Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Political science – Great Britain – Philosophy'
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1
Mason, David (David Mark George). "Burke's political philosophy in his writings on constitutional reform." Thesis, McGill University, 1986. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=66187.
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Buchsbaum, Robert Michael III. "The Surprising Role of Legal Traditions in the Rise of Abolitionism in Great Britain’s Development." Wright State University / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=wright1416651480.
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Tsang, S. Y. S. "Great Britain and constitutional reform in Hong Kong (1945-1952)." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1985. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.371769.
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Brown, Joseph Andrew. "The sociology of first-time voting in Great Britain, (1964-1987)." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1991. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.316954.
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Squires, Michael. "Change and continuity : an appraisal of railway policy making in Great Britain." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.310933.
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Royed, Terry J. "Policy promises and policy action in the United States and Great Britain, 1979-1988 /." The Ohio State University, 1992. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487780865407853.
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Hilton, Adrian. "Free schools : the role of Conservative and Liberal political thought in shaping the policy." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:961415dd-a137-4f0d-b8e7-1b1927835053.
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'The landscape of schooling in England has been transformed over the last five years' (House of Commons Education Committee, 2015:3). More than half of secondary schools in England have become academies, independent of local authorities and funded directly by central government. The programme was begun by New Labour in 2002, and by the time they left office at the 2010 General Election 203 academies had been established. The policy was considerably extended between 2010-2015 by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition, and 'Free Schools' were introduced by Education Secretary Michael Gove: that is, schools 'set up in response to what local people say they want and need in order to improve education for children in their community' (DfE, 2013/2015). By the time of the 2015 general election, there were 4,674 newly-sponsored or converter academies and 252 'Free Schools', representing 64% of secondary school students (47% of all state school students), and 51% of secondary schools (32% of all state schools). This research argues the hypothesis that there is a high degree of philosophical continuity on this policy across the main political parties in England. It also analyses the extent to which the policy-makers invoke historical expressions of conservatism and/or liberalism in their articulation of that convergence. Drawing on past associations with politicians, the principal expositors and key architects of the 'Free Schools' policy were interviewed, and these transcripts have given insight into how the themes of policy are conceptualised and understood. The data suggests that there are convergent philosophical views across the main political parties, and agreement on the course of history of the policy. There are, however, ethical concerns about the pace of reform, the primacy of the 'market', and the extent to which democratic public goods are consistent with schools that are 'free'.
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Stefanidis, Ioannis. "United States, Great Britain and Greece, 1949-1952 : the problem of Greek security and internal stability." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.244192.
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Worley, Katherine E. "Reason sways them: Masculinity and political authority in the English Civil War." View abstract/electronic edition; access limited to Brown University users, 2008. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3318372.
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Larcinese, Valentino. "Political information, elections and public policy." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2003. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/431/.
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This thesis contributes to the study of the role of information in elections and public policy formation. Its main focus is on information acquisition and voting behaviour. Chapter 1 discusses the motivation of this research and presents a survey of related literature. Chapter 2 focuses on electoral turnout, Chapter 3 on public policy, and Chapter 4 on mass media. Chapter 2 studies the impact of information on electoral turnout. Since incentives to be informed are correlated with other incentives to participate in public life, a model of information acquisition and turnout is introduced to isolate potential instrumental variables and try to establish a causal relation. Results are tested on the 1997 General Election in Britain. It is shown that information, as well as ideology, matters for turnout. It also contributes to explain the systematic correlation of turnout with variables like education and income. Voters' knowledge of candidates and of other political issues is also substantially influenced by mass media. Chapter 3 presents a model that links the distribution of political knowledge with redistributive policies. It argues that voters can have private incentives to be informed about politics and that such incentives are correlated with income. Therefore redistribution will be systematically lower than what the median voter theorem predicts. Moreover, more inequality does not necessarily lead to an increase in redistribution and constitutional restrictions might have unintended consequences. In Chapter 4 it is argued that instrumentally motivated voters should increase their demand for information when elections are close. In supplying news, mass media should take into account information demand, as well as the value of customers to advertisers and the cost of reaching marginal readers. Information supply should therefore be larger in electoral constituencies where the contest is expected to be closer, the population is on average more valuable for advertisers, and the population density is higher. These conclusions are then tested with good results on data from the 1997 General Election in Britain.
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Gabbidon, Colette Michelle. "Party life : an examination of the branch life of the Communist Party of Great Britain between wars." Thesis, University of Sussex, 1991. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.333502.
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Phelps, Edward. "NO(political) identity, NO(political)information, NO VOTE : the decline of electoral turnout among young voters in Britain." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2010. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/6264/.
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This thesis examines the extent of turnout decline at general elections since 1992. Its first contribution is to reveal that turnout decline amongst the youngest age groups was significantly more pronounced in the period 1992-2001 than for other age groups. The central argument is that there are sufficient grounds for suspecting that life-cycle factors cannot alone account for the unprecedented decline in turnout between 1992 and 2001, and that generational factors may be at work. The second contribution of the thesis is to test a variety of explanatory models of political participation on these youngest groups to ascertain if the results provide any insights of the dynamics of a suspected generational change. The thesis argues that a weakening of the psychological anchors to social and political life have left recent generations exposed and more susceptible than their older counterparts to factors that have been shown to decrease the likelihood of voting such as weakness of electoral competition; little perceived difference between political parties and an environment of negative images of politics and politicians.
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Hall, Matthew Philip. "Political traditions and Scottish devolution." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2009. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/429/.
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This thesis seeks to develop a conception of the political traditions operating in the UK and then apply it to the development of Scottish Devolution. I argue that the concept of tradition has been under-valued and theorized in social science and that the notion of political traditions has heuristic value when applied to British politics. Discussion of a distinctive British Political Tradition has been kept to the margins in explanations of the British political system with only a few authors seeking to explore the ideational underpinnings of the institutions and process of British government and the Westminster Model. The recent work of Bevir and Rhodes has raised the profile of political traditions, however I contend that their conceptualization is flawed and thus, heuristically limited. I argue that we can identify a dominant political tradition, the British Political Tradition, which has decisively influenced the nature and conduct of British political life over time. This tradition expresses and facilitates the ideas and interests of dominant socio-economic groups in UK society. However it has not gone uncontested. We can also identify the existence of competing political traditions which challenge aspects or the entirety of, the British Political Tradition. Although competing political traditions resonate asymmetrically, it is through the process of conflict and contestation that changes in the British political system can be explained. From this I then narrate the history of Scottish Devolution to date and offer comment on how this interactive and iterative process continues to inform outcomes since 1999. Overall I argue that the dominant political tradition continues to have a major impact on the British political system.
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Henderson, Nancy Ann. "British Aristocratic Women and Their Role in Politics, 1760-1860." PDXScholar, 1994. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4799.
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British aristocratic women exerted political influence and power during the century beginning with the accession of George III. They expressed their political power through the four roles of social patron, patronage distributor, political advisor, and political patron/electioneer. British aristocratic women were able, trained, and expected to play these roles. Politics could not have existed without these women. The source of their political influence was the close interconnection of politics and society. In this small, inter-connected society, women could and did influence politics. Political decisions, especially for the Whigs, were not made in the halls of government with which we are so familiar, but in the halls of the homes of the social/political elite. However, this close interconnection can make women's political influence difficult to assess and understand for our twentieth century experience. Sources for this thesis are readily available. Contemporary, primary sources are abundant. This was the age of letter and diary writing. There is, however, a dearth of modern works concerning the political activities of aristocratic women. Most modern works rarely mention women. Other problems with sources include the inappropriate feminization of the time period and the filtering of this period through modern, not contemporary, points of view. Separate spheres is the most common and most inappropriate feminist issue raised by historians. This doctrine is not valid for aristocratic women of this time. The material I present in this thesis is not new. The sources, both contemporary and modern, have been available to historians for some time. By changing our rigid definition of politics by enlarging it to include the broader areas of political activities such as social patron, patronage distributor, political advisor, and political/electioneer, we can see British aristocratic women in a new light, revealing political power and influence.
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Wicks, Roger. "Political ideas and policy in the Labour Party, 1983-1992." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2000. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/222/.
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This thesis examines the political ideas of the Labour Party between 1983 and 1992. It adopts two detailed case studies: Labour’s economic policy and Labour’s social policy. Part I provides an historical context of Labour’s political ideas and Part II analyses the political ideas content of Labour’s social and economic policy between 1983 and 1992. This includes the work of ‘Labour intellectuals’, ‘thinker-politicians’ and official party documents, notably the Policy Review. The thesis shows the need for an historical context based on three factors. First, the history of Labour’s political ideas, discussed in Part I, illustrates the extent to which former debates re-emerge; to a large extent, Labour continued in the 1980s to be pre-occupied with traditional arguments. Second, Labour’s economic and social policy thinking was, at least in part, a reflection on its own ‘record’ in government. An historical context inevitably includes an analysis of Labour’s own post-war economic and social policy thinking. Third, the immediate political context between 1983 and 1992 is also central to an understanding of Labour’s ideas over this period. This includes the impact of Thatcherism, its policy and ideas, as well as the effect of fundamental economic and social change. However, it is the first which is most important. The history of Labour’s ideas is noticeably neglected in the literature on the period. This thesis constitutes an attempt to redress the balance.
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Grant, Charles. "Europa tanzt nach Deutschlands Pfeife : eine britische Sicht auf den EU-Gipfel in Brüssel." Universität Potsdam, 2011. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2011/5005/.
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Lange Zeit war die Reaktion der europäischen Politiker auf die Krise der Eurozone eher zurückhaltend bis gespalten. Als es jedoch Ende Oktober 2010 zum EU-Gipfel in Brüssel kam, schien es, also ob die EU nun mit Anspruch und klarer Orientierung handeln würde. Einer der Gründe für diese Veränderung besteht darin, dass nun die meisten Mitglieder - Frankreich eingeschlossen - bereit sind, die bittere Pille einer deutschen Führung zu schlucken.
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Beckerman-Boys, Carly. "British foreign policy decision-making towards Palestine during the Mandate (1917-1948) : a poliheuristic perspective." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2013. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/4565/.
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This thesis is chiefly concerned with understanding the reasons behind British foreign policy towards Palestine between the invasion in December 1917 and final withdrawal in May 1948. It applies Poliheuristic Decision (Ph) Theory to British Cabinet decision-making at four critical junctures in foreign policy decision-making during this time period, arguing that contrary to the established literature on Mandate Palestine, British Cabinet policy reflected a stark lack of viable alternatives that left little room for consideration of personal biases, allegiances or sentimental attachment to either Zionism or Arab nationalism during the decision-making process. This reveals how crucial decisions concerning the future of Palestine were frequently more concerned with fighting narrow, domestic or broader, international political battles than preventing or dealing with a burgeoning conflict in a tiny strip of land on the Mediterranean. In so doing, this thesis aims to elucidate previously neglected areas of the British Mandate for Palestine as well as highlight some of the problems with Ph theory as a bridging framework between Rational Choice and cognitive models, while contributing new and innovative case studies to the field of Foreign Policy Analysis.
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Malfoy, Jordan I. "Britain Can Take It: Civil Defense and Chemical Warfare in Great Britain, 1915-1945." FIU Digital Commons, 2018. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/3639.
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This dissertation argues that the origins of civil defense are to be found in pre-World War II Britain and that a driving force of this early civil defense scheme was fear of poison gas. Later iterations of civil defense, such as the Cold War system in America, built on already existing regimes that had proven their worth during WWII. This dissertation demonstrates not only that WWII civil defense served as a blueprint for later civil defense schemes, but also that poison gas anxiety served as a particular tool for the implementation and success of civil defense. The dissertation is organized thematically, exploring the role of civilians and volunteers in the civil defense scheme, as well as demonstrating the vital importance of physical manifestations of civil defense, such as gas masks and air raid shelters, in ensuring the success of the scheme.
By the start of World War II, many civilians had already been training in civil defense procedures for several years, learning how to put out fires, recognize bombs, warn against gas, decontaminate buildings, rescue survivors, and perform first aid. The British government had come to the conclusion, long before the threat became realized, that the civilian population was a likely target for air attacks and that measures were required to protect them. World War I (WWI) saw the first aerial attacks targeted specifically at civilians, suggesting a future where such attacks would occur more frequently and deliberately. Poison gas, used in WWI, seemed a particularly horrifying threat that presented significant problems. Civil defense was born out of this need to protect the civil population from attack by bombs or poison gas. For the next five years of war civil defense worked to maintain British morale and to protect civilian lives. This was the first real scheme of civil defense, instituted by the British government specifically for the protection of its civilian population.
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Kidd, Matthew. "Popular political continuity in urban England, 1867-1918 : the case studies of Bristol and Northampton." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2016. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32132/.
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This thesis examines the transition between working-class radicalism and labour politics in two provincial English constituencies, Bristol and Northampton, between 1867 and 1918. By combining local case studies with a textual analysis of empirical material and a conceptual approach to ideology, it offers fresh insights into popular political change in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain. Its central argument is that, contrary to the prevailing historiography on labour politics and identity, a distinctive sense of class could shape working-class radical and labour strategies, languages, identities, and ideologies continuously between 1867 and 1918. In particular, it demonstrates that before the mid-1880s, working-class radical activists in Bristol and Northampton exhibited a non-adversarial sense of class that shaped their perceptions of the social order, their interpretations of radical ideology, and their relationships with both mainstream liberals and middle-class radicals. It also suggests that while working-class radicals came to use 'labour' to describe themselves and their organisations from the mid-1880s, this was primarily a rhetorical move rather than one reflecting a substantive change in their political identity. Over the next thirty years, labour activists in both Bristol and Northampton remained fiercely committed to the dominant strategy, the non-conflictual conception of class, and the political ideology that had long shaped local working-class radical traditions. In these constituencies, the Victorian tradition of working-class radicalism left an indelible mark on twentieth-century labour politics. This study has important implications for our understanding of political and ideological change in modern Britain. Firstly, confirming the existence of a decidedly working-class radical movement makes it easier to understand the rise of a class-based labour politics in late Victorian Britain without having to account for either discontinuities in popular politics or the re-emergence of a dormant class consciousness within the British working class. Secondly, establishing a line of continuity between working-class radicalism and later labour politics helps us to explain some of the tensions that characterised progressive politics in the Edwardian era. Finally, seeing working-class radicalism as a distinctive ideology with its own conceptual framework enriches our understanding of non-liberal progressive thought in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
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Lamb, Matthew. "Young Conservatives, Young Socialists and the great youth abstention : youth participation and non-participation in political parties." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2003. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/518/.
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This thesis is an investigation into participation and non-participation by young people in British political parties. Falling turnout in British elections has lead to concern about the level of popular participation in the political system, especially amongst the young. Those between 18 and 25 are less likely to involve themselves in political activity than any other age group. This thesis argues that political parties and their grassroots members are still vital to British democracy and that the failure of both parties to recruit young members is leading to increasingly aged and inactive parties. Even measuring the extent of youth membership of the main parties is problematic due to a lack of accurate membership figures. The figures available show that whilst neither the Labour nor the Conservative Party has enjoyed unqualified success in recruiting young members, Labour has enjoyed comparative success in increasing its youth membership in the period 1970-2001 both absolutely and as proportion of the total membership. I have argued that whilst there is research on participation and non-participation there is little specific on the particular area of young people and political parties. I have suggested and evaluated competing explanations of this problem and I have been able to develop and test a youth-specific model of participation and non-participation. This model builds on the general incentive model developed by Seyd and Whiteley but provides a more comprehensive, and youth specific, model of both participation and non-participation. This new model builds considerably on our understanding of why young people choose to join, or not join, a political party. However, a static sample only takes me so far. A study of the Labour and Conservative youth organisations also shows that they have contributed to their relative success or failure through popular perceptions of their image and through the relationship with their parent parties. My improved model of participation and non-participation is complemented by a consideration that the mobilisation model contributes to understanding trends in membership. Those youth organisations that are able to recruit actively with support from the parent party are more likely to succeed than those who are not. I have provided a detailed and critical study of the Labour and Conservative youth organisations, the first such study since 1970. From this study I have helped explain the comparative success of the Labour Party and the comparative failure of the Conservative Party in recruiting young members. Both party’s youth organisations suffered from poor perceptions of extremism, infighting and unfashionability at certain times in the period under study which helped deter potential members. These problems were often compounded by a poor relationship between the youth organisation and the parent party. However, whilst, eventually, the Labour Party was able to solve these problems to a certain extent, the Conservative Party has yet to find a solution to its recruitment problems amongst young people.
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Hammonds, William. "Policy-making, paradigms and change : the origins of the Prevent counter terrorism policy in Great Britain between 2001 and 2011." Thesis, University of Essex, 2018. http://repository.essex.ac.uk/23317/.
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This thesis examines the development of the Prevent counter terrorism policy between 2001 and 2011 to understand the extent to which it represented a change in policy and why. Prevent was an important element of the UK government’s response to the threat from home-grown al-Qaeda terrorism following 9/11 and the associated political conflict over Islam and the Muslim community. The study argues that the development of Prevent can be understood through two competing models of the relationship between government and society, one centralised and coercive the other distributed and consensual that are based on the traditions of Hobbes and Locke. The combination of both models by the Labour government produced a new framework for decision-making that enabled government to deliver short-term security objectives by embedding these in a longer term process of social change. However, whilst this dual approach enabled a broader response to terrorism it also came at the cost of increased conflict over decision-making that ultimately motivated a narrowing of the agenda. The study analyses decision-making through different lenses in order to understand the reasons why Prevent developed in this way. The study was based on a qualitative analysis of semi-structured elite interviews with a small targeted sample of individuals involved in decision-making, alongside primary documentation, to examine explicit and implicit influences on the process. It presents an in-depth narrative account that identified the main decisions, including both formal and informal decisions as well as relevant exogenous and endogenous inputs into the process. It then examines the influence of the decision-making community, including the structure of the relationship between central government, local agencies and civil society. The study then explored how ideas and arguments about the causes of terrorism helped to integrate the competing models of security and the associated trade-offs between the two. The study concludes by examining whether this process represented a paradigmatic change in policy and the lessons that can be drawn about policy change more generally.
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Akmehmet, Okan. "Politics of electoral reform : the case of the United Kingdom's 2011 Referendum on the Alternative Vote." Thesis, University of Essex, 2016. http://repository.essex.ac.uk/17141/.
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This thesis focuses on the politics of electoral reform. It examines dynamics operating at both the public and political elite levels. The first paper looks at the place of electoral reform in British politics, in particular the place of the Alternative Vote (AV), and demonstrates a positive relationship between disproportionality and interest in electoral reform. The second paper focuses on the tension between representative democracy and direct democracy and considers why the referendum became the pathway to decide on the issue. The third paper analyses the voting behaviour in the UK’s 2011 AV referendum and demonstrates that voters cast their votes based on cues and in harmony with the positions taken by the party leaders they trusted. Agreement with campaign statements was also indicative of an individual’s vote mediating the impact of partisanship. Direct contact by campaigns did not have much significant effect on a typical individual’s vote except for those individuals contacted by the Liberal Democrats. Contact by the Liberal Democrats, contrary to the expectations had an impact in the negative direction of the position endorsed by the Party.
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MacInnes, Allan Iain. "The origin and organization of the covenanting movement during the reign of Charles I, 1625-41 : with a particular reference to the West of Scotland." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 1987. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/864/.
