridge: Polity. Marsh, David et al (1999). Postwar British Politics in Perspective. Cambridge: Polity. Wright, Tony (ed.) (2000). The British Political Process. London: Routledge. 2. The Westminster Model: Constitutional Basics Would Britain benefit from a written constitution? Does the monarchy matter in British politics? Is there anything democratic about the Westminster model? Lijphart, Arend (1999). Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty Six Countries. Oxford University Press, Chs.1-3. Sartori, Giovanni (1997). Comparative Constitutional Engineering. Basingstoke: Macmillan, Chs.6 and 12. Barnett, Hilaire (2002). Britain Unwrapped. Government and Constitution Explained. London: Penguin, Chs.1-3, 12. Wilson, Graham (1994). The Westminster Model in Comparative Perspective, in I. Budge and D. McKay (eds), The Developing British Political System. 2

3 Cox, Gary (1987). The Efficient Secret: The Cabinet and the Development of Political Parties in Victorian England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hennessy, Peter (1996) The Hidden Wiring: Unearthing the British Constitution. Smith, Martin (1999) The Core Executive in Britain. Judge, David (2004). Whatever Happened to Parliamentary Democracy in the United Kingdom, Parliamentary Affairs 57(3): Ridley, F. (1988) There is No British Constitution: A Dangerous Case of the Emperor s Clothes, Parliamentary Affairs 41. Judge, David (1993). The Parliamentary State. London: Sage. Katz, Richard (1997). Democracy and Elections. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Prosser, T. (1996). Understanding the British Constitution, Political Studies 44: Weale, Albert (1999). Democracy. Basingstoke: Macmillan. 3. Still a Majoritarian Democracy?: The British Party Systems What are the advantages of the electoral system used to elect the Westminster parliament? Can British democracy remain democratic without a two-party system? Does the introduction of new electoral process at the devolved level undermine the Westminster model of party democracy? Mair, Peter (1990). The West European Party System. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Chs.20 and 24. Sartori, Giovanni (1997). Comparative Constitutional Engineering. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2 nd ed, Chs.1-4. Webb, Paul (2000). The Modern British Party System. London: Sage, Chs.1-2. Webb, Paul and Justin Fisher (1999), The Changing British Party System in D. Broughton and M. Donovan (eds.), Changing Party Systems in Western Europe. London: Pinter. 3

4 Sartori, Giovanni (1976). Parties and Party Systems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Curtice, John (2003) Changing Voting Systems, in P. Dunleavy, A. Gamble, R. Heffernan and G. Peele (eds), Developments in British Politics 7. Basingstoke: Palgrave. Heffernan, Richard (2003) Political Parties and the Party System, in P. Dunleavy, A. Gamble, R. Heffernan and G. Peele (eds), Developments in British Politics 7. Basingstoke: Palgrave.. Barnett, Hilaire (2002). Britain Unwrapped. Government and Constitution Explained, Ch.6. Budge, Ian et al, The New British Politics (1998), Chs Garner, R. and R. Kelly, British Political Parties Today, 2 nd Ed. (1998), Ch.2. P. Webb, Political Parties in Britain, in P. Webb et al, Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies (2002). Jones, W. Reforming the Electoral System, in Jones, W. (ed.). Political Issues in Britain Today (1999). 4. Voting Behaviour In Britain: From Class Voting to Consumer Choice Is the cleavage structure in Britain fundamentally different from the rest of Western Europe? If so, why? What is class voting? To what extent does class influence the way Britain votes? Class is the basis of British party politics; all else is embellishment and detail (Pulzer). Is this view still valid in the 1990s? What are the advantages and potential hazards of the issue voting approach to explaining electoral behaviour? To what extent can the political success of Thatcherism be explained in terms of a fundamental shift in British voting behaviour? Has the British electorate become more right-wing in the last 20 years? 4

