The United Kingdom

							The United
 Kingdom
 Stella Theodoulou & Richard Rose
England, the 1st National Monarchy

• Circa 12th century (Insular location)
  – 1215 Magna Carta (limiting rights of the King)
• The Wars of the Roses (1455-1485)
  – Houses of York (white) and Lancaster (red).

  1485- Henry Tudor (Lancaster) challenged
   Richard III (York), Richard was killed and
   Henry became King Henry VII, inaugurating
   the Tudor dinasty (until the death of Elizabeth
   in 1603).
        Revolution or a series of Reforms?
•   1642-49 (Civil War—Execution of Charles I)
•   1649-1660 (Republican gvt. Cromwell)
•   1660 Restoration (Charles II, James II since 1685)
•   1680 The Glorious Revolution—the birth of James’s
    Catholic son triggers his replacement by his son-in-
    law William—1689 Bill of Rights Sovereignty of the
    Parliament.
•   1707 Act Union, England and Scotland formed Great
    Britain.
•   1823 Reform Bill: extension of the right to vote to
    middle-class men.
•   1833- Abolition of slavery, limitations on work by
    children and women
•   1867 Reform Bill: extension of suffrage to urban
    workers (extended to rural workers in 1884)
•   1918- Universal male and female suffrage
   Post-World War II
1. 1940-1955 Post-War
   Consensus
2. 1955-1979 Consensus
   Under Strain
3. 1979-1997 Ending of the
   Consensus
4. 1997 to today New Labour
 1. 1940-1955 Post-War Consensus
• 1940-1945 Winston Churchill
• 1945-1941 Attlee (Labour’s First Electoral Triumph)
• 1951-1955- Churchill (Conservative)
   Basic Agreements: Britain had to
   Play a major role in world affairs (emerged from
     WWII as a great power, had an Empire, a
     “special” relation to the US, and the atomic
     bomb)
   Be a Welfare State (from “cradle to grave”
     services for ALL citizens: free universal health
     care, social security & pensions, education)
   And a Mixed Economy John Maynard Keynes
     (Full employment, 1/5 State owned companies
     of coal, gas, electricity, aviation, railroads, and
     the Bank of England)
Basic “Bricks” of the Welfare
            State
• John Maynard Keynes’s
  – Beveridge Report on social welfare
    (1942)
  – Full Employment White Paper (1944)
• The Butler Education Act (1944)

• Creation of the National Health
  Service (1948)
2. 1955-1979: Post-War Consensus
            Under Strain
  – Conservative Gvts. (1955-64 & 70-76)
  – Labour Gvts. (1964-70 & 74-79)
• Ideological SPLIT between the Conservative and
  the Labour parties.
• Two-party system.
• Decline of Britain’s power and economic
  strength (decolonization, slow growth, inflation,
  balance of payment crises, increasing
  expectations towards the Welfare State and
  declining will to support it through taxes, social
  conflicts).
 3. 1979-1997 The Ending of Consensus
• Margaret Thatcher (& John Major): New Right
  policies (1979-90).
• Thatcherism’s 2 goals:
     • To restore British prestige (the 1982 Falkland/Malvinas War)—
       Renewal of the “special” relation to the U.S.
     • To dismantle the Welfare State (campaign against “Big
       Government”). Tax cut, increase in interest rates, cut in govt.
       Spending). Inflation diminished, but unemployment reached the
       1930s level.
• 1979-1987—Increasing differences between
  Labour & the Conservatives.
New parties—Towards a multi-party system?
  (Liberal Democrats and other new parties)
• 1987—Labour begins to move to the Right
   4. From 1997: New Consensus
      Under (the “New”) Labour
• Acceptance of changes made by the
  Conservatives (Thatcher)
• Neoliberal understanding of the State and the
  Economy (free market, minimal regulations, anti-
  Keynesianism, “welfare to work,” no privileges to
  unions, abandonment of free access to the
  university, contraposition between socialism and
  democracy, and abandonment of the former).
• Tony Blair’s vague “Third Way” (support for free
  markets+basic Social Democratic values).
           United Kingdom=
  – Political union of England, Scotland, Wales,
    and Northern Ireland with power concentrated
    on the Westminster Parliament.
  -Insularity: although the British are a part of
    Europe, many of them (about 50%) do not
    think of themselves as Europeans.
Unitary State (NO power is allowed to the
 regions despite their own parliaments)
 organized as a Constitutional Monarchy
 with Parliamentary sovereignty.
            The Constitution
• Written Constitution:
  – The Magna Carta
  – The 1628 Petition of Rights
  – The 1689 Bill of Rights


• Unwritten Constitution (flexible):
  – Laws enacted by Parliament
  – Antecedents settled by judicial courts
  – European Union law.
    Parliamentary Sovereignty
• The Parliament is the supreme authority,
  in exercise of legislative, executive, and
  judiciary authority (fusion of powers).
• The Parliament includes the monarch,
  the House of Lords and the House of
  Commons (659 members).
  – The Monarch is the Head of State, with
    ceremonial functions only.
  – The Prime Minister is Head of Gvt. (primus
    inter pares)
                  Goverment
• All members of government are first
  members of the Parliament.
  – Prime Minister: leader of the political party that
    wins the majority in elections. He organizes the
    Gvt. and requests the dissolution of the
    Parliament from the Queen. The PM cares
    especially for the economy and foreign affairs.
  – The Cabinet: includes diverse departments (i.e.
    Economic affairs). Its organization changes.
    Cabinet members are senior ministers members
    of the majority (Secretary of the Cabinet)
    • Committees: Cabinet committees include ministers
      from the departments most affected by some specific
      issues.
    The House of the Lords
• Has been disempowered through
  time (= Crown).
• Since 1911, they can only revise,
  delay, and introduce changes in
  laws, but they do not have any veto
  power.
 British Structure of Government
                Prime Minister



 Parliament                           State
   (House                           Bureacracy
                   Cabinet
Of Commons)


                   Local Gvt.
              Regional Assemblies


                                    Voters
               Elections
• Voters choose between parties
• Elections must take place at least once
  every five years
• In each district, the winner is the
  candidate who gets more votes (simple
  majority)
• Manufactured majority/disproportional
  representation: the party with more seats
  (and not with more votes) forms the
  government.
            Party Hegemony
• Parties choose candidates, settle the agenda,
  and elect leaders who become prime ministers.
• For anyone to become the Prime Minister, the
  only election to be won is the one for the party
  leadership.
• No primaries (party recruitment)
• Despite the SMD, voters vote for parties and not
  for candidates (members of the Parliament are
  accountable to their parties and not to their
  constituencies)
• Candidates do not have to live in the area for
  which they compete.
   Effects of Disproportional
Electoral System (1997 election)
                      Seats      Votes

70%
                     64%
60%
50%
                           43%
40%
              31%
30%     25%
20%                                      17%

10%                                 7%              9%
                                               4%
 0%
      Conservative   Labour        Liberal     Other
                                  Democrats
                                                 Source: Rose, Richard,
                                                 “Politics in England”
                                                 European Politics Today