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`Our main feare to have our religion lost, our throats cutted, and our poor countrey made an English province.' As graphically articulated by Robert Baillie, minister of Kilwinning in Ayrshire (and subsequently principal of the university of Glasgow), the apprehensions which motivated the Scots to promulgate the National Covenant on 28 February 1638, were as much nationalist as religious. The primary purpose of this thesis is to argue that although religion, more specifically the imposition of liturgical innovations, was undoubtedly the issue which precipitated the termination of Charles I's thirteen year personal rule, the Scots were collectively reacting against innovatory policies conceived at Court, policies intent on the fundamental restructuring of Scottish government and society as well as the implementation of economic no less than religious uniformity throughout the British Isles. The failure of Charles I was not just a matter of political presentation, though his authoritarian style of government was instrumental in provoking Scots to revolt in defence of civil and religious liberties. The emergence of the Covenanting Movement entailed a substantial rejection of Charles' personal rule both with respect to policy content and political direction. Paradoxically, the elite who manufactured revolution in name of the Covenanting Movement were to draw on lessons learned from Charles I in promoting the central reorientation of Scottish government between 1638 and 1641. During these years, marked ostensibly by the imposition of constitutional checks on absentee monarch in Kirk and State and the replacement of the Court by the National Covenant as the political reference point for Scottish society, the revolutionary essence of the Covenanting Movement demonstrably lay in its organisational capacity to exert unprecedented demands for ideological conformity, military recruitment and financial supply. Accordingly, this thesis is intent on providing not just an exhaustive and detailed reconstruction of mainstream political developments between 1625 and 1641, but also a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the conduct of the personal rule, the emergence of the Covenanting Movement and the radical nature of the Scottish revolution which was to serve as the model for terminating the personal rule of Charles I in England and Ireland. Occasional comparisons and contrasts are drawn where apposite with contemporaneous political developments elsewhere in Europe. A brief introduction sets the scenes with regard to past commentaries on the origin and organisation of the Covenanting Movement during the reign of Charles I. Thereafter, the first three chapters define the flexible nature of the political nation in Scotland and expound its aspirations nationally and internationally in the wake of the union of the Crowns in 1603, aspirations which were compromised politically by James VI's departure south but not undermined critically until the accession of Charles I in 1625 as an absentee monarch ill-versed in the composition of the Scottish body politic and manifestly insensitive to its personal fears of provincialism. The single most fractious yet least comprehensive issue of the personal rule was the Revocation Scheme - Scotland's equivalent to the Schleswig-Holstein question. Although a lord justice-clerk of the last century has complemented Charles I for setting the whole law of tithes (teinds) on a sound footing, the aspects of the Revocation Scheme which mattered to his Scottish subjects were its specious introduction, its authoritarian implementation, its technical complexities and, above all, its wholescale disregard for landed title and privilege. Three chapters have been devoted to unravelling its comprehensive scope but limited impact and another three to its political ramifications, notably its permeation of a climate of dissent and its progressive sapping of the will of the Scottish administration to uphold monarchical authority. Fiscal aspects dominate the next three chapters. Charles' dogmatic pursuit of economic uniformity is identified as marking a critical shift, the moving of the disaffected element within the political nation to open collusion verging on civil disobedience to obstruct the implementation of directives from Court. The pursuit of uniformity, especially evident in Charles' promotion of the common fishing and tariff reform, coupled to his cavalier disregard for the establishment of sound money in Scotland, served not only to induce economic recession but to differentiate between the royal interest and the national interest. This crucial differentiation which was to underwrite the Scottish revolution was simultaneously carried a combustible stage further by Charles' censorious management of his coronation parliament, by his exemplary prosecution of James Elphinstone, Lord Balmerino, as a leader of the disaffected element and by his public endorsement of episcopally inspired campaigns to eradicate nonconformity in the Kirk. The rallying of the disaffected element and their mounting of public demonstrations against liturgical innovations, as manifest by the rioting which greeted readings from the Service Book in Edinburgh during the summer of 1637, form the substance of the next three chapters and are complemented by the subsequent two which trace the progressive emergence of the tables from a vehicular organisation for public protest into a provisional government resolved on a radical interpretation of the National Covenant. In spite of the apparent conservatism of its framing, this document was in essence both a nationalist and radical manifesto to secure the fundamental reordering of government in Kirk and State while reasserting the political independence of the Scottish people. Rather than seek to retread ground well served by political narratives of the Covenanting Movement following its emergence in 1638, the last three chapters prior to the conclusion scrutinise the revolutionary attainments of the elite directing the cause from the first constitutional defiance of Charles I at the general assembly of 1638 through recourse to hostilities between Covenanters and Royalists during the Bishops' Wars of 1639-40. Having brought to bear sufficient military and political pressure to oblige Charles I to concede diplomatic recognition for the Scottish state as an independent identity within the British Isles, a concession furthered by the willingness of the Covenanting leadership to export revolution, the entrenchment of oligarchic control over Scottish affairs was consummated by the parliament of 1641. Because the contrasting political fortunes of Charles I and the Covenanting Movement nationally are appraised summarily in the penultimate chapter, the formal conclusion takes the unconventional format of providing a regional perspective - that of the west of Scotland - to successive government by Crown and Covenant between 1625 and 1641. Although local particularism persisted throughout these sixteen years, there was a significant difference in the regional response to centralised directives before and after 1638. That the grievances of the west tended to coalesce with the rest of Scotland in the course of the personal rule suggests that Charles I, regionally as well as nationally, was the political architect of his own downfall. By way of contrast, despite unprecedented ideological, military and financial demands, the Covenanting Movement retained wholescale support in the west for its national endeavou
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Armstrong, Bruce. "Wha's like us? : racism and racialisation in the imagination of nineteenth century Scotland." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 1994. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1766/.
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In Part Two I present a series of analyses of nineteenth century discourses. In Chapters Five and Six my focus is on texts which describe the history, geography and ethnology of Africa. I establish evidence of the prevalence of racist accounts of the continent during the period and argue that the texts exemplify contradictions between different racist ideologies. I also argue that these contradictions are related to a historical shift between two distinctive ways of constructing social collectives. In Chapter Seven I pursue this argument further through discussion of the nineteenth century discipline of phrenology. I show that Scottish theorists and practitioners of phrenology made a significant contribution to the development of scientific racism, and that the biological determinism which is fundamental to the phrenological project corresponds to a distinctive way of constructing social collectives. I explore the history of the discipline and its relationships to orthodox science and to Christianity in this context. In Chapter Eight I offer an analysis of some aspects of the significance of racism of the construction of collective categories identifying populations within Scotland. I pursue this analysis in two directions. First, I cite and analyse nineteenth century histories of Scotland which refer to the "racial" composition and "racial" qualities of the population of Scotland. Second, I discuss scholarly and governmental literature which describes the contemporary Irish and Highland populations of nineteenth century Scotland. In the final chapter I summarise the results of the analyses presented in Chapters Five to Eight, and conclude by drawing out the implications of these results for the problems raised in Part One. I pursue the issue of the construction of Scottish "national identity" through discussion of recent debates concerning nineteenth century Scottish politics and culture, and I suggest that this area could be more fully researched by taking account of the significance of imperialism and racism.
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Sanderson-Nash, Emma Victoria. "Obeying the iron law? : changes to the intra-party balance of power in the British Liberal Democrats since 1988." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2011. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/7467/.
