British Politics since 1997: New Labour and After

Syllabus

SUMMER TERM 2009

Course text

SELDON Anthony (ed.), Blair?s Britain 1997-2007 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2007)

CLASS 1

Monday 9 March 2009, 9:00-11:30, room J1035

Party politics since 1997

Before the lecture please read

Seldon, Blair?s Britain, chapters 1-3.

Supplementary reading

D. Butler and D. Kavanagh, The British General Election of 2005; sections on the campaign and the result.

Useful websites

Labour Party: http://www.labour.org.uk/

Conservative Party: http://www.conservatives.com/

Liberal Democrats: http://www.libdems.org.uk/

Electoral Commission http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/

BBC Election 2005: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/constituencies/default.stm

Seminar topic (please prepare notes and be ready to discuss them):

Why did the Labour Party win the three General Elections of 1997, 2001, and 2005, when it had never before won three elections in a row?

CLASS 2

Monday 9 March 2009, 14:00-16:30, room J1035

Devolution ? Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland

Before the lecture please read

Seldon, Blair?s Britain, chapters 22, 23

Supplementary reading

I. McLean and others, chapters on devolution in:

- A. Seldon ed., The Blair Effect: the Blair Government 1997-2001 (London: Little Brown 2001), chapters 20 (McLean) and 21 (O?Leary)

- A. Seldon and D. Kavanagh ed., The Blair Effect 2001-5 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, chapter 15 (McLean)

- I. McLean, ?Scotland: towards Quebec or Slovakia? Regional Studies 35: 7, October 2001, pp. 637-644

Useful websites

As above plus:

Constitution Unit, London, Devolution Monitoring Reports at www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/research/devolution/devo-monitoring-programme.html

Scottish National Party http://www.snp.org/

Plaid Cymru http://www.plaidcymru.org/

Seminar topics (please prepare notes and be ready to discuss them):

Either: What did the UK government hope to achieve when it gave devolution to Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland? Has it achieved what it wanted?

Or: Scotland: towards Quebec or Slovakia?

CLASS 3

Tuesday 10 March 2009, 9:00-11:30, room J3017

Government and the recession

Before the lecture please read

- Seldon, Blair?s Britain, chapters 10 and 11

- I. McLean and C. Jennings ed., Applying the Dismal Science: when economists give advice to governments (Basingstoke: Palgrave 2006), chapters 1, 6, 7, and Conclusion

Supplementary reading none

Useful websites

As above plus

HM Treasury: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/

Journalist blogs on the recession. Try Larry Elliott, Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tone/blog; or Robert Peston, BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/

Seminar topics (please prepare notes and be ready to discuss them):

Is ?New Labour? doomed? Can a Conservative government be expected to do any better?

CLASS 4

Monday 6 April 2009, 9:00-11:30, room J1035

Public policy: health and education

Before the lecture please read

- Seldon, Blair?s Britain, chapters 17, 18 and 21

- Gordon Brown, ?State and Market: towards a public interest test?, Political Quarterly 74(3), July-September 2003, pp. 266-84.

Supplementary reading

- Scott Greer, Territorial Politics and Health Policy: UK Health Policy in Comparative Perspective (Manchester University Press 2004)

- Iain McLean and Richard Holton, ?Prospect theory?, Prospect, February 2004.

Useful websites

As above plus

Prospect magazine, which calls itself ?Britain?s intelligent conversation?: http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/landing_page.php NB this is a subscription-only site.

Seminar topics (please prepare notes and be ready to discuss them):

Should the state or the market primarily provide health care?

Should the state or the market primarily provide education?

Should university students pay for their own tuition costs?

CLASS 5

Monday 6 April 2009, 14:00-16:30, room J1035

Public policy: multiculturalism

Before the lecture please read

- Seldon, Blair?s Britain, chapters 16 and 20

- Ed Husain, The Islamist: Why I Joined Radical Islam in Britain, What I Saw Inside and Why I Left. Penguin 2007

Supplementary reading

- T. Modood, Multiculturalism, Polity, Cambridge, 2007.

- G. Evans, ?Is Multiculturalism Eroding Welfare Provision? The British Case ?in W. Kymlicka and K. Banting, Multiculturalism and the Welfare State (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007)

Useful websites

As above plus http://www.bris.ac.uk/sociology/ethnicitycitizenship/danishcartoon.pdf on the ?Danish cartoons? affair

Seminar topics (please prepare notes and be ready to discuss them):

Most democracies contain minority ethnic communities. What is distinctive about the British approach to ethnic diversity and managing inter-ethnic tension? Does the British way work better or worse than those in other countries you know?

CLASS 6

Tuesday 7 April 2009, 9:00-11:30, room J1035

Constitutional reform

Before the lecture please read

- Seldon, Blair?s Britain, chapters 2, 6, and 14

- A. Tomkins, Our Republican Constitution (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2005)

- I. McLean and B. Linsley, The Church of England and the State (London: New Politics Network 2004 ? for an online version see below)

Supplementary reading

- A. King, The British Constitution (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2007)

- I. McLean, forthcoming book What?s Wrong with the British Constitution. Chapter drafts will be distributed before the class.

Useful websites

As above (especially Constitution Unit, see Class 2) plus

Institute for Public Policy Research http://www.ippr.org/

JUSTICE http://www.justice.org.uk/

Unlock Democracy http://www.unlockdemocracy.org.uk/ - for the McLean and Linsley pamphlet see http://www.unlockdemocracy.org.uk/?p=662

Seminar topics (please prepare notes and be ready to discuss them):

Should Britain have a ?written constitution??

Should Britain have two state churches, or more than two, or fewer than two?