Topic 6.1

• How did the history of the British empire influence the political systems in place in the United Kingdom today

• What forces, both in the UK and abroad, conspired to lead the UK to exit the European Union (EU) in 2020?

• The term “Great Britain” includes England, Wales, and Scotland, but not Northern Ireland.

  • College Board uses the term Britain as shorthand for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. 

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• Critical Junctures:

  • The Consolidation of the British State

  • The Seventeenth-Century Settlement

  • The Industrial Revolution and the British Empire

  • Economic Empire

  • Industrial Change and the Struggle for Voting Rights

  • World Wars, Industrial Strife, and the Depression

  • Collectivist Consensus (post WW2)

  • New Labour’s Third Way

  • The Conservative - Liberal Coalition

  • Brexit

• 

Topic 6.2

• Political economy: the intersection of government or policy into the economy

  • Liberal: more government intervention (closer to the concept of Keynesianism)

  • Conservative: Monetarism

• State and economy:

  • Economic Management

  • The Consensus Era (Keynesianism)

    • Regardless of where they were on the political spectrum, they reached an agreement about the need for high level of government intervention in the economy

      • expansion of social services (the provision of education, healthcare, income, food) and welfare

      • More state intervention in controlling unemployment, inflation, etc. (government became more controlling)

        • If you were to put a bowl outside in the rain and said 2 cups of water in here is the perfect amount, the free market would allow the rain to fill it up and evaporation to let it lower

        • Intervention is when you would pour it up or fill it up to get the desired amount

    • 1960s-1970s (beginning of labor issues): government nationalized key industries (coal, mining, trucking, etc.) —> sentiment against government intervention rose (1970s)

      • Deficit was rising higher, labor rights, pay, etc.

  • Thatcherite Policy Orientation (Monetarism)

    • Margaret Thatcher: dramatic swing in the other direction

      • Conservative prime minister

      • Served for 10 years

      • She represented a new age of conservatism in the UK —> monetarist (less interventionist)

      • The British female Ronald Reagan

  • New Labour’s Economic Policy Approach

    • Tony Blair: new leader of the Labour Party and invented new labor

      • New Labor: supported the more investment on social services —> higher taxes and debt (need to raise more money to give out more money)

      • Need to find a way to fundraise a robust social service state

      • persisted through Tony Blair and his chancellor of the exchequer (Gordon Brown)

        • Gordon Brown: Blair’s chancellor of the exchequer —> prime minister

  • The Coalition Government’s Economic Policy

    • Many European countries put austerity measures into place (to cut spendings, typically social programs); not IMF austerity measures

      • Portugal, Greece, Italy, and Spain got IMF loans during the Great Recessions

  • New Labour Becomes Old Labour Once Again

  • Johnson Withdrew from the European Union

• Social Policy

  • Compared to the rest of Europe

    • EU: free education, maternity leave, paid vacation, etc.

    • UK: does not provide as many

  • National Health Service: government funded healthcare of the UK

    • NHS is typically underfunded and has issues

    • The second a politician tries to touch the NHS they are done

    • Similar to social security in the US

• Society and Economy

  • Inequality and Ethnic Minorities

    • 20% increase in the number of Britains who have a parent show as a foreign born citizen (constantly increasing)

    • 1/3 to ½ have a parent not born in the UK

    • Diaspora is primarily from Africa and Asia —> mixed populations

    • Higher rates of crime and lower rates of education in these communities

  • Inequality and Women

    • wage gap between men and women in the UK (15% of a wage gap)

    • Gap is larger in part-time work (more men work full time)

      • Over 40% of women in the UK are employed in part-time roles

• Environmental issues

  • Acid rain: pollution gets into our ecological system

  • Coal-fired plants

  • Fracking

  • Food safety: the UK (and a lot of Europe) banned a lot of things that are legal in the US (i.e dyes, preservatives)

  • “Green” vs. anti-regulatory bias

• Britain’s economic policies/political climate encourages foreign direct investment

  • Political and economic climate that wants countries to invest in the UK

    • London is one of the finance capitals (similar to Shanghai or New York)

