Beyond Westminster and Whitehall provides the first comprehensive account of the range of sub-central government institutions that are responsible for the delivery of services to citizens. These bodies are the warp and weft of the British system of government and yet are all too frequently ignored. For a full understanding of British government, the study of sub-central government is of equivalent importance to that of the Prime Minister, the Cabinet, and Parliament. Westminster and Whitehall do not always get what they want. There are a great many restraints upon the actions of the centre, and central policies all too often have unintended consequences. This book, demonstrating that Britain is not a unitary state but a differentiated polity in which sub-central governments play a key role, will be essential reading for teachers and students of British politics.
Systematically updated throughout, the 6th edition of this leading text takes the story of health policy to the end of the Blair era and into the early years of the Brown premiership. It offers a clear and thorough introduction to the history of the NHS, its funding and priorities, and to the process of policy making.
In 1919 Nancy Astor was elected as the Member of Parliament for Plymouth Sutton, becoming the first woman MP to take her seat in the House of Commons. Her achievement was all the more remarkable given that women (and even then only some women) had only been entitled to vote for just over a year. In the past 100 years, a total of 491 women have been elected to Parliament. Yet it was not until 2016 that the total number of women ever elected surpassed the number of male MPs in a single parliament. The achievements of these political pioneers have been remarkable – Britain has now had two female Prime Ministers and women MPs have made significant strides in fighting for gender equality from the earliest suffrage campaigns to Barbara Castle's fight for equal pay to Harriet Harman's recent legislation on the gender pay gap. Yet the stories of so many women MPs have too often been overlooked in political histories. In this book, Rachel Reeves brings forgotten MPs out of the shadows and looks at the many battles fought by the Women of Westminster, from 1919 to 2019.
Although it is seldom recognised as such by the public, the civil service is a profession like any other. The UK civil service employs 400,000 people across the country, with over 20,000 students and graduates applying to enter every year through its fast-stream competition alone. Martin Stanley's seminal How to Be a Civil Servant was the first guidebook to the British civil service ever published. It remains the only comprehensive guide on how civil servants should effectively carry out their duties, hone their communication skills and respond to professional, ethical and technical issues relevant to the job. It addresses such questions as: How do you establish yourself with your minister as a trusted adviser? How should you feed the media so they don’t feed on you? What’s the best way to deal with potential conflicts of interest? This fully updated new edition provides the latest advice, and is a must-read for newly appointed civil servants and for those looking to enter the profession – not to mention students, academics, journalists, politicians and anyone with an interest in the inner workings of the British government.
The British system has been radically transformed in recent decades, far more than most of us realise. As acclaimed political scientist and bestselling author Anthony King shows, this transformation lies at the heart of British politics today. Imagining - or pretending - that the British political system and Britain's place in the world have not greatly changed, our political leaders consistently promise more than they can perform. Political and economic power is now widely dispersed both inside and outside the UK, but Westminster politicians still talk the language of Attlee and Churchill. How exactly has the British system changed? Where does power now lie? In Who Governs Britain?, King offers the first assessment in many years of Britain's governing arrangements as a whole, providing much needed context for the 2015 general election.
Since the end of the Second World War, a set of democratic European countries have established a decentralized system of government based on federal or regional patterns. Some of these systems initially displayed an asymmetrical trend, however, some democracies have implemented a subsequent process of re-symmetrization that changes the structure and the legitimization of the previous political agreements. Charting the evolution of decentralization processes and asymmetries implemented in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Ukraine and the United Kingdom, leading international scholars illustrate which countries have evolved more symmetrically, why this is so and what the role of political actors in these processes have been. In doing so, each case study: - Examines the causes of the legal and constitutional asymmetries and the main political cleavages. - Analyses the main institutions, actors and factors that influence the political dynamics of the territorial debate. - Questions whether there is such a process of re-symmetrization - Presents the main actors in favour of the process of re-symmetrization and of maintaining the constitutional and legal asymmetries Written accessibly and contributing to key debates on federalism and asymmetry, Federalism beyond Federations appeals to academics, politicians, decision-makers and all those interested in the political problems facing modern democracies.