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This study examines intra-party power in the Liberal Democrats, looking at the formal role and remit of the various sectors that make up the party bureaucracy, and evaluating the exercise of power with regard to policy, campaigning and the use of resources. It is interested in two overarching questions: has the party professionalised, and has power moved toward the top? If so could this have had an impact on its electoral success? The theoretical context for this study is a well-established tradition of scholarship on party organisation going back to Moise Ostrogorski (1902) and Robert Michels (1911). The hierarchical nature of party organisations has been a constant refrain in this literature, especially in respect of major parties that are serious contenders for governmental office (McKenzie 1963; Kirchheimer 1966; Panebianco 1988; Katz & Mair 1995). This thesis offers a test of these theories by applying them to a smaller party that gradually evolved from a party of opposition to a party of government. While the incentives for intra-party centralisation are clear in office-seeking parties (the leadership requires maximum autonomy in order to devise and adapt a competitive strategy), this research explores whether it is a necessary precursor to electoral success. It will test whether the party has become more professional, or top-down, by looking at the policy making process, at the way the party campaigns, and at its distribution of resources. Finally the thesis examines the role of intra-party politics in achieving and maintaining the coalition with the Conservatives negotiated in May 2010. The research spans the lifetime of the party from 1988 to present day, and relies on an extensive series of semi-structured interviews with 70 individuals connected to the party including prominent politicians, senior staff and ordinary members. It argues that the party has become significantly more professional during this time, and that this was a contributory factor in delivering office.
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Dingsdale, Ann. "'Generous and lofty sympathies' : the Kensington Society, the 1866 women's suffrage petition and the development of mid-Victorian feminism." Thesis, University of Greenwich, 1995. http://gala.gre.ac.uk/6380/.
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The women's suffrage petition presented to the House of Commons in June 1866 is credited with being the first move in the British campaign. Yet although given a pivotal position in the women's movement, it and its organisation have received scant attention. This thesis examines the origins of this petition, which was organised by members of the Kensington Society (1865-1868). It investigates the members of this society, and those 1,499 women who signed the petition. This thesis looks in detail at these women both statistically and, in so far as it is ever possible, in terms of the 'experience' of the individuals involved. The thesis uses information from census, directories, etc. as well as biographical resources, in a variety of ways, ranging from 'life histories' of sample rank and file individuals, to statistical data covering several hundred women, and including charts which explore the activities of individual women over time, and case studies of groups of up to fifly women. Following the Introductory chapter, Chapter Two presents the context for change within which the Kensington Society and the petition came into being. Chapter Three introduces some rank and file women, and looks at the role of older women. Chapter Four considers the Kensington Society, and the part its members played in collecting the signatures for the petition in 1866 and looks at the age, marital status, class and geographical distribution of both Kensington Society members and those women who signed this petition. Chapter Five explores shared experience, and Chapter Six shared commitment Chapter Seven considers the implications of this investigation for the history of the early campaigns for women's suffrage in Britain.
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Peacock, Timothy Noel. "The changing strategies of minority government and opposition during the Callaghan administration, 1976-1979." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2015. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6812/.
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The 2010 General Election and subsequent coalition government brought groundbreaking changes to the conduct of UK politics, challenging recent British political history’s encapsulation within the dominant paradigm of the majoritarian ‘Westminster model’, and raising the prospect of further indecisive elections, not least evident in the uncertainty surrounding the upcoming 2015 General Election. These developments have also encouraged a rereading of past British minority governments, previously relegated to a status of either inherent weakness or aberration. Seminal works in the study of minority governments (Kaare Strom, 1990, 2006) have tended to concentrate on international experience, and even more recent studies by the Constitution Unit in London which have sought to act as a guide to current political parties (‘Making Minority Government Work’ (2010)) have not considered past British administrations in any great depth. This thesis provides a historico-political study of the two main parties’ strategic response to minority government during the Callaghan Administration of 1976-1979. The twin conclusions of this work are that both the Labour Government and Conservative Opposition showed greater consideration of strategies for dealing with minority government than has previously been appreciated by scholars, and that their actions are indicative of a distinct British tradition of minority government hitherto relatively unrecognised. The first two chapters establish the study’s theoretical framework, chronological context of the Callaghan Government, and strategy-making process within the main parties. Chapters 3-4 take in the alternative courses of action during Government formation and the changing approaches to managing legislative defeats, while Chapters 5-6 examine formal and informal interparty cooperation. Chapters 7-8 consider strategies of electoral timing, as well as planning by both parties for future minority or coalition governments, while the remaining two chapters revisit the confidence vote that brought down the Government, and place Callaghan’s Administration within a wider reconceptualising of British minority government history.
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Hill, Michael. "The Parliamentary Conservative Party : the leadership elections of William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith." Thesis, University of Huddersfield, 2007. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/741/.
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The aim of this research is to investigate the post1997 Parliamentary Conservative Party, with particular attention placed upon the Conservative Party leadership election of 1997 and 2001. The thesis uses these two leadership elections as a lens which can be utilised to focus upon and analyse the ideological disputations of contemporary British Conservatism. This is done by identifying the voting behaviour of Conservative parliamentarians in the two leadership elections and then by putting forwards a systemic explanation of the candidates’ support. Three sets of variables are tested. First, the thesis analyses socio-economic variables (i.e. the occupational and educational background of conservative parliamentarians). Second, the research considers the candidates’ support in relation to electoral and political variables (i.e. electoral vulnerability, political insider / outsider status, age and experience). Finally the research will evaluate the candidates’ support with regard to the ideological disposition of the candidates and their supporters. This requires an extensive exploration of the attitudes of Conservative parliamentarians with regard to the dominant ideological divides within contemporary post- Thatcherite Conservatism – economic policy (wet / dry), European policy (europhile / eurosceptic), and social, sexual and moral attitudes (social liberalism / social conservatism). By analysing the patterns of voting in relation to social background, political attributes and ideological disposition the thesis locates and interprets the differing motivational influences on voting behaviour. The thesis argues the ideological disposition of the candidates and their supporters was the crucial factor in both the leadership elections. The final round of the 1997 leadership election was a straight ideological battle between the europhile and eurosceptic wings of the parliamentary Conservative Party. This benefited the eurosceptic William Hague at the expense of the europhile Kenneth Clarke. In 2001 both Clarke and Portillo attracted support from across the ideological spectrum of the parliamentary party, suggesting that a section of the parliamentary party had moved away from ideologically driven voting behaviour. However, Iain Duncan Smith reaching the final ballot was due to the support of an ideologically cohesive group of traditional Thatcherite MPs and indicative of the continued significance of ideology on the direction of the Conservative party.
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COBANE, CRAIG THOMPSON. "TERRORISM AND DEMOCRACY THE BALANCE BETWEEN FREEDOM AND ORDER: THE BRITISH EXPERIENCE." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2003. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1070571375.
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Lauro, Giovanna. "Preventing forced marriage : a comparative analysis of France and Great Britain." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2012. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:34224256-4817-49fb-8b4c-4e5e9acb708c.