    • Near the North Sea (key energy producing sector of the world)

  • Comparatively strong microeconomic and growth competitiveness

Topic 6.3

• Organization of the State

  • Parliamentary Sovereignty: none of Parliament’s actions can be checked by other balances

    • Their judicial review is not able to overturn parliament

    • Parliamentary supremacy

    • No check on the actions of parliament

  • Parliamentary Democracy: they hold elections for the executive, the people don’t directly elect the prime minister, the prime minister can be dismissed by the legislator

    • Presidential democracies have executive and legislative branches separate (elected separate), check on the executive

    • Parliamentary democracy the executive comes from the legislature and it’s easier for the legislature to remove the executive

  • Unitary State: the central government (federal) has all of the power, none guaranteed to the subnational units (but they can give or take it away)

    • In a federal state: power cannot be taken away from subnational units

  • Fusion of Powers

    • Presidential system! More likely for divided government

    • Parliamentary system: Elections for the legislator, the winning party for the legislator, their party would be asked to form a government. Once the prime minister is asked to form a government by the monarchy, they will create their cabinet which has to be members of parliament; hint the fusion of powers (legislative and executive are fused)

    • When the parliament and executive are in sync, things happen quicker in government (less disagreement); fusion of powers speeds this up

  • Cabinet Government

    • Similar to the US

    • When the Prime Minister appoints their cabinet, the person who is in charge of that division is the cabinet secretary (political appointee who heads the department)

    • Permanent Secretary: each department has one; high ranking career civil servant (not an appointee) and is the second in charge in these divisions

    • The secretary of home office: attorney general and dog

    • Chancellor of the exchequer: treasury

  • Constitutional Monarchy: the monarch has limited powers

    • in the UK, the last step of a bill becoming a law is royal ascent, the king has to agree to it

    • when an election happens, the monarch asks the leader of the party to form a government in his name

    • All of the things that are done in the monarch’s name are done by an actual government, the monarch itself isn’t ruling, it’s the elected government that’s running the country in the name of the king

• The executive

  • Cabinet Government

  • Bureaucracy and Civil Service

    • Tends to be a large group of people who are career civil servants (foreign service, diplomats, judges, etc.)

    • Career civil servant: Anyone who is serving this government function as a career

  • Public and Semi-Public Institutions

    • Happened during the Consensus Era (lots of nationalization happen); Thatcher emphasized privatization

      • Nationalized Industries

      • Non-Departmental Public Bodies (quangos/quasi non-governmental organizations): a governmental organization that is not a governmental organization; an organization that is formed, the function is sanctioned by the government, the government may fund it, the government isn’t running it or taking responsibility

        • If there is an area that is unpopular, controversial, or demands independence where you don’t want the government running it, you form a quango

        • Examples: some regulatory bodies, certain watch groups (anti-corruption)

    • Other State Institutions

      • The Military and the Police:

        • Britain used to be the strongest military (naval)

        • Nuclear Triad: submarines launch ballistic missle, icbm, bombers (ways to launch nukes)

          • The UK has this

        • Blue Water Nsvy: deep sea navy

        • Royal Airforce

        • Army

        • Since WW2, there hasn’t been any fighting on UK soil

        • The UK has played a large role in NATO

          • fall of Soviet Union, no competing organization to NATO (Warsaw Pact dissolved)

          • Missions in Kosovo, Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, etc. wanted to promote democracy and western ideals (resources, troops, etc.)

      • The Judiciary

        • Didn’t have a Supreme Court til 2009

        • No judicial review

        • 2 functions: identify violations of common law and previous things Parliament has passed

          • Supreme Court can rule on these acts

      • Subnational Government

        • England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales

        • Tony Blair’s New Labour put a series of reforms into place that tried to inshrine more power in subnational units to appease them (they wanted independence, instead they got more autonomy and authority)

      • Focus is on Whitehall: colloquial term for Parliament and the agencies

        • Focus on the actual cabinet part of government

        • 

      • European Union Policy