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The Ghost in the Machine? The Government of England

Jim Gallagher

in Governing England: English Identity and Institutions in a Changing United Kingdom

The asymmetry of the UK as a union means that England, unlike Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, not only has no domestic legislature but no executive of its own either. Westminster is England’s ... More

The asymmetry of the UK as a union means that England, unlike Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, not only has no domestic legislature but no executive of its own either. Westminster is England’s Parliament and the UK Government is England’s Government. Much attention has been devoted to the (parliamentary) anomaly of the West Lothian Question, but there has been little discussion of England’s Government. This chapter asks whether the UK Government contains a ghost in the machine: an embryonic English Government, perhaps in English departments or cabinet committees, or shown in social or economic policy or in taxation and spending. It notes how deeply entangled UK and English economic and fiscal policy are, notably via the Barnett formula, and considers the options for more explicit English governance such as a ‘Minister for England’, but questions how politically salient this would be when the main issue is England’s relations with Europe.Less

Ireland, 1649–1660

Alison Games

in The Web of Empire: English Cosmopolitans in an Age of Expansion, 1560-1660

This chapter focuses on Ireland in the 1650s, illustrating England's new commitment to brute force (expressed through a new standing army and expanded navy) and to forced migration around the ... More

This chapter focuses on Ireland in the 1650s, illustrating England's new commitment to brute force (expressed through a new standing army and expanded navy) and to forced migration around the Atlantic as a strategy for colonial success and national power. This imperial reshuffling of people linked Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, and North America, and exposed the government's new vision of a more centralized empire devised in the wake of several decades of private enterprise.Less

The Anglo-Dutch Republic, 1649–53

Jonathan Scott

in How the Old World Ended: The Anglo-Dutch-American Revolution 1500-1800

This chapter covers the period between the years 1649 and 1653. It was during this time when England embarked on a revolution — the real ‘first modern revolution’ — with profound and permanent ... More

This chapter covers the period between the years 1649 and 1653. It was during this time when England embarked on a revolution — the real ‘first modern revolution’ — with profound and permanent consequences. This would involve a jarring process of change, over two generations, in the course of which the institutions, administration, power-structures, and policies of English government were remade to be capable of competing with their Dutch model. That model was not only political, military, and economic but also religious, cultural, and moral. From the Dutch the English republic would take the post-dynastic policies, and the fiscal and administrative practices, of a modern, mercantile, and Protestant free state. These would be applied to the construction of a state and empire which were, or became distinct, by measures directed in the first place against the competing economic pretensions of the Dutch themselves.Less

Introduction

Colin Copus

in Leading the Localities: Executive Mayors in English Local Governance

This chapter places Tony Blair government's modernisation agenda within the context of arguments about the configuration of local political decision-making. It addresses a number of vital questions ... More

This chapter places Tony Blair government's modernisation agenda within the context of arguments about the configuration of local political decision-making. It addresses a number of vital questions that are raised by the introduction of a directly elected form of local political leadership. Local government in England is the means by which the provision of local services is brought together with the world of politics, and party politics in particular. Some common themes of past examinations of local government have been low levels of public awareness and engagement, the intensity and appropriateness of party politics, and the lack of visibility and transparency in political decision-making. The advent of directly elected mayors within English local government raises a wide but simple set of questions about the effect of direct election to executive political office on local democracy and representation. Finally, an overview of the chapters included in this book is shown.Less

Contexts (1689–1703, 1782–1798): Economic, military, and parliamentary

Alvin Jackson

in The Two Unions: Ireland, Scotland, and the Survival of the United Kingdom, 1707–2007

Parliamentary union was an established motif in the politics of both 17th-century Ireland and 17th-century Scotland. Moreover, ‘incorporating’ union was not merely an airy ideal (or, equally, a ... More

Parliamentary union was an established motif in the politics of both 17th-century Ireland and 17th-century Scotland. Moreover, ‘incorporating’ union was not merely an airy ideal (or, equally, a threat): for both the Irish and the Scots it had been a Cromwellian reality, however bloody and transient, and however different the resonances in the two nations. Later, the Scots and the Irish Acts of Union were launched against a shared background of European war, political and religious threat, and economic dislocation. Though each union was sanctioned by parliamentarians who were subsequently damned as corrupt in their respective national demonologies, the ‘parcel’ of Scottish and Irish ‘rogues’ in 1707 and 1801 had each exercised a much greater measure of legislative independence in the eighteen years preceding union than any earlier generation of representative. For the English, Scots, and Irish, union was tied up with history, religion, war, political stability, and economic opportunity. But the relative strength and truculence of the national parliaments before 1707 and 1801, particularly in the context of bloody and threatening European conflicts, meant that union was more desirable, indeed necessary, than hitherto for the English government: this strength also meant that the Scots and (to a lesser extent) the Irish now had forms of bargaining position where once there had only been the unanswerable eloquence of English economic and military dominion. This chapter compares this array of contexts, with a view to assessing their impact upon the forms of union inaugurated in 1707 and 1801.Less

Mayors: a new form of local politics or a very English compromise?

