Title: Class 34: Great Britain
1Class 3-4 Great Britain
- The Westminster Model
- Single-member electoral system
- Economic and political modernization
- Hegemony
- Political cleavages
- Head of state/Head of government
- Common law
2Major institutions in Great Britain
- House of Commons main legislative powers.
- House of Lords ability to delay legislation and
suggest revisions.
- Prime Minister and Cabinet primary executive
(head of government).
- Monarchy ceremonial and diplomatic functions
(head of state).
3Head of Government vs. Head of State
- Head of Government Holder of main executive
powers.
- Head of State Holder of primary ceremonial
international pwer.
4Political Parties
- Major parties
- Labour
- Conservative
- Minor third party
- Liberal Democrats (Lib Dems)
- Regional parties
- Scottish National Party (SNP)
- Plaid Cymru (Wales)
- N. Ireland parties
5The Westminster Model
- Book definition -- A form of democracy based on
the supreme authority of Parliament and the
accountability of its elected representatives
named after the site of the Parliament building
in Westminster, a borough of London. - Parliamentary democracy -- System of government
in which the chief executive is answerable to the
legislature and may be dismissed by it.
6The Westminster Model
- Parliamentary sovereignty -- A constitutional
principle of government (principally in Britain)
by which the legislature reserves the power to
make or overturn any law without recourse by the
executive, the judiciary, or the monarchy. Only
Parliament can nullify or overturn legislation
approved by Parliament and Parliament can force
the cabinet or the government to resign by voting
a motion of no confidence.
7Checks and Balances vs. Majority Rule
8The Westminster Model (Theoretical Concept)
- Maximization of majority rule (Lijphart).
- Attributes
- Parliamentary sovereignty.
- Executive elected from parliament and backed by a
majority in the legislature.
- Limited constitutional constraints, or no formal
constitution.
- Unitary state
- Two-party system.
- Single-member plurality electoral system.
9Fusion of Powers
- Book definition -- A constitutional principle
that merges the authority of branches of
government, in contrast to the principle of
separation of powers. In Britain, for example,
Parliament is the supreme legislative, executive
and judicial authority. The fusion of
legislative and executive is also expressed in
the function and personnel of the cabinet.
10Government Formation
- General election
- Crown invites the leader of party with majority
in House of Commons to form a government and
serve as Prime Minister.
- PM appoints Cabinet, which consists in Britain of
approximately 24 members.
- Cabinet presents policies to Parliament, along
with an assumption of collective responsibility.
11Variations on Government Formation
- Minority governments.
- Coalition governments.
- National unity governments.
- Different methods of deciding who forms
government
- Passive role of Head of State.
- Active role of Head of State.
- Automatic selection according to Constitutional
rules.
12Constitutional Monarchy
- Queen-in-Parliament.
- Hereditary succession.
- Head of State.
- Primarily ceremonial.
- Foreign policy functions.
- Moral authority and leadership.
- Some countries have a similar system, but with an
elected president, rather than a hereditary king
or queen (ex. Israel, Czech Republic, Germany).
13Single-member plurality (SMP) electoral system.
- Book definition -- an electoral system in which
candidates run for a single seat from a specific
geographic district. The winner is the person
who receives the most votes, whether or not that
is a majority. SMP systems, unlike proportional
representations, increase the likelihood that two
national coalition parties will form.
14Single-Member Majority (SMM) Electoral System
- An electoral system in which candidates run for a
single seat from a specific geographic district.
The winner is the person who receives a majority
of votes. If there is no candidate receiving a
majority in the first round of election, the top
two vote recipients enter a second round of
voting. SMM systems encourage multiple parties
in the first round, with coalition-building for
the runoff vote.
15Duverger's Law
- Where an SMP system is in place, there will tend
to be two national parties.
- Why?
- Strategic voting.
- Ideologies tend towards centrality.
- Incentives for parties to form coalitions prior
to elections.
- Other parties have difficult entering.
