1. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland CH. 2-4

2. IV. SOCIETY, STATE AND CITIZENS: BRITISH NATIONAL IDENTITY
Make up about 8% of the British population; come from Commonwealth
Indian (23%)
Pakistani (16%)
Afro-Caribbean (13%)
Black African (11%)
Public opinion - limit number of immigrants
White backlash – British National Party
Increase terrorists presence
Solution: sense of Britishness

3. IV. SOCIETY, STATE AND CITIZENS: NATIONAL IDENTITY
Decolonization has created a multiethnic Britain.
Ethnic minority communities have experienced police insensitivity, problems in access to the best public housing, hate crimes, criticism directed at immigrants and asylum seekers.

4. IV. SOCIETY, STATE AND CITIZENS: THE MEDIA
Britain’s television and radio networks and printed media are far more centralized.
Newspapers = broadsheets
The Guardian, the Times, the Independent, the Telegraph
BBC more widely listened to than equivalents
Most political information comes from national newspapers and television and radio stations.
There is very little local news on television.
The five networks carry their national news programs at different  times.

5. IV. SOCIETY, STATE AND CITIZENS: POLITICAL ECONOMY
World Wars, Industrial Strife, and the Depression (1914–1945)
State involvement in economy increased during World War I (1914–1918)
Nationalization of industries
Price setting
Restricted capital flow abroad
Production aimed at war effort
Limited trade union and worker movements
Free market versus intervention conflict continued through Great Depression (1929 through much of the 1930s) and World War II (1939–1945).

6. IV. SOCIETY, STATE AND CITIZENS: POLITICAL ECONOMY
Collective Consensus (1945–1979)
Post war —shared victory, common misery, dreams of new prosperity and security
Collectivism – majority agreement to expansion of state economic responsibility and broad social welfare
Government should enact policies of welfare state.
Welfare state—set of policies designed to provide health care, pensions, unemployment benefits, and assistance to the poor. Also responsible for economic growth, full employment.
Consensus unraveled by economic downturn and political stagnation

7. IV. SOCIETY, STATE AND CITIZENS: POLITICAL ECONOMY
The Consensus Era
After World War II, collectivist consensus crystallized.
Followed Keynesian economics
Keynesianism—named after British economist John Maynard Keynes, state economic policies used to regulate economy to achieve stable economic growth.
Became unpopular during 1970s with increased labor unrest
Thatcherite Policy Orientation
Rejected Keynesianism for monetarism
Monetarism—an approach to economic policy that assumes a natural rate of unemployment, determined by the labor market, and rejects the instrument of government spending to run budgetary deficits for stimulating the economy and creating jobs.

8. IV. SOCIETY, STATE AND CITIZENS: POLITICAL ECONOMY
The Coalition Government’s Economic Policy Approach
Key cuts in spending
Government subsidies for public housing
Increased age for pensions
Reduction by ~ 10% in social protection, welfare benefits
Reduction by ~ 20% public spending across the board
Social Policy
National Health Service (NHS) heavily debated topic; spending/privatize
- Provides comprehensive and universal medical care
- Low cost medical care to all British citizens as matter of right.
Shake-up in January 2011
Health care budgets turned over to general practitioners