Review Sheet for British Politics

Suggested Outline of Topics for Study

1. You should review the material in the textbook & notes.
2. Know and understand the important events in British history and their impact on the British political system.
3. Be able to explain the phases of British political and economic development from WW II to the present. (All
Party Coalition, Collectivist Consensus, Thatcherism, Third Way, Conservative-Liberal Democrats Coalition)
4. Know the values, attitudes and expectations of the British people.
5. Describe the level and sources of Britains legitimacy.
6. Describe the nature of political participation in Britain.
7. Explain the changes in voting behavior since WW II.
8. Know the political parties, leaders and positions on important issues.
9. Understand unitary and federal state.
10. Be able to discuss the powers, responsibilities and roles played by British political institutions.
11. Understand the relationship between and among these institutions (esp. relationship between Prime Minister and
the House of Commons)
12. Explain the role of the Civil Service, and how it interacts with the Cabinet.
13. Explain collective responsibility and party discipline.
14. Have an understanding of the British Constitution (What makes up the Constitution, advantages and
disadvantages).
15. Know basic facts on demographics and economics.
16. Define shadow cabinet, backbenchers, Whitehall, Downing Street, Westminster, etc.
17. Explain devolution (define, know details, advantages, disadvantages, impact on British political system).
18. Know the Constitutional Reform proposals made and passed since 1997 under New Labour.
19. Details of Thatcherism.
20. Details of Tony Blair and New Labours Third Way.
21. Status of the Euro and Britains perspective on the EU (consider especially sovereignty)
22. Be able to explain the single member district plurality system and its adv/disadv vs. PR.
23. Understand referendums in the UK, particularly May 2011 (consider also: devolution)
24. Understand the conflict in Northern Ireland Good Friday Peace Agreement
25. The impact of the Iraq War and the Special Relationship between Britain and the U.S.
26. Be prepared to evaluate the British political system.
27. Impact of immigration on politics in Britain.
28. Explain the example of coalition government in 2010.
29. Primary and relevant concepts from Chs. 1-7 may be incorporated into questions.

Color Code:
You are set to study this and are accountable for it. Go over the text, notes, etc. and review material.
Quick clarification item. Ask Mr. Flynn.
We will still be specifically reviewing this to some level of detail.
















