Postwar British Politics in Perspective

This broad-ranging and original text provides an accessible introduction to British politics since 1945, challenging many well-established orthodoxies.

David Marsh, Jim Buller, Colin Hay, Jim Johnston, Peter Kerr, Stuart McAnulla and Matthew Watson are all members of the Department of Political Science & International Studies at the University of Birmingham.

About the Authors

ix

Acknowledgements

xi

Introduction: Explaining Change in the Postwar Period

1

(20)

David Marsh

A strong historical perspective: theoretically informed, but empirically grounded

2

(4)

A multidimensional approach

6

(3)

A sophisticated conception of change

9

(2)

Let's question positivism

11

(3)

Beyond structure and agency

14

(1)

Don't neglect the ideational

15

(1)

Don't forget the international dimension

16

(1)

Conclusion

17

(1)

The structure of the book

18

(3)

Part I Key Themes of Postwar British Political Development

21

(124)

Continuity and Discontinuity in British Political Development

23

(20)

Colin Hay

Continuity, discontinuity, change and stability

25

(2)

Continuity and discontinuity: the growth of the British state

27

(7)

Interrogating institutional change: structure and agency

34

(5)

Beyond structure versus agency: interrogating the process of change

39

(4)

Britain's Economic Decline: Cultural Versus Structural Explanations

43

(23)

Jim Johnston

What do we mean by `decline'?

44

(2)

The cultural thesis

46

(1)

Unlikely bedfellows

47

(8)

The determinist/voluntarist tension within the cultural thesis

55

(8)

Conclusion

63

(3)

The Postwar Consensus: A Woozle That Wasn't?

66

(21)

Peter Kerr

The postwar consensus: an enduring thesis

67

(2)

The consensus `debate'

69

(2)

Aiming short of the target: why the consensus thesis has endured

71

(3)

Broadening our focus

74

(2)

Revising the consensus debate

76

(7)

The conflictual character of British politics in the postwar period

83

(2)

Conclusion

85

(2)

Crisis and Political Development in Postwar Britain

87

(20)

Colin Hay

Conceptualizing crisis

88

(2)

The objectivity and/or subjectivity of crisis

90

(3)

The crisis of the 1970s: a crisis of regulation, legitimation or overload?

93

(7)

Towards an alternative perspective: on crisis as paradigm-shift

100

(2)

From growth to contradiction to crisis

102

(5)

Britain's Relations with the European Union in Historical Perspective

107

(18)

Jim Buller

Domestic economic management and foreign policy, 1925-61

109

(2)

Britain and the European Community, 1961-79

111

(4)

The Europeanization of British economic policy, 1979-97

115

(6)

The Major government and the `Euro-ratchet'

121

(3)

Conclusion

124

(1)

Globalization and the Development of the British Political Economy

125

(20)

Matthew Watson

Positions in the globalization debate

125

(3)

Globalization as ideology?

128

(3)

Globalization as economic reality?

131

(6)

Globalization as more of the same?

137

(3)

Globalization and the political restructring of the state

140

(5)

Part II Key Narratives of Postwar British Political Development

145

(64)

Questions of Change and Continuity in Attlee's Britain

147

(21)

Jim Johnston

The impact of war

148

(4)

The impact of Labour

152

(2)

Beyond an agency-centred narrative

154

(3)

Towards a dialectical explanation of change

157

(2)

What about political constraints?

159

(1)

Labourism and the British political tradition

160

(5)

Conclusion

165

(3)

Explaining Thatcherism: Towards a Multidimensional Approach

168

(21)

Peter Kerr

David Marsh

The Thatcherite chameleon

169

(1)

Problems with current explanations

170

(5)

Restating the problem of Thatcherism

175

(1)

Towards an evolutionary conception of Thatcherism

176

(4)

Factors governing the evolution of Thatcherism

180

(4)

The evolution of Thatcherite state strategy

184

(3)

Conclusion

187

(2)

The Post-Thatcher Era

189

(20)

Stuart McAnulla

Placing the Major government in context

191

(5)

The agency of the Major government

196

(4)

Partycraft-the discipline of the new democracy?

200

(5)

The post-That-jor era: first appraisals

205

(2)

Conclusion

207

(2)

Conclusion: Analysing and Explaining Postwar British Political Development

209

(17)

Colin Hay

David Marsh

Analysing and explaining change

211

(4)

Explaining change: the relationship between economic, political and ideological explanation

215

(2)

Beyond structural versus intentional explanation

217

(1)

The relationship between the material and the ideational

218

(2)

The relationship between the domestic and the international

220

(2)

Conclusion

222

(4)

Bibliography

226

(20)

Index

246

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Postwar British Politics in Perspective

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials