Christopher Hood, Oliver James, George Jones, Colin Scott, and Tony Travers
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198280996
- eISBN:
- 9780191599491
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198280998.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
Regulation Inside Government analyses the army of inspectors, auditors, grievance‐chasers, standard‐setters, and other bodies overseeing contemporary public organizations. On the basis ...
More
Regulation Inside Government analyses the army of inspectors, auditors, grievance‐chasers, standard‐setters, and other bodies overseeing contemporary public organizations. On the basis of a pioneering two‐year inside study of British Government by a team of leading scholars, this book provides an original analytical perspective on regulation within government. Given the limitations of orthodox constitutional checks on executive government, the courts, and elected politicians, regulation inside government deserves more attention than it has hitherto received. As one of the first comprehensive accounts of regulation inside government, this book begins to fill the gap. The empirical data for the study sets out the full range of modes of control applied to the public sector. The authors examine the relationship between formal oversight, of the traditional regulatory sort, with other forms of control based on competition, mutuality, and contrived randomness. They conclude that there is a failure in contemporary public management to deploy each of these modes of control to their full potential.Less
Regulation Inside Government analyses the army of inspectors, auditors, grievance‐chasers, standard‐setters, and other bodies overseeing contemporary public organizations. On the basis of a pioneering two‐year inside study of British Government by a team of leading scholars, this book provides an original analytical perspective on regulation within government. Given the limitations of orthodox constitutional checks on executive government, the courts, and elected politicians, regulation inside government deserves more attention than it has hitherto received. As one of the first comprehensive accounts of regulation inside government, this book begins to fill the gap. The empirical data for the study sets out the full range of modes of control applied to the public sector. The authors examine the relationship between formal oversight, of the traditional regulatory sort, with other forms of control based on competition, mutuality, and contrived randomness. They conclude that there is a failure in contemporary public management to deploy each of these modes of control to their full potential.
Edward C. Page and Vincent Wright (eds)
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198294467
- eISBN:
- 9780191600067
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198294468.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
Presents a comparative study of the senior civil service in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Greece, Denmark, and Sweden, which provides information about ...
More
Presents a comparative study of the senior civil service in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Greece, Denmark, and Sweden, which provides information about the structures and the composition of the higher civil service, and its position in the political structure. Explores how the higher civil service has developed in the light of the massive changes in European societies over the past thirty years. These changes include the size of the top level of the civil service, the growing social diversity of its ranks, and the tendency to recruit from outside the civil service. Also examines whether wider social changes, such as the democratization of education, the growth of interest groups, and the increasing importance of the European Union have an impact on the higher levels of bureaucracy and produce similar patterns of change throughout Europe.Less
Presents a comparative study of the senior civil service in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Greece, Denmark, and Sweden, which provides information about the structures and the composition of the higher civil service, and its position in the political structure. Explores how the higher civil service has developed in the light of the massive changes in European societies over the past thirty years. These changes include the size of the top level of the civil service, the growing social diversity of its ranks, and the tendency to recruit from outside the civil service. Also examines whether wider social changes, such as the democratization of education, the growth of interest groups, and the increasing importance of the European Union have an impact on the higher levels of bureaucracy and produce similar patterns of change throughout Europe.
Geoffrey Evans
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199289172
- eISBN:
- 9780191711084
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199289172.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Economy
This chapter examines the argument that there exists a ‘trade-off between the extension of multiculturalist policies and public commitment to a universalistic welfare state’. It considers the case of ...
More
This chapter examines the argument that there exists a ‘trade-off between the extension of multiculturalist policies and public commitment to a universalistic welfare state’. It considers the case of Britain, focusing on the nature of public attitudes towards ethnic diversity, MCPs and the welfare state in that country, and their implications for party politics. It is shown that there has been no backlash against ethnic diversity and MCPs in Britain. Public attitudes towards minorities have become more tolerant over time, and public opposition to MCPs has softened. Although there has been some weakening in public support for redistribution, this trend has much more to do with changing economic conditions than with immigration or MCPs. Finally, although there is some evidence that immigration may sometimes crowd out redistributive concerns in determining people's voting behaviour, there is no evidence that MCPs for already settled minorities have had this effect.Less
This chapter examines the argument that there exists a ‘trade-off between the extension of multiculturalist policies and public commitment to a universalistic welfare state’. It considers the case of Britain, focusing on the nature of public attitudes towards ethnic diversity, MCPs and the welfare state in that country, and their implications for party politics. It is shown that there has been no backlash against ethnic diversity and MCPs in Britain. Public attitudes towards minorities have become more tolerant over time, and public opposition to MCPs has softened. Although there has been some weakening in public support for redistribution, this trend has much more to do with changing economic conditions than with immigration or MCPs. Finally, although there is some evidence that immigration may sometimes crowd out redistributive concerns in determining people's voting behaviour, there is no evidence that MCPs for already settled minorities have had this effect.
