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’s commemorative time and energy went towards commemorating the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade within the British Empire. The centrepiece of commemorative events was the ceremony at Westminster Abbey in August, which was most notable for the incursion by Toyin Agbetu who made his protest so close to the person of the Queen. There are several explanations for the elision of the tercentenary of the Union between England and Scotland by the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery. The first was that for an external audience the abolition of slavery was a
'Politics' with a big 'P' is concerned with how we, individuals and groups, relate to the state. This book commences with a definition of political activity with a focus on conflict, and government and democracy. Britain is, arguably, the oldest democracy in the world, though it took many centuries for it to evolve into its current 'representative' form. Conflict resolution depends on the political system involved. The book draws together all the elements of government, explaining the British system of governance, which is democracy but utilises representatives. Civil service advises ministers and carries out the day- to-day running of government. The book then describes the transformation of the British system of governance from an absolute monarchy to a representative democracy. It examines how economic changes have affected Britain over the centuries, and presents some thoughts on the absence of a modern British revolution. It presents an account of Britain's economic history, the class developments and differences, and the absence of a modern revolution despite astonishing levels of income inequality. Factors that might influence the political culture of Britain are discussed next. The book also touches upon the sources of British constitution, the process of constitutional amendments prevailing in the U.S. and Britain, current British politics, and the development of pressure groups in Britain. Finally, the history of party government in Britain, and details of the Conservative Party, Labour Party, the Social and Liberal Democrats, House of Commons, and Britain's international relations are discussed.
Some countries have tended to avoid too much contact with the rest of the world – China for example until very recently – but Britain has long favoured an outward-looking stance and has sought to play a major role both militarily and diplomatically. Key national interests Britain’s national interests have been conditioned by a lack of plentiful natural resources and an island status that delivers a close relationship with the sea. Integrity of frontiers The English Channel was formed over 200,000 years ago and is 350 miles long by a width varying from
with political culture. For example, Russian history shows a marked authoritarian tendency; the tzars were succeeded by a man sometimes described as the ‘Red Tzar’, Joseph Stalin. Following the implosion of the Soviet Union, many hoped democracy would take the place of communism but Vladimir Putin’s regime showed strong authoritarian tendencies. Similar problems with former communist regimes can be discerned in eastern Europe and central Asia. Finally, the United States and Britain hoped democracy would take root in Iraq after their joint invasion in 2003 but the
How the electorate votes is a key element in the politics of any democracy and comprises, along with polls, a major part of media coverage of political matters. Voting behaviour is closely connected to many aspects of society, as this chapter explains. Who votes and who stands? Most British subjects aged eighteen years or over are entitled to vote in local, parliamentary and European elections. To do so, they have to be a citizen of the UK, a Commonwealth country or the Republic of Ireland, and to be resident in a constituency and on the electoral register
came into being, though perhaps this is not the best advertisement for think-tanks (see Dorey, 2006, pp. 19–25). Core executive This is the term now commonly used to describe the phalanx of people who take the major decisions in British politics. It comprises the Prime Minister, of course, plus Cabinet colleagues, principal aides like the press secretary, members of the Policy Unit and other close advisers on foreign affairs, the EU and so forth, the Cabinet Secretary, the permanent secretaries of the departments of state and members of Cabinet committees. These
It is no secret that the British have not taken too warmly to Europe, since we joined the European Community in 1972. The referendum in 1975 gave a two-to-one majority in favour of staying in but since then Euro-scepticism has grown if anything. As the arguments are so complex, dealing with an organisation with twenty-seven members and twice as many people as the United States, many people switch off the subject of the European Union (EU), while maintaining what seems to be a fundamentally hostile or at minimum unsympathetic attitude. This chapter seeks to
British and US government is often compared and such exercises can be illuminating, so much so that some examination boards focus specifically on this comparative aspect. This chapter offers a brief survey of the similarities and differences to point up how different systems can be while appearing so similar on the surface. We begin, after check-listing overall similarities, by looking at the political and economic base upon which politics in both countries is founded. Governments and their political cultures are rooted in their own particular societies, so it
THE reader will note that Britain was largely absent from the previous chapter. While there were referendums from the 1970s and onwards in the United Kingdom, the UK was not in the forefront of the development of the device – at least not as far as its practical use was concerned. But the absence of actual experience does not mean that the British political elite were oblivious to the possibilities of involving the people. It was the constitutional theorist Albert Venn Dicey (1835–1922) who first put forward a political theory of the referendum. But he was
The story of British democracy’s evolution is one of the most remarkable in the history of government, as it tells the tale of how an original absolute monarchy, in charge of making, implementing and interpreting the laws of the land, slowly morphed – through the monarch’s reliance on advisory councils – into a system which represented all parts of the country, which, to be effective, required the acquiescence of such representative bodies and finally acquired the crucial characteristic of being elected by each citizen in the country. ‘From absolute monarchy to