5 Can electoral change in Britain be explained in the same terms as electoral change in the rest of Western Europe? How would the revisionist and radical views assess the 1997 and 2001 general elections? : Heath, Anthony, Roger Jowell and John Curtice (2001). The Rise of New Labour. Party Policies and Voter Choices. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Denver, D. & Hands, G. (eds.) (1992), Issues and controversies in British electoral behaviour, London, Harvester, parts 3-5. Denver, D. (2003), Elections and voting behaviour in Britain, 3rd edition, Basingstoke: Palgrave, Chs.3-5. On the Class Voting Paradigm: Lipset, S.M.and Rokkan, S. (1967). Cleavage Structures, Party Systems, and Voter Alignments: An Introduction, in Lipset, S.M. & Rokkan, S. (eds.), Party Systems and Voter Alignments: Cross-National Perspectives. New York: Free Press; abbreviated text in Mair, P. (ed.) (1990). The West European Party System. Oxford: University Press, Chapter 9. Butler, D. and Stokes, D. (1974). Political change in Britain, 2nd edition, London, MacMillan, Chaps On the Transformation of Electoral Politics Dalton, R., Flanagan, S. (1984). Parties Under Stress: Realignment and Dealignment in Advanced Industrial Societies, West European Politics 7: 7-23; abbreviated version in Mair, P. The West European Party System, Chap.16. Crewe, I. (1981), "Why the Conservatives won",in Penniman, H. (ed.), Britain at the polls, Washington, American Entreprise Institute. 5

6 Sarlvik, B. and Crewe, I. (1983), Decade of dealignment. The Conservative victory of 1979 and electoral trends in the 1970s, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Franklin, M.N. (1985), The decline of class voting in Britain: Changes in the basis of electoral choice, , Oxford, Clarendon, Ch.1-5. On Recent Elections: Paulson, B. (1994) The economy and the 1992 election: Was 1992 Labour's golden chance?, in Heath, A., Jowell, R. & Curtice, J. (eds.) with Taylor, B. Labour's last chance?: the 1992 election and beyond. Aldershot, Hants: Dartmouth, Ch.6. Geoffrey Evans and Pippa Norris (eds.) (1999). Critical Elections. British Parties and Voters in Long-Term Perspective, London: Sage, various chapters, in particular Chs.4-6, 8, Party Ideologies in Britain: New Consensus or New Polarization? Has Britain moved from consensus to conflict over the post-war period, or the other way around? Is there anything distinctive about Blairism? Is there anything distinctive about Thatcherism? Blair, Tony (1998). The Third Way: New Politics for the New Century. London: Fabian Society. Kelly, Paul Ideas and Policy Agendas in Contemporary Politics, in P. Dunleavy, A. Gamble, R. Heffernan, I. Holliday and G. Peele (eds), Developments in British Politics 7. Basingstoke: Palgrave, Ch.13. McLean, Iain (2001). Rational Choice and British Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Ch.8. 6

7 Chadwick, A. and R. Heffernan (eds), The New Labour Reader (2003), Chapters 1-2. Daniels, Philip (1998). From Hostility to Constructive Engagement : The Europeanization of the Labour Party, West European Politics 21: Crewe, I. & Searing, D. (1988). Ideological Change in the British Conservative Party, American Political Science Review 82: Giddens, A. The Third Way (1998). Gamble, A. The Free Economy and the Strong State (1994). Hall, Stuart (1983). The Great Moving Right Show, in Stuart Hall and Martin Jacques (eds.), The Politics of Thatcherism. London: Lawrence and Wishart. Hay, Colin (1999). The Political Economy of New Labour. Labouring Under False Pretences?. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Heath, Jowell and Curtice (2001). The Rise of New Labour. Oxford. Heffernan, Richard (2001). New Labour and Thatcherism. Basingstoke: Palgrave. Katz, Richard (2001). Are Cleavages Frozen in the English-Speaking Democracies?, in Lauri Karvonen and Stein Kuhnle (eds.), Party Systems and Voter Alignments Revisited. London: Routledge, Ch.5. Norton, P. (1996). Philosophy: The Principles of Conservatism, in Norton, P. (ed.). The Conservative Party. London: Harvester, Ch.4. Walsh, James (2000). When Do Ideas Matter? Explaining the Successes and Failures of Thatcherite Ideas, Comparative Political Studies 33: Webb, Paul (2000). The Modern British Party System. Chs Party Organizations in Britain: The Death of the Mass Party Are British parties cartel parties? Has British electoral politics become a battle between presidential-style leaders? What impact has constitutional reform had on British parties? 7