16Exceptions to Duverger's Law
- Geographically centered parties form in federal
systems (Canada).
- A centrally located party ideologically, which
becomes essential for coalitions (India).
17Effects of SMP
- Exaggerates the size of the largest party, and
reduces influence of regionally dispersed
parties.
- Ex. In 2005, with 35.2 percent of the popular
vote, Labour won 355 seats. With 22.1 percent of
the vote, the Liberal Democrats won 62 seats.
- Tends toward single-party governments.
- Tends toward ideological homogeneity.
18Classic Model of Modernization
- Britain usually given a privileged position in
comparative politics.
- Often considered the successful model of peaceful
democratization and economic modernizaiton.
192 Phases of Industrial Revolution
- Phase 1 concentration of agriculture, rise of
merchants bourgeoisie, and guarantee of
property rights. Followed by mass migration to
the cities. - Phase 2 development of industry, utilization of
fossil fuels, increased communication, and
increasing importance of labor.
20Phase 1 The Enclosure Movement (14th -16th c.)
- Demand for English wool, along with declining
population, encourages the raising of sheep to
replace large-scale grain farming.
- This sharply reduces the demand for peasant
labor, and increases the price of food.
- It also concentrates money into the landholders,
providing investment funds.
- Landholders press for stable, well-defined,
property rights.
- Evicted peasants move to the cities, creating a
surplus of cheap labor.
21Phase 2 Industrial Expansion
- Development of new technologies, along with new
fuel (coal) allowed for large expansion of
output.
- Also allowed for organization and expression of
demands from organized labor.
- Liberal party begins pressure for full suffrage.
- Largely credited with the emergence of the 19th
c. of the liberal philosophy, centered around
limited government and personal freedoms.
22Strategies of Economic Development
- Liberal classically liberal in the
nineteenth-century European sense, favoring
free-market solutions to economic problems and
extensive personal freedoms for individuals. - Dominant strategy of economic development from
early 19th c. to 1940.
- Adam Smith, 1723-1790.
- Also called laissez-faire, French for to let
do
23Strategies for Economic Development
- Role of government in liberal paradigm
- Enforce contracts
- Protect property rights
- Provide for national defense
24Strategies of Economic Development
- Keynesianism named after the British economist
John Maynard Keynes, an approach to economic
policy in which state economic policies are used
to regulate the economy in an attempt to achieve
stable economic growth.
25Strategies of Economic Development.
- Counter-cyclical spending During recession,
state budget deficits are used to expand demand
in an effort to boost both consumption and
investment, and to create employment. During
periods of high growth, when inflation threatens,
cuts in government spending and a tightening of
credit are used to reduce demand. - Main strategy from 1945-1980.
- Goal of full-employment.
26Strategies of Economic Development
- Monetarism An approach to economic policy that
assumes a natural rate of unemployment determined
by the labor market, emphasizes setting targets
for the rate of growth of the monetary supply,
gives highest priority to controlling inflation,
and rejects the instrument of government spending
to run budgetary deficits for stimulating the
economy. - Also called neo-liberalism.
- Basis of Thatcherite economic policy.
27New Left/ Third Way
- A centrist philosophy that supports a mix of
market and interventionist policies. It rejects
both top-down redistribution and liberal
approaches to economic governance, chiefly
stressing technology, education, and
competitivene mechanisms for economic growth. - Developed by Wilhelm Ropke (social capitalism)
and Anthony Giddens.
- Basis for Labour policy under Tony Blair.
28Policies of the Third Way
- Fiscal conservatism
- Replacement of welfare with workfare
- Pollution markets
- Use of market solutions to traditional problems.
29Hegemony
- Hegemonic power a state that can control the
pattern of alliances and terms of the
international order, and often shapes domestic
political developments in countries throughout
the world. - Originated in ancient Greece, and occurred when
Sparta became the hegemon in the Poloponnesian
League.
- British Empire in the 19th c. often considered
the first global hagemon.
30Attributes of Hegemony
- 2 methods of spreading hegemony
- Hard power military strength, the ability to
defeat opponents at war.
