Over the past decade, the UK has experienced major policy and policy making change. This text examines this shifting political and policy landscape while also highlighting the features of UK politics that have endured. Written by Paul Cairney and Sean Kippin, leading voices in UK public policy and politics, the book combines a focus on policy making theories and concepts with the exploration of key themes and events in UK politics, including: - developing social policy in a post-pandemic world; - governing post-Brexit; and - the centrality of environmental policy. The book equips students with a robust and up-to-date understanding of UK public policy and enables them to locate this within a broader theoretical framework.
The UK’s Changing Democracy presents a uniquely democratic perspective on all aspects of UK politics, at the centre in Westminster and Whitehall, and in all the devolved nations. The 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU marked a turning point in the UK’s political system. In the previous two decades, the country had undergone a series of democratic reforms, during which it seemed to evolve into a more typical European liberal democracy. The establishment of a Supreme Court, adoption of the Human Rights Act, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish devolution, proportional electoral systems, executive mayors and the growth in multi-party competition all marked profound changes to the British political tradition. Brexit may now bring some of these developments to a juddering halt. The UK’s previous ‘exceptionalism’ from European patterns looks certain to continue indefinitely. ‘Taking back control’ of regulations, trade, immigration and much more is the biggest change in UK governance for half a century. It has already produced enduring crises for the party system, Parliament and the core executive, with uniquely contested governance over critical issues, and a rapidly changing political landscape. Other recent trends are no less fast-moving, such as the revival of two-party dominance in England, the re-creation of some mass membership parties and the disruptive challenges of social media. In this context, an in-depth assessment of the quality of the UK’s democracy is essential. Each of the 2018 Democratic Audit’s 37 short chapters starts with clear criteria for what democracy requires in that part of the nation’s political life and outlines key recent developments before a SWOT analysis (of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) crystallises the current situation. A small number of core issues are then explored in more depth. Set against the global rise of debased semi-democracies, the book’s approach returns our focus firmly to the big issues around the quality and sustainability of the UK’s liberal democracy.
A pathbreaking introduction to the controversial, contested and deeply political topic of development. Written in an engaging and eminently readable style, leading authors invite readers to examine the political dynamics behind some of today’s most complex global issues, from rising inequality and social exclusion to the climate crisis. By confronting false assumptions and dispelling myths, the book challenges readers to see politics as not only the obstacle to development, but also the means to achieve it. The Politics of Development is grounded in the everyday challenges facing people around the world in accessing the vital resources they need to survive and thrive. It illustrates the unavoidable reality that politics shapes who gets what, when, how; whether in family settings, local communities, national stages or global arenas. It provides readers with a clear roadmap for action centred on institutions, interests, and ideas, to better navigate competing demands and push forward profound change. There are no easy answers to the politics of development – instead, this book provides the analytical tools to understand why getting development right can be so hard and how you can positively respond to some of the critical challenges facing governments, societies and citizens around the world today. This text is essential reading for any student of the politics of development or Development Studies, at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Claire Mcloughlin is Associate Professor of Politics and Development, University of Birmingham, UK Sameen Ali is Assistant Professor of International Development, University of Birmingham, UK Kailing Xie is Assistant Professor of International Development, University of Birmingham, UK Nicholas Cheeseman is Professor of Democracy and International Development, University of Birmingham, UK David Hudson is Professor of Politics and Development, University of Birmingham, UK
This book employs a political economic approach in exploring the underlying neoliberal foundations of politics and electioneering in both the United States and the United Kingdom that have widened the divide among voters and, over time, led to a deep distrust of state institutions, including electoral politics and system of political representation. Covering the period of 1980 to the present, the book provides analysis of how neoliberalism applies to the electoral sphere and draws the connections between the larger forces behind the globalising political economy and the trajectory of the corporate state and the many intersections of US and UK electoral politics – with lessons for other wealthy states that follow in similar pathways. As such, it helps explain a phenomenal parallel pattern of major political upheavals and social dislocations within these two countries. Finally, it reveals through numerous social indicators that the two leading neoliberal political economic systems are producing depressing results for large sections of their citizenry and a threat to social democracy, as the concentration of wealth and well-being is largely captured by a minority class of empowered individuals. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of electoral politics, political parties, political behaviour, British politics, U.S. politics and more broadly to readers interested in political economy and comparative politics.