8 Katz, Richard and Peter Mair, Changing Models of Party Organisation and Party Democracy: The Emergence of the Cartel Party, Party Politics 1: 5-28 (1995) (also in Peter Mair, Party System Change, 1998). Webb, Paul (2000). The Modern British Party System. Chs.5-8. Webb, Paul (2004). Party Responses to the Changing Electoral Market in Britain, in Peter Mair, Wolfgang Mueller and Fritz Plasser (eds.), Political Parties and Electoral Change. London: Sage, pp Doig, Alan (2003). Political Corruption in the United Kingdom, in Martin Bull and James Newell (eds.), Corruption in Contemporary Politics. London: Palgrave, Ch.14. Doig, Alan and John Wilson (1995). Untangling the Threads of Sleaze: The Slide into Nolan, in F.F. Ridley and A. Doig (eds.), Sleaze: Politics, Private Interests and Public Reactions. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Heffernan, Richard (2003). Political Parties and the Party System, in P. Dunleavy, A. Gamble, R. Heffernan and G. Peele (eds), Developments in British Politics 7. Basingstoke: Palgrave. Hopkin, Jonathan (2001). Bringing the Members Back In? Democratizing Candidate Selection in Britain and Spain, Party Politics 7 (3): Van Biezen, Ingrid and Jonathan Hopkin (2004). Party Organization in Multi-Level Contexts: The Case of Asymmetric Devolution, paper presented to APSA annual meeting, Chicago, September. Webb, Paul (1994). Party Organizational Change in Britain: The Iron Law of Centralization?, in Richard Katz and Peter Mair (eds.), How Parties Organize. London: Sage, pp Webb, Paul (1995) Are British Political Parties in Decline?, Party Politics 1: Webb, Paul (2002) Political Parties in Britain, in P. Webb et al, Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies. 8

9 7. Governing the British Economy: State and Market Can the British economy be governed? Is postwar British economic policy best explained in terms of continuity or change? Is there any significant difference between the British parties on economic issues? Hall, Peter (1993). Policy Paradigms, Social Learning and the State: The Case of Economic Policy-Making in Britain, Comparative Political Studies 25: Glyn, Andrew and Stewart Wood (2001). New Labour s Economic Policy, in Andrew Glyn (ed.), Social Democracy in Neoliberal Times. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Ch.8. King, Desmond and Stewart Wood (1999). The Political Economy of Neoliberalism: Britain and the United States in the 1980s, in Herbert Kitschelt et al (eds.), Continuity and Change in Contemporary Capitalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Ch.13. Busch, Andreas (1994). Central Bank Independence and the Westminster Model, West European Politics 17: Deakin, Simon and Hannah Reed (2000). River Crossing or Cold Bath? Deregulation and Employment in Britain in the 1980s and 1990s, in Gosta Esping-Andersen and Marino Regini (eds.), Why Deregulate Labour Markets? Oxford: Oxford University Press, Ch.5. Graham, Andrew (1997). The UK Myths and Realities of Conservative Capitalism in Colin Crouch and Wolfgang Streeck (eds.), Political Economy of Modern Capitalism. London: Sage, Ch.6. Hall, Peter (1986). Governing the Economy. The Politics of State Intervention in Britain and France. Cambridge: Polity. 9