CHAPTER OUTLINE

I. POLITICS IN BRITAIN
A. The government of the United Kingdom was created in 1801 by merging England, Scotland,
Wales, and Ireland under the authority of Parliament in London.
B. Unlike new democracies, Britain did not become a democracy overnight. It became a democracy
by evolution rather than revolution.
II. POLICY CHALLENGES FACING THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT
A. The general election of 2010 has faced British party leaders with their biggest political challenge
in more than half a century.
B. The Conservative Party under the leadership of David Cameron came first with 307 seats; the
outgoing Labour government of Gordon Brown trailed in second place with 258 seats, and the
Liberal Democratic Party led by Nick Clegg came third with 57 seats.
C. The coalition government's chief offices are divided between Conservative David Cameron as
prime minister and Liberal Democratic leader Nick Clegg as deputy prime minister. The first
challenge facing the government is to keep the coalition together.
D. Some Liberal Democrats were unhappy because they consider their policies closer to the Labour
Party on, for example, which programs to cut and which taxes to increase in order to deal with
the governments massive budget deficit.
E. Every British prime minister claims a special relationship with the United States.
F. The coalition government faces a double challenge: to reduce the size of the government's deficit
and to stimulate a return to economic growth. Most Conservatives want to give priority to
spending cuts, while most Liberals are prepared to maintain higher spending financed by higher
taxes.
III. THE ENVIRONMENT OF POLITICS: ONE CROWN BUT FIVE NATIONS
A. In international law, the state is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great
Britain is divided into England, Scotland, and Wales. The fourth part of the United Kingdom,
Northern Ireland, consists of the six counties of Ulster.
B. The United Kingdom is a unitary state because there is a single source of authority, the British
Parliament. However, the institutions of government are not uniform throughout the Kingdom.
C. Historically, Scotland and Wales have been governed by British Cabinet ministers accountable to
Parliament.
D. Northern Ireland is an anomaly; three-fifths of its population is Protestants who wish to remain
part of the United Kingdom, while most of the rest are Catholics who wish to be united with the
country of Ireland.
1. Since 1968, non-violent protests by Catholics and violent actions by the Irish Republican
Army (IRA) pushed for secession. In 1998, a power-sharing agreement meant to end the
violence through power sharing was signed, but the executive collapsed in 2002.
2. In March 2007, Prime Minister Ian Paisley agreed to a power-sharing agreement with
representatives of Sinn Fein, the former political arm of the IRA.
E. A multiracial Britain
1. While the British Empire was always multicultural (if non-democratic), Britain has only
recently had to deal with a large influx of non-white immigrants from the West Indies,
China, India, and Pakistan, among other areas.
2. A series of terrorist attacks and near attacks prompted the British government to increase
police powers; at the same time, however, the new immigrants have also made a mark on
politics
IV. THE LEGACY OF HISTORY
A. Britain has a long history that began with the Crown being established as the central political
authority in the Middle Ages. A power struggle and a civil war in the seventeenth century
resulted in the triumph of Parliament as a power capable of holding the Crown accountable.
B. Developments since World War II can be divided into five stages:
1. An all-party wartime coalition that led to a mixed economy Keynesian social welfare
state until 1951;
2. A Conservative government led by Winston Churchill and others that accepted the
welfare state and governed until 1964;
3. An age of hyper-innovation, where parties denounced stagnation, and Britain joined
the European Union, until 1979;
4. The Thatcher era, in which Britains first woman prime minister proclaimed the virtues of
the free market and attacked big government as a dedicated Conservative. Coal mines
and railways underwent privatization during this era, which lasted until 1994;
5. Tony Blair led the New Labour Party to electoral victory by advocating a pragmatic
Third Way in politics, modeled on the moderate strategy of the United States Bill
Clinton. Blairs popularity dropped precipitously as a result of his sending troops to
support President George W. Bushs invasion of Iraq, and he resigned as prime minister
in 2007.
V. THE STRUCTURE OF GOVERNMENT
A. The Crown is only a ceremonial head of state. The governmental institutions are referred to
collectively as Westminster; they include Whitehall, or the executive agencies of government;
Downing Street, or the prime ministers residence; and Parliament, or the popularly elected
House of Commons.
B. The prime minister is the chief executive; he is elected by his party for an indefinite term and
may lose office if the partys confidence wanes.
C. The Cabinet consists of senior ministers appointed by the prime minister from either the House
of Commons or the House of Lords.
D. The Civil Service is a non-partisan group of hundreds of thousands of civil servants involved in
formulating, revising, and advising on policies.
E. England has no written constitution; instead, its unwritten constitution is a combination of acts of
Parliament, judicial pronouncements, customs, and conventions about the rules of politics.
1. The constitution has no Bill of Rights, as the rights of citizens are supposed to be assured
by trustworthy governors; the final authority in Britain is the Parliament, which may
change the content of the unwritten constitution as it deems necessary.
F. What the prime minister says and does
1. The imperatives of the prime minister are as follows: winning elections, campaigning
through the media, patronage, parliamentary performance, and making and balancing
policies.
G. The cabinet and cabinet ministers
1. The Cabinet consists of senior ministers appointed by the prime minister; they must be
either members of the House of Commons or of the House of Lords.
H. The civil service
1. Government could continue for months without new legislation, but it would collapse
overnight if hundreds of thousands of civil servants stopped administering laws and
delivering public services that had been authorized by Acts of Parliaments.
I. The role of parliament
1. The first function of the Commons is to weigh political reputations. MPs continually
assess their colleagues as ministers, potential ministers, and coalition partners.
2. Second, backbench MPs can demand that the government do something about an issue
and force a minister to explain and defend what he or she is responsible for.
