THE BRITISH POLITICAL SYSTEM What do we mean by Britain (the UK)? Not just England? Why study Britain? What can it tell us about democracy and empire? About the loss of empire? What can it tell us about formal and informal institutions in democracies? What can the PM’s question hour tell us about some of the differences between American and British democracy? If the clip I want to show doesn’t work, then we’ll use this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzRZVbUxVqE

WHY DOES BRITAIN’S DEMOCRACY LOOK LIKE IT DOES? Evolution How will we talk about political history in this class?... Not comprehensively! We’ll be hacks of a certain sort focusing on critical junctures The Norman invasion (1066): Why is geography so important in the devel of UK and US democ? Today the UK = 60 million folks living in an area the size of Oregon The Magna Carta (1215): Why isn’t the separation of powers or checks and balances, taxation only with input, or even the supremacy of law no enough to create a democracy? On the other hand, why is limiting the Crown’s power is an important start even if no people’s body was involved? The Reformation (1530s): Why was the separation of state and church so important to the advent of liberalism (vs. conservatism)? Civil War (1640s), Cromwell, & The Glorious Revolution (1688-89): Why are the masses to be feared if political change happens too quickly? Can a checked monarchy or institutionalized (versus a personalist) authoritarian system be better than democracy?

How did economic modernity, war, & decline change the British political system? The Industrial Revolution (1760s-1860s) --> The “Great” Reform Act of 1832 (some men get to vote)… And change keeps slowly coming (1867=most men), and coming (1928, women) Abroad, the zenith of the UK empire is the 1870s…Lessons? Domination by the Commons (1911): Labour and the Conservatives/Tories consolidate their power… What, no constitutional convention? What would Madison think? How much can a democratic empire take and still survive? End of colonial rule (20th Century); WW2 and the collectivist consensus (1945-1970s); The Era of Decline (1970s-1990s) Britain’s resurgence under Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990) Two big catch-all parties and Labour’s Third Way? (1997-2010) A hung parliament that blends Thatcher and Blair: Austerity from the center right coalition (Tories + Liberal Dems) since 2010…

HOW DOES THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION SET UP DEMOCRACY HOW DOES THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION SET UP DEMOCRACY? HOW ARE THINGS CHANGING? No written document (yet)… So what do they use?: Common law guides, but parliamentary laws are supreme My goodness, aren’t you glad we “don’t” do this? What about the House of Lords and the Monarchy? Why not just toss them… Or at least start electing them? Actually, that might be a bad idea No judicial review in most cases, but finally a Supreme Court of sorts is evolving No Bill of “Rights” in the American sense (but the European Convention on Human Rights applies… at least for now) Not much federalism (except… Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland, London, and more cities over time) Will the EU change all of this? Or will Brit. change the EU? Will the crisis over Scotland change the UK? Maybe, but it may well create more issues rather than resolution

HOW DOES THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION SET UP POWER? In many ways, Britain has your typical PM system: The Prime minister selected by the Commons… All 650 members of it (How many is too many reps?) Legislative and executive powers are fused into one: The Cabinet selected from the legislature Separate heads of state (the monarch) & government (the PM) Unfixed terms for legislature and the government (early elections vs. votes of no confidence) Is this governmental system … Which is actually what Madison, Washington, and Hamilton had in mind for the US…better? What has Britain emphasized with respect to it’s democratic tradeoffs?

WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT THE COMMONS? A multi-country legislature…complete with national parties Why is the PM so strong?: The two-party system, the organization of power in the parliament, and its unique electoral laws…. Does question hour really weaken and humiliate the PM? What kind of leaders would the US have if we had this process? The size of the commons, its weak committees, its cabinet structure, and its unique cabinet rules (collective responsibility) Where is the UK like us and unlike many parliamentary system? How do its elections work? Plurality SMD (aka first-past the post, FPTP) every 5 yrs or 6 weeks after a call Why did Britain's reject ranked voting when they got to vote on it in 2011? Why only 2-3 big parties? Duverger’s law (and strong national parties rigging the system…. Just like here) How do the UK’s national parties control their candidates? How ideological are their parties vs ours (cadre vs. catch-all parties)? Is there any democratic check? How do the shadow cabinets work?

WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GLOBALIZATION AND BRITISH POLITICAL DISATISFACTION? Tony Blair and Labour’s Third Way: Can you have Thatcherism (heavy privatization, austerity, and free trade) with “equity”? Where does Cameron fall on the continuum between Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair? Can the left politically afford a limited social agenda when it again controls government? What relationship does the UK have with the EU? What key political reforms have been pursued over the last two decades? If you add them up, how radical has the change been? Why hasn’t the US gone through change like this? What was Labour’s overall record? Thatherism with equity worked… so why’d they lose? (Was it the war in Iraq, Gordon Brown, and the younger, smarter Tory, or have the British come to recognize the new econ. rules?) How is David Cameron doing so far? Austerity; riots, riots everywhere; and then there’s the Scotland Crisis. The big question for the UK? Can Britain become more American and still deal with the pressures of globalization?