Colin Copus

in Leading the Localities: Executive Mayors in English Local Governance

This chapter examines the arrival of the elected mayor within English local government through referendums and subsequent elections. It considers the powers of the elected mayor in England and ... More

This chapter examines the arrival of the elected mayor within English local government through referendums and subsequent elections. It considers the powers of the elected mayor in England and compares them with those of the council leader. The referendum campaigns and results show that despite the power of local political parties, a strong, well resourced and organised independent campaign can succeed against the local political elite. Voters used the elections either to signal discontent with the local political elite or to support its regime and policies. England's elected mayors are required by law to appoint a member of the council as a deputy mayor; the mayor can also dismiss that individual. The elected mayors in England have resources which can be used to develop the influence attached to the office. They have neither the power nor the political resources to face adequately the complex array of governing pressures they experience.Less

Local political leadership and mayoral government

Colin Copus

in Leading the Localities: Executive Mayors in English Local Governance

This chapter investigates the notions of local political leadership and asks what is meant by this concept in England and how it applies to elected mayors, council leaders and councillors. The most ... More

This chapter investigates the notions of local political leadership and asks what is meant by this concept in England and how it applies to elected mayors, council leaders and councillors. The most powerful context in which English mayors find themselves is the domination of local politics by political parties. The separation of powers, the mayoral political focus and the mayoral dichotomy bring together a range of issues which help uncover the richness of the English experiment with elected mayors. The separation of powers within English mayoral councils has the elected mayor as the head of the executive and political head of the council. The party-detached mayor deliberately places some distance between himself or herself and the party group of councillors. The ward/division and the authority of English local government have elected representatives to ‘lead’ within their own areas.Less

The geo-constitution and the long history of localism

Jane Wills

in Locating Localism: Statecraft, Citizenship and Democracy

This chapter takes a long view of the British state and its geographical division of powers. Stretching over 500 years the chapter looks at the history of local government and its origins in the ... More

This chapter takes a long view of the British state and its geographical division of powers. Stretching over 500 years the chapter looks at the history of local government and its origins in the parish. It then focuses on the gradual centralisation and standardisation that took place from the early nineteenth century. The chapter also looks at the rise of democratic social movements that promoted new forms of localism during the 1960s. This legacy frames the challenges in developing localist statecraft and citizenship today. The chapter ends with an overview of the shifting spatial orders of English government from the seventeenth century to the present day.Less

A Perennial Problem

Luke Mayville

in John Adams and the Fear of American Oligarchy

This chapter considers John Adams' Defence of the Constitutions within a transatlantic debate about the desirability of English-style balanced government—a constitutional model that attempted to ... More

This chapter considers John Adams' Defence of the Constitutions within a transatlantic debate about the desirability of English-style balanced government—a constitutional model that attempted to counterpose the monarchic, aristocratic, and democratic social elements together within the same government. The debate was most pronounced in Paris in the years preceding the French Revolution, when Anglomanes who sympathized with balanced government defended the model from the attacks of French reformers. It argues that Adams, though a defender of a certain idea of balanced government, departed from the prevalent theory. Whereas conventional Anglomanes had emphasized the danger to such balance posed by the popular, democratic element, Adams was preoccupied instead with the threat to that balance posed by an overweening aristocratic class.Less

The Gascon Expedition and the Beginnings of the Sicilian Affair 1253–1254

David Carpenter

in Henry III: The Rise to Power and Personal Rule, 1207-1258

This chapter explores the Gascon expedition and the beginnings of the Sicilian affair. After the great parliament of May 1253, Henry III knew there was no escaping Gascony. His letters now spoke of ... More

This chapter explores the Gascon expedition and the beginnings of the Sicilian affair. After the great parliament of May 1253, Henry III knew there was no escaping Gascony. His letters now spoke of ‘the war and great disturbance’ and the fear that Gascony, ‘unless it is quickly succoured, may soon be lost forever’. On May 25, Henry formally told the Gascons he was coming. By this time Henry was already assembling the ships for his passage. As for men, Henry called on his tenants-in-chief. Henry paid close attention to the government of England in his absence, placing the queen at the summit of his plans. But there was no Gascon victory, or not immediately. In December of 1254, Henry's own fear of a Castilian invasion reached a peak. In February of 1254, at the very time that he was agreeing the Castilian terms, Henry accepted a papal offer to put Edmund, his second son, on the throne of Sicily.Less

From Classical Civil Religion to Modern Liberal Religion

in The Theological Basis of Liberal Modernity in Montesquieu's “Spirit of the Laws”

This chapter analyzes Montesquieu's views on republican slavery, the commercial republic and its religiosity, liberal constitutionalism and its religiosity, and the application of the standard found ... More

This chapter analyzes Montesquieu's views on republican slavery, the commercial republic and its religiosity, liberal constitutionalism and its religiosity, and the application of the standard found in England. Montesquieu is keenly aware that the natural tendency or drift of despotism is toward stupid impoverishment and recurring chaotic self-destruction. But he believes that there is hopeful evidence that some major despots are learning to listen to the voice of the reasoning required by economic self-interest rightly understood.Less