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This study aims at ascertaining via a cross-country/cross-city comparison why different national contexts characterized by allegedly opposite ideologies concerning the incorporation of immigrants (namely, the British Race Relations/multicultural model and French republicanism) have led to the adoption of similar policy tools in the prevention of forced unions amongst young people of ethnic minority background. In order to do so, the study will examine French republican and British multicultural rhetoric and policies aimed at the prevention of forced marriage at different institutional levels, with a focus on the preventive role played by the educational sector and within a historical institutionalist theoretical framework. The comparison begins with a consideration of French and British national rhetoric and policies against forced marriage from 1997 to 2008 to develop an adequate framework for the analysis of the preventive role attributed to educational policies in four major localities (the capital cities, Paris and London, and the second two largest cities per population size, Lyon and Birmingham). Despite differences in the policies and rhetoric adopted by multicultural Britain and republican France to tackle forced unions, the study hypothesizes a common trend in the ways French and British public authorities conceptualize the practice of forced marriage - intended mainly as the product of cultural difference. Similarities in the conceptualization of the practice, in turn, have contributed to the identification of similar policy tools despite dissimilar institutional contexts. Such a hypothesis contrasts with one of the key claims of historical institutionalism, according to which dissimilar institutions lead to different policy outcomes across different countries. The study will introduce the role of ideas – in the form of frames (Bleich 2003) – as a tool to explain the reasons why French and British policies aimed at the prevention of forced unions have led to similar policy outcomes despite dissimilar institutional contexts.
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DeYoung, Ursula. "The invention of the scientist : John Tyndall and the fight for scientific authority, 1850-1900." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2009. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.670013.
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Ahlin, Fanny. "The Legitimacy of the Intervention in Syria : A critical review regarding the intervention in Syria in 2018 executed by the United States of America, Great Britain and France." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-373928.
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McDougall, Charlotte. "Historicising the Feminist: A Study of Mary Wollstonecraft's Political and Discursive Contexts." The University of Waikato, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10289/2355.
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This thesis has investigated the life and publications of Mary Wollstonecraft. The thesis is divided in to three chapters the first chapter explores the political and social context of late Eighteenth century England in which Wollstonecraft lived the majority of her life. It then moves on to discuss the 'Revolution Controversy' and Wollstonecraft's contribution to that debate. Giving specific attention to A Vindication of the Rights of Man as it is Wollstonecraft's first political publication, and was the first published response to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. Without first publishing A Vindication of the Rights of Man, Wollstonecraft could not have published her most famous work. Next the second chapter investigates Eighteenth century education, and how Wollstonecraft ideas on changing the nature of education would help reform society in her eyes. Education was recognized as having special significance by many Enlightenment philosophers, this thesis looks at the contribution of John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau to educational theory, and they ways in which Wollstonecraft responded to their ideas. In the final chapter the inclusive nature of Wollstonecraft's gender theory is considered. Wollstonecraft is widely recognised as publishing what became for many the founding document of modern western feminism. What is given less recognition is that Wollstonecraft was in fact interested in broad social reform, similar to many other Enlightenment philosophers, Wollstonecraft's social theory included changing education and socialisation for both women and men. Society could not be reformed without changing social and educational practices with regard to both II men and women. Wollstonecraft furthered the contemporary debate on the rights of man to include the rights of woman. Wollstonecraft criticised the unnatural distinctions of gender and class, setting out in both Vindications the negative consequences for the character of both men and women. Another less recognised aspect of Wollstonecraft's philosophy which this thesis has highlighted is the vital role that religion played, and its implications for her ideas. This aspect of Wollstonecraft's thought has tended to be over looked by many Wollstonecraft scholars, who try to place Wollstonecraft in some kind of political and social continuum which I think misses the revolutionary and far sighted nature of Wollstonecraft's philosophy. In taking a historicist approach or understanding to Wollstonecraft, by reading Wollstonecraft in the terms of the political and social environment of the late eighteenth century, it becomes easier to understand the radical nature of Wollstonecraft's ideas, and the personal hardships she faced as both a woman and a member of the lower middle class.
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Taouk, Youssef. "The Roman Catholic church in Britain during the First World War : a study in political leadership." Thesis, View thesis, 2003. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/758.
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The political influence of British Catholics in First World War Britain has been a neglected aspect of British history. This thesis aims to address this deficiency by focusing precisely on the political role played by leading Roman Catholics in Britain during the conflict. This work concentrates on leading Catholic clergy, laymen and the British Catholic press. It demonstrates that the majority of leading Catholics were guided by an excessive nationalism which had two consequences. Firstly, British Catholics supported the war effort and the British government almost unquestionably. Secondly, most leading Catholics failed to give their full support to the Pope and repudiated his efforts to facilitate a negotiated peace. The thesis is based upon research into a wide array of primary material located in archives in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It depends heavily on the private correspondence of the Catholic hierarchy and leading Catholic politicians and publicists. In addition, it includes a survey of the Catholic press of the period, since it manifested the relationship between the leading Catholic clergy and laity, and the rest of British society.
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Gabay, Nadav. "The political origins of social science the cultural transformation of the British parliament and the emergence of scientific policymaking, 1803-1857 /." Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC campuses, 2007. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3274830.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2007.Title from first page of PDF file (viewed October 9, 2007). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 449-472).
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Posner, Jane. "The establishment and development of the new police in Halifax, 1848-1914." Thesis, University of Huddersfield, 2014. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/25022/.
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This thesis analyses the establishment and development of a new police force in Halifax, considering the question through the tenures of the chief constables from its inception in 1848 to the start of the Great War. It considers what existed before the police, how effective that was and how much actually changed after the incorporation of the borough. The early chapters explore the extent of the hostility to the new regime and at what point and how far it came to be accepted. The structure of the force is examined and through it the recruitment and turnover of men and the development of a career pattern for promising candidates. The later chapters assess how the force changed and consolidated towards the end of the nineteenth century, developing a shared sense of pride and camaraderie as policing became a recognised career for a working-class man. The question of how far the role of chief constable was influential in the formation and determination of policing in Halifax is considered, along with the careers of individuals, illustrating that the situation was both complex and fluid. The overall argument of this thesis is supportive of Swift’s contention that local, not national considerations underlay the reform of the new police and continued to dominate the aims and focus of policing in the boroughs throughout the nineteenth century. Borough chief constables were accountable to locally elected councillors and their actions reflected the concerns of the ratepayers. The history of borough police forces is embedded in the social, economic and geographical priorities of local government.
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Jeffares, Stephen Ruari. "Why public policy ideas catch on : empty signifiers and flourishing neighbourhoods." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2008. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/193/.
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Asking the question ‘why do ideas catch on in public policy’ reveals the inadequacy of ideational accounts to compete with the predominance of mainstream models of policy analysis. This thesis reasserts ideational accounts through the application of the political discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe. The approach posits ideas as demands operating in governing discourses and understands how general equivalent demands then become empty signifiers. This thesis develops current understanding on how general equivalents and empty signifiers function through an application to urban governance. It develops a qualitative account of governing in Birmingham using interviews between 2003-2005, and documents and media archives from the past twenty years. The thesis examines how mainstream ideational, rational, institutional and interpretative accounts understand the emergence of policy ideas and their role in coalitions, policy change and agency of actors. Discourse theory is revealed as a comprehensive approach for understanding these questions of ideas. The thesis develops a framework for the empirical application of discourse theory in Birmingham, exploring the relationship between two taken-for-granted governing discourses: renaissance and size. It shows how actors were motivated to reiterate and protect discourses from dislocation with development of the empty signifier of ‘flourishing neighbourhoods’. The thesis traces the credibility and emergence of flourishing neighbourhoods and contributes to a research agenda around hegemonic policy analysis.