The 800th anniversary of Magna Carta falls in June 2015. In this work Dr Blick argues that this event should be the occasion for a reassessment of the past, present and future of the UK constitution. He draws on his experience as research fellow to the first ever parliamentary inquiry into the possibility of a written constitution for the UK. Dr Blick considers a series of English and UK historical texts from Anglo-Saxon times onwards, among which Magna Carta is the most prominent, which sought to set out arrangements for the governance of England and later the UK as a whole. He argues that they comprise a powerful tradition of written constitutional documents, and stresses the importance of the European dimension to their introduction and content. The author then considers the present nature of the UK constitution, describing the period of immense flux through which it has passed in recent decades, and the implications of this phase of change. Dr Blick identifies a need for a full written constitution for the UK as the next appropriate step. Finally, he discusses the democratic processes suitable to devising such a text, and what its contents might be. 'With this book Andrew Blick has made a major contribution to our understanding of how our system of government has worked in the past, how it is working – or not working – now, and what it could be in the future. Combing the centuries, he challenges many misconceptions and makes a powerful case for a written constitution. This volume is absolutely essential to anyone who wants to appreciate the real meaning of Magna Carta and why we should celebrate it.' Graham Allen MP, Chair, House of Commons Political and Constitutional Reform Committee 'Beyond Magna Carta brings together the utility of a road map with the fascination of a changing cartography of political thought – all part of the constitutional development of these islands from the Great Charter of 1215 to the confusing aftermath of the Scottish Referendum of 2014. It is a superb work of explanation capped by intriguing suggestions of future possibilities.' Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield, FBA, Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History, Queen Mary, University of London.
The British general election of May 2010 delivered the first coalition government since the Second World War. David Cameron and Nick Clegg pledged a 'new politics' with the government taking office in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. Five years on, a team of leading experts drawn from academia, the media, Parliament, Whitehall and think tanks assesses this 'coalition effect' across a broad range of policy areas. Adopting the contemporary history approach, this pioneering book addresses academic and policy debates across this whole range of issues. Did the coalition represent the natural 'next step' in party dealignment and the evolution of multi-party politics? Was coalition in practice a historic innovation in itself, or did the essential principles of Britain's uncodified constitution remain untroubled? Fundamentally, was the coalition able to deliver on its promises made in the coalition agreement, and what were the consequences - for the country and the parties - of this union?
This collection brings together the principal sources in the development of the techniques of social network analysis, from early metaphorical statements in Simmel and Radcliffe-Brown through the more systematic explorations in sociology and social anthropology, to contemporary formalizations. A new introduction explores the history of Social Networks and highlights the arguments of those who treat social network analysis as a loose, qualitative approach as well as those who see its potential in technical, mathematical uses. The thematically organized coverage includes: * Part I: Conceptualizing Social Networks * Part II: Topics and Developments in Graph Theory * Part III: Further Mathematical Models for Networks * Part IV: Applications: Family and Community * Part V: Applications: Corporate Power and Economic Structures * Part VI: Applications: Political, Protest, and Policy Networks * Part VII: Applications: Knowledge, Reputation, and Diffusion
This book examines the far-reaching changes made to the constitution in the United Kingdom in recent decades. It considers the way these reforms have fragmented power, once held centrally through the Crown-in-Parliament, by means of devolution, referendums, and judicial reform. It examines the reshaping of the balance of power between the executive, legislature, and the way that prerogative powers have been curtailed by statute and judicial ruling. It focuses on the Human Rights Act and the creation of the UK Supreme Court, which emboldened the judiciary to limit executive action and even to challenge Parliament, and argues that many of these symbolised an attempt to shift the 'political' constitution to a 'legal' one. Many virtues have been ascribed to these reforms. To the extent that criticism exists, it is often to argue that these reforms do not go far enough. An elected upper chamber, regional English parliaments, further electoral reform, and a codified constitution are common tonics prescribed by commentators from this point of view. This volume adopts a different approach. It provides a critical evaluation of these far-reaching reforms, drawing from the expertise of highly respected academics and experienced political figures from both the left and right. The book is an invaluable source of academic expertise and practical insights for the interested public, students, policymakers, and journalists, who too often are only exposed to the 'further reform' position.