- Soft power widespread acceptance of economic
and social norms.
- These two often interrelate.
- Relationship to free trade periods of free
trade in the 19th c., and then after World War
II, are often linked to the interests of a
hegemonic economic power.
31Attributes of Hegemony
- Spread of Ideas
- Antonio Gramsci -- the process whereby ideas,
structures, and actions come to be seen by the
majority of people as wholly natural,
preordained, and working for their own good, when
in fact they are constructed and transmitted by
powerful minority interests to protect the status
quo that serves those interests. - Francis Fukuyama (1989) -- End of History --
What we may be witnessing is...the end of
history as such that is the end point of
mankind's ideological evolution and
universalization of Western liberal democracy as
the final form of human government.
32Attributes of Hegemony
- Economic influence --
- Colonialism the extension of a state's
sovereignty over territory beyond its borders by
the establishment of either settler colonies or
administrative dependencies in which indigenous
populations are directly ruled or displaced. - Economic dependence at its strongest, where a
country is so dependent on another's economy as a
market or source of goods, that it cannot
function without it, and the first country is
able to influence positive change. At a weaker
level, some policies may be unable to be
implemented without the hegemon's participation.
33Is the US a Hegemon Today?
34Political Cleavages
- A concept which defines voters into groups, based
upon their position on certain, historically
salient, issues.
- (Lipset and Rokkan, 1967).
35Major cleavages in Western Europe
- Center-Periphery The division of elites in the
central and more outlying areas of a
nation-state. Mainly used in terms of
sub-national movements. (ex. Scotland and N.
Ireland) - State-Church A division between religious and
secular voters. Often discussed in terms of
church privileges and lands, and particular
social issues. (ex. Netherlands until 1970s).
36Major cleavages in Western Europe
- Owner-Worker A division between the rich and
poor, or between capital and labor. (ex. Labour
vs. Conservative)
- Urban-Rural Agrarian parties versus
representatives of more urban interests. Usually
only occurs in areas where there is a
particularly well-educated rural class. (ex.
Agrarian parties in Scandinavia).
37Judiciary in Great Britain
- In Britain, courts have no power to judge the
constitutionality of legislative acts (judicial
review). They can only determine whether policy
directives or administrative acts violate common
law or an act of parliament. - Commissions and public inquiries jurists often
participate in investigations of government
policies.
- Law Chancellor and law lords Department in the
House of Lords that holds the ultimate authority
of appeal in British law.
38International Judiciary
- European Court of Justice (ECJ)
- European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)
- European Court of Justice on Human Rights (ECJHR)
39Common Law
- Judges have the authority and duty to decide what
the law is when there is no other authoritative
statement of the law. Begins with cases and
moves to abstract rules. - Stare Decisis -- prior court decisions must be
considered precidents for future rulings. Stare
decisis et non quieta movere (Stand by
decisions and do not move that which is quiet) - Edmund Burke it is only with great trepidation
that someone should tear down a norm that has
served the society well in the past.
- Primarily used in Great Britain and its former
colonies (including the US).
40Civil (Code) Law
- Descendant mainly from Roman law, the Napoleonic
Code, and the German Civil Code.
- Case law is given less weight, and greater
emphasis is given to interpretation of actual
legal codes.
- Starts with abstract rules (or laws) that are
applied to the specific case.
- Main form of law in the world (Continental
Europe, Japan, China, Latin America, and
Louisiana).
41Bureaucracy
- Quangos acronym for quasi-nongovernmental
organization, the term is used in Britain for
nonelected bodies that are outside traditional
governmental departments or local authorities.
They have considerable influence over public
policy in areas such as education, health care,
and housing.
42Bureaucracy and Independent
- Bureaucratic drift the ability for
bureaucracies to move policies, through its
implementation, closer to its goals or standard
operating procedures. - Bureaucratic information advantage.
- Bureaucratic time advantage.
- Bureaucratic allies advantage.