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Pateman, Michael Gareth. "Towards the new Jerusalem : Manchester politics during the Second World War." Thesis, University of Huddersfield, 2000. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/4874/.
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Tanrikulu, Osman Goktug. "A Dissatisfied Partner: A Conflict - Integration Analysis of Britain's Membership in the European Union." PDXScholar, 2013. http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1064.
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Since 2009, the European Union has faced the worst economic crisis of its history. Due to the devastating impact of the Eurozone crisis on their economies, European countries realized the need to deepen the integration. Without a fiscal union, the Monetary Union would always be prone to economic crises. However, the efforts to reinforce the Union’s economy have been hampered by the UK due to its obsession with national sovereignty and lack of European ideals. In opposing further integration, the UK officials have started to speak out about the probability of leaving the EU.
The purpose of this paper is to present benefits and challenges of Britain’s EU membership and to assess the consequences of leaving the Union both for the UK and for the EU. This study utilizes Power Transition theory to analyze British impact on European integration. With the perspective of this theory, the UK is defined as a dissatisfied partner. By applying the conflict– cooperation model of Brian Efird, Jacek Kugler and Gaspare Genna, the effect of the UK’s dissatisfaction is empirically portrayed.
The empirical findings of the conflict– integration model clearly show that Britain’s dissatisfaction has a negative impact on European integration and jeopardizes the future of the Union. Power Transitions analysis indicates that the UK would become an insignificant actor in the international system and lose the opportunity for the Union’s leadership if it leaves the EU. On the other hand, although Britain’s departure would be a significant loss in terms of capability, economic coherence is more important for the EU. Without enough commitment for the Union, increasing the level of integration with the UK would raise the probability of conflict with the integration process in the future.
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Wasserman, Justin. "Democracy and disorder: Electoral violence and political modernisation in England and Wales, 1857-1880." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2002. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1642.
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The thesis analyses mid-nineteenth century electoral violence in England and Wales in order to contribute to our understanding of the character of Victorian electoral politics, and to assess the pace of political modernization as it has recently been defined. Historians have long acknowledged the presence of physical violence, rioting and intimidation during British elections from at least the Middle Ages to the turn of the twentieth-century, and yet the precise nature, frequency and scale of this phenomenon has remained somewhat obscured by a lack of statistical data on the subject. Therefore, by compiling a numerical sample of violence, based on strict definitional parameters, this research corrects the quantitative void in which discussions of English and Welsh election violence have largely been conducted.
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Culberson, James Kevin. "Obedience and Disobedience in English Political Thought, 1528-1558." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1994. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc278873/.
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English political thought from 1528 to 1558 was dominated by the question of obedience to civil authority. English Lutherans stressed the duty of obedience to the prince as the norm; however, if he commands that which is immoral one should passively disobey. The defenders of Henrician royal supremacy, while attempting to strengthen the power of the crown, used similar arguments to stress unquestioned obedience to the king. During Edward VI's reign this teaching of obedience was popularized from the pulpit. However, with the accession of Mary a new view regarding obedience gained prominence. Several important Marian exiles contended that the principle that God is to be obeyed rather than man entails the duty of Christians to resist idolatrous and evil rulers for the sake of the true Protestant religion.
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Birkeland, Mairianna. "Politics and society of Glasgow 1680-1740." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 1999. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1487/.
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Burke, David. "Theodore Rothstein and the Russian political emigre influence on the British labour movement 1884-1920." Thesis, University of Greenwich, 1997. http://gala.gre.ac.uk/6122/.
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This thesis examines the influence of Russian political emigrés on the British labour movement, 1884-1920, with particular reference to the career of Theodore Rothstein. It takes as its starting point Sergius Stepniak's comments on the impact of a small group of socialists on a Liberal- Radical demonstration in Hyde Park in 1884, and closes with the formation of the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1920 and the refusal to allow Th. Rothstein re-entry into Britain in August 1920. It takes issue with those historians who have argued that the Russian political emigré influence was essentially harmful, serving only to undermine natural developments already in evidence on the British Left and imposing new perspectives, which later made the CPGB subservient to the needs of Soviet foreign policy. This thesis, on the contrary, argues that the Russian political emigré community in Britain, predominantly Jewish, had become an integral part of the Left-wing of the British labour movement by the time of the formation of the CPGB, and as such formed part of the British socialist tradition that favoured Marxism. It looks specifically at the history of the Social-Democratic Federation, (SDF) which between 1884 and 1920 adopted the titles Social-Democratic Party and British Socialist Party before it merged itself with the CPGB in 1920. The SDF appealed particularly to the Russian political emigrés, as opposed to other groupings, because it saw itself as a Social-Democratic body and part of an international movement, to which the Russian Social- Democratic Labour Party was affiliated. The emigrés, therefore, felt that their activity within the British socialist movement was not something imposed upon a reluctant nativist body; but an integral part of that movement's development.
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Gillin, Edward John. "The science of Parliament : building the Palace of Westminster, 1834-1860." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:65863190-6063-4320-813e-e60dd1a11fb2.
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This thesis examines science's role in the construction of Britain's new Houses of Parliament between 1834 and 1860. Architecturally the Gothic Palace embodies Victorian notions of the medieval and romanticized perceptions of English history. Yet in the mid-nineteenth century, the building not only reflected, but was involved in, the very latest scientific knowledge. This included chemistry, optics, geology, horology, and architecture as a science itself. Science was chosen, performed, trusted, displayed, contested, and debated through the physical space of government. Parliament was a place where science was done. Not only was knowledge imported to guide architectural construction, but it was actively produced within the walls of Britain's new legislature. I argue that this attention to science was not coincidental. Rather, it was a crucial demonstration of the changing relationship between science and politics. Science was increasingly asserted to be a powerful form of knowledge, and to an institution struggling to secure authority in the uncertainty of reformed British politics, it appeared a valuable resource for credibility. Contextualizing the use of science at Parliament in the political instability of the 1830s and 1840s emphasizes how the use of new knowledge was a potent practice of constructing political authority.
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Prichard, Donald. "The office of coroner, 1860-1926 : resistance, reluctance and reform." Thesis, University of Greenwich, 2001. http://gala.gre.ac.uk/6272/.