3. Publicizing issues is a third function of Parliament. MPs can use their position to call the
medias attention to issues and to themselves.
4. Fourth, MPs can examine how Whitehall departments administer public policies.
J. The courts and abuses of power
1. The creation of a Supreme Court as the highest judicial authority in the United Kingdom
in 2009 replaced the centuries-old practice of the highest court operating as a committee
of the House of Lords.
K. Government as a network
1. Policymaking involves a network of prime minister, ministers, leading civil servants, and
political advisors, all of whom share in what has been described as the village life of
Whitehall.
VI. POLITICAL CULTURE AND LEGITIMACY
A. British political culture embraces three separate ideas of representation.
B. The trusteeship theory of government assumes leaders should take the initiative in deciding what
is collectively in the public interest.
C. The collectivist theory assumes governments role is to balance the demands of competing
groups and classes in the society.
D. The individualist theory assumes that political parties should represent people rather than
organized group interests, and that each person is responsible for his or her own welfare through
the marketplace.
VII. POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION
A Political socialization begins at an early age and divides those heavily involved in politics from
those moderately involved.
B. Family and gender
1. Family has little influence on voting, and there is no apparent gender gap in voting or
political attitudes; women are under-represented in national elected positions, however.
C. Education
1. Education is strongly related to active participation in politics, and university graduates
constitute more than two-thirds of the members of the House of Commons.
D. Class
1. Social class, which refers to the social status conferred by occupational status, education,
and income, have a strong effect upon who participates, but far less effect on their voting
choice.
E. Media
1. Further, while mass media tend to reinforce differences arising from class or education,
the law forbids selling advertising to politicians, parties, or political causes.
F. Overall, the loyalties of voters are shaped by an accumulation of influences of class, education,
family, and media effects.
VIII. POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
A. An election is the one opportunity people have to influence government directly.
B. Every citizen aged 18 or over is eligible to vote. Local government officials register voters, and
the list is revised annually, ensuring that nearly everyone eligible to vote is actually registered.
C. Turnout at general elections has fallen from a high of 84 percent in the closely fought 1950
election to as low as 59 percent. In 2010 the closeness of the election increased turnout; it rose to
65 percent. However, only half those who vote say they feel close to a political party.
IX. POLITICAL RECRUITMENT
A. MPs and cabinet ministers
1. For a person ambitious to be a Cabinet minister, becoming an MP is the necessary first
step. Nomination as a parliamentary candidate is in the hands of local party committees.
A candidate does not have to be resident in the constituency in which he or she is
nominated.
B. Higher civil servants
1. Whereas MPs come and go from ministerial office, civil servants can be in Whitehall for
the whole of their working lives. Higher civil servants are recruited without specific
professional qualifications or training.
2. They are meant to be the best and the brightest a requirement that has traditionally
meant getting a prestigious degree in history, literature, or languages.
C. Political advisors
1. Most advisors are party-political; their job is to mobilize political support for the
government and for the Cabinet minister for whom they work.
D. Selective recruitment
1. Nothing could be more selective than an election that results in one person becoming
prime minister of a country. Yet nothing is more representative, because an election is the
one occasion when every adult can participate in politics with equal effect.
X. ORGANIZING GROUP INTERESTS
A. Civil society, defined as those institutions separate from government, has flourished for centuries
in Britain, and the scope of group demands varies from narrow to very broad; interest groups
seldom seek influence by contesting elections, though.
B. What interest groups want
1. Interest groups pursue four goals: gaining information about government policies and
changes in policy; a sympathetic administration of established policies; influence on
policymaking; and symbolic status.
2. Interest groups also provide Whitehall departments with the following benefits: they
cooperate in administering and implementing policies, provide information on their
fields, evaluate the consequences of policies under consideration, and support
government initiatives.
3. The centralization of authority in British government means that interest groups must
treat as given the political values and priorities of the government of the day.
4. Insider interest groups have values in harmony with every political party; outsider interest
groups cannot negotiate with government because their interests conflict with those of the
party in power.
C. Keeping interest groups at a distance
1. A state-distancing strategy emphasizes the use of legislation to achieve goals, since no
interest group can defy an Act of Parliament.
XI. PARTY SYSTEM AND ELECTORAL CHOICE
A. A multiplicity of choices
1. British government is based around its political parties; elections must occur at least once
every five years, and the prime minister may call elections at any time. Within each
constituency, the winner is the candidate who is first-past-the-postthat is, the candidate
with a plurality (the largest number) of votes. The national winner is the party that gains
the most constituency seats under this system.
2. Since 1974, Britain has been a multiparty system. As a result, the majority party need
only win a plurality of votes in enough districts to constitute a legislative majority, and
the majority party in Parliament need not receive a majority of the popular vote.
3. Party organizations are characterized by decentralization and consist of three parts: voters
who choose it, those active in constituent organizations, and the party in Parliament.
B. Party images and appeals
1. While the terminology of left and right is part of the language of elite politicians, it is
rejected by the great majority of British voters. When asked to place themselves on a
left/right scale, the median voter chooses the central position, and only a tenth place
themselves on the far left or far right.
2. A large majority of the public named economic problems as a major issue at the 2010
general election.