Nicola McEwen
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199289172
- eISBN:
- 9780191711084
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199289172.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Economy
This chapter considers whether the accommodation of national minorities through the according of self-government at the regional level undermines the welfare state. Most Western states with sizeable ...
More
This chapter considers whether the accommodation of national minorities through the according of self-government at the regional level undermines the welfare state. Most Western states with sizeable national minorities have accommodated minority nationalist aspirations through some form of federal or quasi-federal territorial autonomy. This chapter examines the impact of this sort of devolution or regionalization on the welfare state in the UK, Belgium, and Canada. The chapter concludes that such institutional reforms have had complex effects on social policy, both at the central level and in the self-governing regions. It has set in play political dynamics that sometimes work to strengthen social policy as a tool of nation-building, and sometimes serve to inhibit new redistributive policies. As a result, no simple general patterns leap out, challenging assertions that accommodating substate nationalism inevitably weakens the welfare state.Less
This chapter considers whether the accommodation of national minorities through the according of self-government at the regional level undermines the welfare state. Most Western states with sizeable national minorities have accommodated minority nationalist aspirations through some form of federal or quasi-federal territorial autonomy. This chapter examines the impact of this sort of devolution or regionalization on the welfare state in the UK, Belgium, and Canada. The chapter concludes that such institutional reforms have had complex effects on social policy, both at the central level and in the self-governing regions. It has set in play political dynamics that sometimes work to strengthen social policy as a tool of nation-building, and sometimes serve to inhibit new redistributive policies. As a result, no simple general patterns leap out, challenging assertions that accommodating substate nationalism inevitably weakens the welfare state.
James Hinton
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199243297
- eISBN:
- 9780191714054
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199243297.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
The associational life of middle-class women in 20th-century England has been largely ignored by historians. During the Second World War women's clubs, guilds, and institutes provided a basis for the ...
More
The associational life of middle-class women in 20th-century England has been largely ignored by historians. During the Second World War women's clubs, guilds, and institutes provided a basis for the mobilization of up to a million women, mainly housewives, into unpaid part-time work. Women's Voluntary Services (WVS) — which was set up by the government in 1938 to organize this work — generated a rich archive of reports and correspondence which provide the social historian with a unique window into the female public sphere. Questioning the view that world war two served to democratize English society, the book shows how the mobilization enabled middle-class social leaders to reinforce their claims to authority. Displaying ‘character’ through their voluntary work, the leisured women at the centre of this study made themselves indispensable to the war effort. The book delineates these ‘continuities of class’, reconstructing intimate portraits of local female social leadership in contrasting settings across provincial England, tracing complex and often acerbic rivalries within the voluntary sector, and uncovering gulfs of mutual distrust and incomprehension dividing publicly active women along gendered frontiers of class and party. Britain's wartime mobilization relied on an uneasy balance between voluntarism and the expanding power of the state, calling on a Victorian ethos of public service to cope with the profoundly un-Victorian problems of total war. It was not until the 1950s and 1960s that these female social leaders finally found themselves marginalized by bureaucracy and professionalization.Less
The associational life of middle-class women in 20th-century England has been largely ignored by historians. During the Second World War women's clubs, guilds, and institutes provided a basis for the mobilization of up to a million women, mainly housewives, into unpaid part-time work. Women's Voluntary Services (WVS) — which was set up by the government in 1938 to organize this work — generated a rich archive of reports and correspondence which provide the social historian with a unique window into the female public sphere. Questioning the view that world war two served to democratize English society, the book shows how the mobilization enabled middle-class social leaders to reinforce their claims to authority. Displaying ‘character’ through their voluntary work, the leisured women at the centre of this study made themselves indispensable to the war effort. The book delineates these ‘continuities of class’, reconstructing intimate portraits of local female social leadership in contrasting settings across provincial England, tracing complex and often acerbic rivalries within the voluntary sector, and uncovering gulfs of mutual distrust and incomprehension dividing publicly active women along gendered frontiers of class and party. Britain's wartime mobilization relied on an uneasy balance between voluntarism and the expanding power of the state, calling on a Victorian ethos of public service to cope with the profoundly un-Victorian problems of total war. It was not until the 1950s and 1960s that these female social leaders finally found themselves marginalized by bureaucracy and professionalization.