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This study explores, analyses and seeks to explain the processes by which legislative changes were achieved to overcome the problems associated with the role and duties of the office of coroner from the mid nineteenth century to the 1920s. From time to time during the period, the office was exposed to political and public scrutiny that brought calls for reform. Despite that, and the general recognition that change was necessary, the process was extremely protracted and reform limited so that when the 1926 Act reached the statute book, it was greeted with a level of subdued dissatisfaction. Throughout the period, the coroners resisted change based on an appeal to their traditional links with the people and representing the office as an ancient institution rooted in long established custom and practice. Despite that, the coroners were unable to evade the impact of changes associated with developments in local and national government which had an indirect, though significant, effect on coroners' reform. For most of the period, the policy of successive governments was to have no policy on coroners. To fill that void,various groups with conflicting interests and ambitions proposed changes to meet their needs and attempted to influence the government to implement them. A slow, complex, haphazard, fragmented and undirected process evolved that had its own dynamic. There was no strategist, no over-riding driving force, no single source. Suggestions were adopted, modified or rejected to produce a 'policy' that was eventually accepted by the Home Office. From the detailed examination of the complex events, issues and stances adopted by the various bodies, including the Home Office, an explanation for the unusual, slow and tortuous process of reform emerges. Coroners' problems were a minor issue for the government and carried little weight in the wider scheme of politics. With such a low priority rating, the government was reluctant to intervene except under the pressure of public criticism when events created a crisis or near crisis. Eventually, a minimum legislative intervention brought closure, but left important problems unresolved. The coroners still investigated unexplained deaths on behalf of the Crown and retained intact their traditional authority, independence, common law powers and discretion.
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Kersting, Norbert. "Electronic voting : globaler Trend oder Utopie?" Universität Potsdam, 2005. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/texte_eingeschraenkt_welttrends/2010/4800/.
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The author discusses the issue whether the internet and other electronic sources should be used for elections. Online-elections can make the electoral process not only less complex but also cheaper, thus the analysis faster and more reliable. The lower costs could, in turn, lead to a new impulse on direct-democracy-instruments. Comparing the USA, Great Britain, Germany and Switzerland the article provides information about national strategies, discourses and problems, and shows the different political and cultural settings.
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Hill, Mark J. "Founding and re-founding : a problem in Rousseau's political thought and action." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:b41e1417-05c9-4c46-bcad-f0f0bdc83dde.
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protein chemistry, unnatural amino acids, chemical biology, proteomicsThe foundation of political societies is a central theme in Rousseau's work. This is no surprise coming from a man who was born into a people who had their own celebrated founder and foundations, and immersed himself in the writings of classical republicans and the quasi-mythical histories of ancient city-states where the heroic lawgiver played an important and legitimate role in political foundations. However, Rousseau's propositional political writings (those written for Geneva, Corsica, and Poland) have been accused of being unsystematic and running the spectrum from conservative and prudent to radical and utopian. It is this seeming incongruence which is the subject of this thesis. In particular, it is argued that this confusion is born out the failure to recognize a systematic distinction between "founding" and "re-founding" political societies in both the history of political thought, and Rousseau's own work (a distinction in Rousseau which has rarely been noted, let alone treated to a study of its own). By recognizing this distinction one can identify two Rousseaus; the conservative and prudent thinker who is wary of making changes to established political systems and constitutional foundations (the re-founder), and the radical democrat fighting for equality, and claiming that no state is legitimate without popular sovereignty (the founder). In demonstrating this distinction, this thesis examines the ancient concept of the lawgiver, the growth and expansion of the idea leading up to the eighteenth century, Rousseau's own philosophic writings on the topic, and the differing political proposals he wrote for Geneva, Corsica, and Poland. The thesis argues that although there is a clear separation between these two types of political proposals, they remain systematically Rousseauvian.
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Amery, Fran. "Abortion politics in the UK : feminism, medicine and the state." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2014. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/4950/.
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Abortion rights are often used as a litmus test for how well women’s interests are represented by the state. However, feminist accounts of British abortion legislation have been conflicting, either presenting the law as fundamentally anti-feminist, or noting that feminist actors have played an active role in its construction and defence. This thesis makes sense of this tension through coding and a chronological discourse analysis of Parliamentary debates on abortion legislation from the 1967 Abortion Act onwards, supplemented by analysis of interview data and commentary. The thesis finds that the gendered assumptions encoded in the Act have constrained the debate. Due to a desire to protect access to abortion, feminists have been forced to defend a law which constructs women as vulnerable and irrational. While feminists have used the discursive resources available to them in creative ways, they have also perpetuated problematic ideas about gender. Difficulties have also been present for anti-abortion politicians, who oppose an Act widely regarded as protecting the vulnerable. These actors have attempted to borrow elements of a liberal, ‘pro-woman’ discourse on abortion, appropriating feminist language. Nonetheless, alongside this rhetoric are elements of a conservative backlash politics which identifies feminism as the cause of women’s problems.
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Hurd, Azora Josephine. "Children and young people's participation : how effectively do public and third sector organisations encourage and engage with children and young people to participate in decision making processes affecting their lives?" Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2012. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/3647/.
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What rights do children and young people have to participate in the decisions that affect their lives? And what benefit, if any, can be gained from their participation in the democratic process? Through the adoption of an interpretative perspective the research undertakes a case study exploration of these issues working directly with child and young people across a number of public and third sector organisational settings, utilising a Participatory Action Research methodology (in the form of an Interactive Group Work Programme) in order to examine their engagement in decisions that affect their lives. The research examines the factors that both inhibit and promote participation with young citizens and how this is affected by the individual organisation’s context and practice. It explores through the proposition of a new paradigm shift in the ‘adultism’ (Bell, 1995) discourse that identifies an ‘awkwardness’ in the way adults engage with children and young people arising from a lack (and/or loss) of the skills necessary to respect, relate and respond appropriately to them. A shift that the researcher has termed the ‘Three R’s of Awkwardness - Respect, Relate and Respond’. The research identifies a new distinction between forms of communication which are ‘instructive’ and those which are ‘expressive’ in nature and the benefit of participatory dialogue. In so doing, it has demonstrated the aim of the research in seeking to express the importance of the participation agenda and the value that can be gained through it.
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James, Leslie Elaine. "What we put in black and white : George Padmore and the practice of anti-imperial politics." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2012. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/399/.
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This thesis offers a new interpretation of the life and importance of George Padmore (1903-1959). Padmore was one of the most well-known ‘black communists’ in the 1930s. He became a major nexus for anti-colonial resistance in London between 1935- 1957 and one of the foremost political thinkers behind the pan-African movement. Through an analysis of his writing and his networks this thesis argues that Padmore engaged in a permanent state of political activity, guided by a practice of ‘pragmatic anti-imperialism.’ By tracing his journalism in West African and West Indian colonies, it shows that Padmore’s influence was far more extensive than previously imagined. This study begins from the hypothesis that the pragmatism of Padmore’s politics can only be demonstrated by examining his whole life, and thus takes the form of a biography. Taking Padmore’s pragmatism as a starting point, the forms in which he was understood and labeled by others are fundamental to this study since they demonstrate the extent to which Padmore was willing to compromise and ‘play the game’ of imperial politics, and they show the boundaries of the field in which he operated. Overall, this thesis aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of race and non-violent resistance in anti-imperial politics in the first half of the twentieth century by focusing upon the role of a mobile, life-long activist from the diaspora who attacked the moral basis of late colonial rule from within.