Syllabus
British Politics Today
Pete Dorey
Professor of British Politics
Department of Politics and International Relations
School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University
Link to materials sent by prof. Dorey: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Xop40t4mKw_GfBSuVQnPUG9jZ93VCGKT?usp=sharing
Topic 1 – The Conservative Party from
Margaret Thatcher to Theresa May
Issues to be examined: a) What is or was ‘Thatcherism’? b) The legacy and impact of Thatcherism c) The Conservative Party’s ‘identity crisis’ since Thatcher d) The Conservative Party today
Suggested readings
Thatcherism
Arthur Aughey, ‘Mrs Thatcher’s Philosophy’, Parliamentary Affairs, Volume 36, Issue 1,
January 1983, Pages 389–398.
Andrew Gamble, ‘The Politics of Thatcherism’, Parliamentary Affairs, Volume 42, Issue 3,
July 1989, Pages 350–361.
Andrew Gamble, ‘The Thatcher Myth’, British Politics, Volume 10, Issue 1, April 2015, pages 3-15.
Bob Jessop, ‘Margaret Thatcher and Thatcherism: Dead but not buried’, British Politics Vol. 10.1, April 2015, pages 16-30.
Martin J. Smith, ‘From consensus to conflict: Thatcher and the transformation of politics’,
British Politics Volume 10, Issue 1, April 2015, pages 64-78.
Post-Thatcherism
Peter Dorey, ‘A New Direction or Another False Dawn? David Cameron and the Crisis of
British Conservatism’, British Politics, Volume 2, Issue 2, July 2007, pages 137-166.
Stephen Evans, ‘Consigning its Past to History? David Cameron and the Conservative Party’
Parliamentary Affairs, Volume 61, Issue 2, April 2008, pages 291-314
Andrew Gamble, ‘The Crisis of Conservatism’, New Left Review, November-December 1995
Tim Heppell, ‘Cameron and Liberal Conservatism: Attitudes within the Parliamentary
Conservative Party and Conservative Ministers’, The British Journal of Politics and
International Relations, Volume 15 Issue 3, August 2013, pages 340–361.
Bob Jessop, ‘Margaret Thatcher and Thatcherism: Dead but not buried’, British Politics Vol. 10.1, April 2015, pages 16-30.
Contemporary British Politics
Topic 2 – The Labour Party from Tony Blair to Jeremy Corbyn
Issues to be examined: e) What was ‘New Labour’ and ‘Blairism’ and why did they emerge? f) The legacy and impact of ‘New Labour’ and ‘Blairism’ g) Labour Party’s ‘identity crisis’ since ‘New Labour’ and ‘Blair’ h) The Labour Party today & Jeremy Corbyn
Suggested readings
New Labour & Blairism
Jenny Andersson, John Kelly, Eric Shaw & Mark Wickham-Jones, ‘Understanding New Labour: A symposium on Eric Shaw’s Losing Labour’s Soul?’, British Politics, Volume 6,
Issue 1, pages 101-125, April 2011.
Judith Bara & Ian Budge, ‘Party Policy and Ideology: Still New Labour?’, Parliamentary
Affairs, Volume 54, Issue 4, 1 October 2001, Pages 590-606.
Andrew Gamble ‘Discussant: Blair’s Legacy’ British Politics Volume 2, Issue 1, April 2007,
Pages 123–128.
Anthony Giddens, ‘New Labour: Tony Blair and After’, British Politics, Volume 2, Issue 1, April 2007, pages 106-110.
Bob Jessop, ‘New Labour or The Normalization of Neo-Liberalism?’, British Politics
Volume 2, Issue 2, July 2007, pages 282–288.
Eric Shaw, ‘Britain: Left Abandoned? New Labour in Power’, Parliamentary Affairs,
Volume 56, Issue 1 (1), January 2003, Pages 6-23.
Post-Blairism
Peter Dorey, ‘Jeremy Corbyn confounds his critics: explaining the Labour party’s remarkable resurgence in the 2017 election’, British Politics, Volume 12, Issue 3, August 2017, pages 308-334.
Peter Dorey & Andrew Denham, ‘The Longest Suicide Vote in History’: The Labour Party
Leadership Election of 2015’, British Politics, Volume 11, Issue 3, pages 259–282,
September 2016.
Tony Wood, ‘Good Riddance to New Labour’, New Left Review, 62, March-April 2010.
Contemporary British Politics
Topic 3 – Britain and the European Union: The Long Road to Brexit
Issues to be examined: a) Historical lack of enthusiasm towards Europe b) Margaret Thatcher’s increasing Euroscepticism in the 1980s c) Conservative divisions deepen post-1990 d) The Labour Left’s own Euroscepticism e) The 2016 Referendum and the aftermath – The United Kingdom Deeply Divided
Nicholas Allen, ‘‘Brexit means Brexit’: Theresa May and post-referendum British politics’,
British Politics, Volume 13, Issue 1, April 2018, pages 105–120.
Peter Dorey,
Chris Gifford, ‘Nationalism, populism and Anglo-British Euroscepticism’, British Politics,
Volume 10, Issue 3, pages 362-366, September 2015.
Philip Lynch, ‘‘Conservative modernisation and European integration: From silence to salience and schism’, British Politics, Volume 10, Issue 2, pages 185-203, June 2015. David Marsh, ‘Brexit and the politics of truth’, British Politics, Volume 13, Issue 1, pages 79-89, April 2018.
Julie Smith, ‘Gambling on Europe: David Cameron and the 2016 referendum’, British
Politics, Volume 13, Issue 1, pages 1-16, April 2018.
Form of assessment
Mini-Exam, comprising 16 (very short-answer) questions on each of the 3 topics I am covering - each answer will only require either one word, a few words, or one sentence, and should easily be finished in less than an hour.