10 Hay, Colin (1997). Anticipating Accommodations, Accommodating Anticipations: The Appeasement of Capital in the Modernisation of the British Labour Party, ', Politics and Society 25 (2), Hirst, Paul and Grahame Thompson (2000). Globalization in One Country? The Peculiarities of the British, Economy and Society 29: Howell, Chris (1999). Unforgiven: British Trade Unionism in Crisis, in Andrew Martin and George Ross (eds.), The Brave New World of European Labour. New York: Bergahn. Minford, Patrick (1988). Mrs Thatcher s Economic Reform Programme Past Present and Future, in R. Skidelsky (ed.), Thatcherism. London: Chatto & Windus, Ch.5. Vitols, Sigurt (2001). Varieties of Corporate Governance: Comparing Germany and the UK, in Peter Hall and David Soskice (eds.), Varieties of Capitalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Ch.10. Wood, Stewart (2001). Business, Government and Patterns of Labour Market Policy in Britain and the Federal Republic of Germany, in Peter Hall and David Soskice (eds.), Varieties of Capitalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Ch Governing British Society: Is Britain a Welfare State? Why is social inequality such a problem in Britain? Did the Conservative reforms of the 1980s bring about a fundamental shift in postwar British welfare policy? What, if anything, is distinctive about the British welfare state? S. Jenkins, Recent Trends in the UK Income Distribution: What Happened and Why?, Oxford Review of Economic Policy 12 (1996), pp Rhodes, M. (2000). Restructuring the British Welfare State: Between Domestic Constraints and Global Imperatives, in F. Scharpf and V. Schmidt (eds), Welfare and Work in the Open Economy. Vol II. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10

11 Toynbee, Polly and David Walker (2001). Did Things Get Better? An Audit of Labour s Successes and Failures. London: Penguin, Chs.2-4. Denham, Andrew (2003). Public Services, in P. Dunleavy, A. Gamble, R. Heffernan and G. Peele (eds), Developments in British Politics 7. Esping-Andersen (1990). The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity. Glennerster, H. (2000). British Social Policy Since Cambridge: Blackwell. Heclo, Hugh (1974). Modern Social Politics in Britain and Sweden: From Relief to Income Maintenance. New Haven: Yale University Press. Jones, M. and R. Lowe (2002). From Beveridge to Blair. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Pierson, P. (1994). Dismantling the Welfare State? Reagan, Thatcher and the Politics of Retrenchment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Stewart, M. (1999). Low Pay in Britain, in P. Gregg and J. Wadsworth (eds.), The State of Working Britain. Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp Deakin, N. (1994). The Politics of Welfare. London: Harvester. Svallfors, S. and Taylor-Gooby, P. (eds.) (1999). The end of the welfare state? : responses to state retrenchment. London ; New York : Routledge. Wilding, P. (1999), The Debate About the Welfare State, in Jones, W. (ed.). Political Issues in Britain Today. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 5 th edition. 9. Westminster, Devolution and Local Government Has devolution strengthened or weakened the British state? What has been the impact of devolution on British party politics? What can be done about Northern Ireland? 11

12 Barnett, Hilaire (2002). Britain Unwrapped. Government and Constitution Explained. London: Penguin, Ch.4. Bogdanor, Vernon (1998). Devolution in the United Kingdom. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Chs.1-6. Bradbury, Jonathan and James Mitchell (2001). Devolution: New Politics For Old?, Parliamentary Affairs 54: Adams, John and Peter Robinson (eds.) (2002). Devolution in Practice. Public Policy Differences Within the UK. London: IPPR. Mitchell, James (2003). Politics in Scotland, in P. Dunleavy, A. Gamble, R. Heffernan and G. Peele (eds), Developments in British Politics 7. Basingstoke: Palgrave, Ch.9. Tonge, Jonathan (2003). Politics in Northern Ireland, in P. Dunleavy, A. Gamble, R. Heffernan and G. Peele (eds), Developments in British Politics 7. Basingstoke: Palgrave, Ch.10. Peele, Gillian (2003). Politics in England and Wales, in P. Dunleavy, A. Gamble, R. Heffernan and G. Peele (eds), Developments in British Politics 7. Basingstoke: Palgrave, Ch.11 Bogdanor, Vernon (2003). Asymmetric Devolution: Towards a Quasi-Federal Constitution?, in P. Dunleavy, A. Gamble, R. Heffernan and G. Peele (eds), Developments in British Politics 7. Basingstoke: Palgrave, Ch.12. Copus, Colin (2004). Party Politics and Local Government. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Miller, W. (1983). The denationalisation of British politics: The reemergence of the periphery, West European Politics, 6, pp McLean, Ian (1998). The Semi-Detached Election: Scotland, in Anthony King et al, New Labour Triumphs. Chatham, N.J.: Chatham House, pp McGarry, J. & O Leary, B. (1995). Explaining Northern Ireland. Oxford: Blackwell. Stoker, Gerry (ed.) (2000). The New Politics of British Local Governance. Basingstoke: Palgrave. 12