XII. CENTRALIZED AUTHORITY AND DECENTRALIZED DELIVERY OF POLICIES
A. The British government combines central decision-making authority with decentralized delivery
of services; as such, making and delivering services requires intra-governmental politics. The
process has several steps.
B. Whitehall
1. The Whitehall obstacle course is where decisions are made about dividing up
responsibilities and costs, how a new program relates to existing commitments, and how
much money is needed.
C. Devolution of elected officials
1. While the policy of territorial justice argues that the same public policy should apply
everywhere, devolution has given some autonomy for the delivery of public services to
local governments in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
D. Nonelected institutions
1. The British government also sponsors more than a thousand quasi-autonomous non-
governmental organizations (quangos) to advise on policy and deliver services.
2. The advisory committees draw on the expertise of interest groups, while the
administrative tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies that make expert judgments on policies
such as rent control or other small claims.
E. Turning to the market
1. Privatization has been justified on grounds of economic efficiency (the market is better
than civil servants in determining investment, production, and prices); political ideology
(the power of government is reduced); service (private enterprise is more consumer-
oriented than civil servants); and short-term financial gain (the sale of public assets can
provide billions in revenue for government).
F. From trust to contact
1. Historically, the British civil service has relied on trust in delivering policies. Trust has
been replaced by contracts with agencies delivering such everyday services as automobile
licenses and patents.
G. The contingency of influence
1. The theory of British government is centralist; all roads lead to Downing Street, where
the prime minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer have their homes and offices.

XIII. WHY PUBLIC POLICY MATTERS
A. However a citizen votes, she or he does not need to look far to see the outputs of government.
B. To produce the benefits of public policy, government relies on three major resources: laws,
money, and personnel. Most policies involve a combination of all three resources, but they do
not do so equally.
C. Laws are the unique resource of government, for private enterprises cannot enact binding laws,
and contracts are only effective if they can be enforced by courts.

XIV. POLICY OUTCOMES IN SOCIETY
A. In an open society such as Britain, social conditions reflect the interaction of public policies, the
national and international economy, the not-for-profit institutions of civil society, and the choices
that individuals and households make. Thus, the term welfare state is misleading.
B. There is broad agreement about the need to make the British economy more competitive in a
global economy.
C. Politics in Britain is an ongoing debate about the direction, the means, and the tempo of adapting
old institutions and inherited policies to the twenty-first century.