This book addresses the reasons why the contemporary far-right has gained political resonance in a variety of states across both the Global North and South. The rise of far-right forms of politics in recent years throughout a range of geopolitical locales suggests the emergence of a distinct conjuncture in world politics, indicating a common set of enabling conditions and characteristics. It is this unprecedented context in the history of the post-war liberal international order that this edited volume aims to address. In doing so, it brings together a diverse range of scholars, many of whom have developed an internationally recognized expertise in the study of the far-right and International Relations (IR). Reflecting a plurality of methodological and theoretical perspectives, the chapters cover a variety of theoretical and conceptual issues, including analyses of different geopolitical and national expressions of the contemporary far-right. Notwithstanding such diversity, the primary analytical focus of the book is to situate and explain the far-right as a distinct part of the history of modern international relations especially with respect to the development of and crises within the contemporary international order. From this perspective, the contributions combine to demonstrate the deeply embedded symptoms of far-right politics centred on racialized imaginaries across the globe and re-produced within the sinews of an evolving liberal international order even as the far-right also represents an antagonism to some elements of said order. Providing a much-needed global perspective, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of populism, far-right politics, conservatism and international relations. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Globalizations and are accompanied by a new epilogue.
Examining the intersections of education, sociology and politics, Student Identity and Political Agency provides a unique, research-informed account of the student experience in a contemporary higher education setting. By drawing on current societal context, this book has a two-fold aim: to unpack and discuss student identity in higher education, and to identify opportunities to influence positive educational and social change. This essential text encourages readers to critically examine and explore: the marketisation and massification of higher education, the homogenising model of consumerism in higher education and the impact this holds upon the diversity of the student population, the positioning of youth and student-hood in our higher education systems, past and present forms of student political agency – protest, unionism and consumer rights – in an attempt to influence positive change. Informed by recent research, this is a crucial read for academics and researchers who specialise in the field of student identity and experience, or, more broadly, in higher education transformations. This book provides a timely and academically rigorous account of contemporary student identity and agency in the global context of higher education.
This revised and updated tenth edition of the bestselling textbook Politics UK is an indispensable introduction to British politics. It provides a thorough and accessible overview of the institutions and processes of British government, an excellent grounding in British political history and an incisive introduction to the issues and challenges facing Britain today. This edition welcomes three brand new chapters - ‘Elites in the United Kingdom’, 'Gender and British politics' and 'UK Immigration policy in hostile environment' - alongside rigorously updated revised chapters. It delivers excellent coverage of contemporary events, with significant new material covering: the Johnson premiership and the national challenge of Covid-19, the end of the May premiership and the implementation of Brexit, the Labour Party’s transition from Corbyn to Starmer, infrastructure and innovation, 'fake news', populism and nationalism, the UK’s place in a post-Brexit world, climate change, social mobility and elite recruitment, devolution and regionalism, constitutional strain, the role of political advisers, abuse and incivility in politics and much more. Other features of the new edition include: A wide range of illustrative material, boxes and case studies providing illuminating examples alongside the analysis. A comprehensive ‘who’s who’ of politics in the form of Profile boxes featuring key political figures. And another thing . . . pieces containing short articles on salient and pressing topics, written by distinguished commentators including Sir John Curtice, Sir Simon Jenkins, Andrew Rawnsley, Baroness Julie Smith of Newnham, and Philip Collins. Online interviews on the book’s website see notable figures from British political life discussing the pressing issues of today. With chapters written by highly respected scholars in the field and contemporary articles on real-world politics from well-known political commentators, this textbook is an essential guide for all students of British politics.