13 Wilson, D. and C. Game (2002). Local Government in the United Kingdom. Basingstoke: Palgrave. 10. Constitutional Change: Has New Labour Made a New Britain? Why has Britain s constitution changed so little over the last century? Could Labour have made a better job of its constitutional reform programme? Assess the implications for British democracy of the Labour constitutional reforms. Hall, Peter and Rosemary Taylor (1996). Political Science and the Three New Institutionisms, Political Studies 44: Sartori, Giovanni (1997). Comparative Constitutional Engineering. London: Macmillan, 2 nd ed, Ch.13. Tsebelis, George (1995). Decision Making in Political Systems: Veto Players in Presidentialism, Parliamentarism, Multicameralism and Multipartism, British Journal of Political Science 25: Elster, Jon (1983). Ulysses and the Sirens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Elster, Jon and Rune Slagstad (eds.) (1988). Constitutionalism and Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lijphart, Arend and Bernard Grofman (eds.) (1984). Choosing an Electoral System. New York: Praeger. Mueller, Dennis (1997). Constitutional Public Choice, in Dennis Mueller (ed.), Perspectives on Public Choice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Ch.6. Shugart, M. and J. Carey (1993). Presidents and Assemblies: Constitutional Design and Electoral Dynamics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Thelen, Kathleen and Sven Steinmo (1992). Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Analysis, in Sven Steinmo, Kathleen Thelen and Frank Longstreth (eds.), Structuring Politics. Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Ch.1. 13

14 Tsebelis, George (2002). Veto Players. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Additional Essay Questions: 1. Class is the basis of British party politics; all else is embellishment and detail (Pulzer). Is this view still valid in the 1990s? 2. It was issues that won the 1979 election for the Conservatives (...). Their success came from saying the right thing about the right issues (I. Crewe). Can the issue voting approach explain the Conservatives electoral dominance in the period ? 3. To what extent can the emergence of Thatcherism be explained in terms of a fundamental shift in British voting behaviour? 4. Assess the importance of pocket-book voting in recent British elections. 5. What would be a likely revisionist response to the recent Labour victory? 6. On the basis of available knowledge on voting behaviour in Britain, what advice on electoral strategy would you give to the Conservative Party leadership? 7. What are the implications of the decline in partisan identification amongst British voters? 8. Can Britain s high levels of social inequality be explained in terms of the nature of the British party system? 9. To what extent can historical factors account for the British two-party system? 10. Can the electoral success of Thatcherism be explained by the decline of class voting in Britain? 11. To what extent does public opinion determine the behaviour of British parties? 12. Stephen Driver and Luke Martell describe Blairism as the politics of post- Thatcherism. Do you agree with them? 13. Does the British party system reflect British society in any way? 14. Are British parties catch-all parties? 15. Is politics in Britain fundamentally different from politics in the rest of Western Europe? 16. Does devolution constitute a challenge to the British political tradition? 17. Can anything be done about poverty in Britain? 14

15 18. Is Britain a democracy? 19. Is British politics becoming Americanized? 20. Has the New Labour project been successful? 15