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.