A changing democracy: contemporary challenges to the British political tradition

ABSTRACT

A series of authors including ourselves have argued that there is a dominant, if contested, political tradition (the BPT), that is a particular conception of democracy, that underpins to institutions and processes of British politics. However, here we argue that the BPT has never been more contested or vulnerable, focusing upon three contemporary challenges, the Scottish question, the rise of anti-politics and the demands to leave the European Union (EU), culminating in BREXIT, although we recognise there are others. At the same time, we contend that the BPT still plays a key role in how the political elite reacts to these challenges; its first response remains to preserve as much of the BPT as possible in changing circumstances. As such, the key question we address here is whether we are witnessing the beginnings of a fundamental shift in the nature of British political democracy, or whether, as so often before, the BPT and its adherents will adapt to, and accommodate, these challenges.

KEYWORDS:

• Political traditions
• British politics
• anti-politics
• Scottish devolution
• BREXIT

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

David Marsh http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3308-8585

Notes on contributors

Matthew Hall did his PhD at the University of Birmingham and now works at Worcester Sixth Form College, UK. He is author of Political Traditions and UK Politics published by Palgrave in 2011.

David Marsh is Professor of Public Policy at the Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis at the University of Canberra, Australia, he has published well over a 100 books and articles on Public Policy, Political Sociology and British Politics. For his sins, he is a Bristol Rovers supporter.

Emma Vines obtained his PhD from the University of Canberra Australia. She has published on Euroscepticism and British Nationalism.

Notes

1 This fostered a sense of Scottish ‘distinctiveness’ politically and administratively as well as, in the longer term, buttressing a sense of cultural difference.

2 The Scottish Social Attitudes Survey notes two versions of Scottish independence. For details see: http://whatscotlandthinks.org/questions/how-should-scotland-be-governed-five-options-5#table

3 On the first year of operation of EVEL, see http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/one-year-of-evel-evaluating-english-votes-for-english-laws-in-the-house-of-commons

4 We use the term anti-politics here, but, as two of us have argued elsewhere (Marsh and Vines 2017), these developments are certainly not non-political. Anti-politics is a contested term, but we take it to mean disaffection from politics as it is practiced.

5 Most infamously in her ‘Bruges’ speech in 1988.

6 This was particularly noticeable with the high-profile defections to UKIP of two MPs, Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless.

7 http://www.ssa.natcen.ac.uk/read-the-reports/scottish-social-attitudes-2015

8 http://www.edelman.com/insights/intellectual-property/2016-edelman-trust-barometer/

9 Numbers based upon declared referendum stances put the number of MPs who supported ‘Remain’ at in excess of two-thirds, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-35616946

10 Some authors link this to the putative deferential attitudes of the populace, which, whilst never unquestioned, were widely identified (Eckstein 1958; Nordlinger 1967; Lipset 1963).