Mark Curthoys
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199268894
- eISBN:
- 9780191708466
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199268894.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This is a study of how mid-Victorian Britain and its specialist advisers, in an age of free trade and the minimal state, attempted to create a viable legal framework for trade unions and strikes. It ...
More
This is a study of how mid-Victorian Britain and its specialist advisers, in an age of free trade and the minimal state, attempted to create a viable legal framework for trade unions and strikes. It traces the collapse, in the face of judicial interventions, of the regime for collective labour devised by the Liberal Tories in the 1820s, following the repeal of the Combination Acts. The new arrangements enacted in the 1870s allowed collective labour unparalleled freedoms, contended by the newly-founded Trades Union Congress. This book seeks to reinstate the view from government into an account of how the settlement was brought about, tracing the emergence of an official view — largely independent of external pressure — which favoured withdrawing the criminal law from peaceful industrial relations and allowing a virtually unrestricted freedom to combine. It reviews the impact upon the Home Office's specialist advisers of contemporary intellectual trends, such as the assaults upon classical and political economy and the historicised critiques of labour law developed by Liberal writers. The book offers an historical context for the major court decisions affecting the security of trade union funds, and the freedom to strike, while the views of the judges are integrated within the terms of a wider debate between proponents of contending views of ‘free trade’ and ‘free labour’. New evidence sheds light on the considerations which impelled governments to grant trade unions a distinctive form of legal existence, and to protect strikers from the criminal law.Less
This is a study of how mid-Victorian Britain and its specialist advisers, in an age of free trade and the minimal state, attempted to create a viable legal framework for trade unions and strikes. It traces the collapse, in the face of judicial interventions, of the regime for collective labour devised by the Liberal Tories in the 1820s, following the repeal of the Combination Acts. The new arrangements enacted in the 1870s allowed collective labour unparalleled freedoms, contended by the newly-founded Trades Union Congress. This book seeks to reinstate the view from government into an account of how the settlement was brought about, tracing the emergence of an official view — largely independent of external pressure — which favoured withdrawing the criminal law from peaceful industrial relations and allowing a virtually unrestricted freedom to combine. It reviews the impact upon the Home Office's specialist advisers of contemporary intellectual trends, such as the assaults upon classical and political economy and the historicised critiques of labour law developed by Liberal writers. The book offers an historical context for the major court decisions affecting the security of trade union funds, and the freedom to strike, while the views of the judges are integrated within the terms of a wider debate between proponents of contending views of ‘free trade’ and ‘free labour’. New evidence sheds light on the considerations which impelled governments to grant trade unions a distinctive form of legal existence, and to protect strikers from the criminal law.
Ron Johnston (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264355
- eISBN:
- 9780191734052
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264355.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This volume of the Proceedings of the British Academy contains seventeen lectures delivered at the British Academy in 2007. Subject matter ranges from commemoration of the American Civil War, to an ...
More
This volume of the Proceedings of the British Academy contains seventeen lectures delivered at the British Academy in 2007. Subject matter ranges from commemoration of the American Civil War, to an examination of our capacity as human beings to live in the world of imagination, and the opportunities and challenges that face cultural institutions in Britain today.Less
This volume of the Proceedings of the British Academy contains seventeen lectures delivered at the British Academy in 2007. Subject matter ranges from commemoration of the American Civil War, to an examination of our capacity as human beings to live in the world of imagination, and the opportunities and challenges that face cultural institutions in Britain today.
P. J. Marshall (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263518
- eISBN:
- 9780191734021
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263518.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This volume contains sixteen lectures given to the National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences in 2004. The topical issues debated in this volume include the patenting of AIDS drugs, the ...
More
This volume contains sixteen lectures given to the National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences in 2004. The topical issues debated in this volume include the patenting of AIDS drugs, the future pensions crisis (a lecture given by the Governor of the Bank of England), Britain's universities, and Pan-Islam. There are studies of Shakespeare, Pope, Montaigne, Robert Graves, and William Faulkner. And there are lectures on the Inquisition, empires in history, and the journey towards spiritual fulfillment.Less
This volume contains sixteen lectures given to the National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences in 2004. The topical issues debated in this volume include the patenting of AIDS drugs, the future pensions crisis (a lecture given by the Governor of the Bank of England), Britain's universities, and Pan-Islam. There are studies of Shakespeare, Pope, Montaigne, Robert Graves, and William Faulkner. And there are lectures on the Inquisition, empires in history, and the journey towards spiritual fulfillment.
Vivien A. Schmidt
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199266975
- eISBN:
- 9780191709012
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199266975.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, European Union
The chapter begins with a brief discussion of EU institutional structures in comparison with national institutional structures. It then examines the EU’s comparative effects on unitary, regionalized, ...
More
The chapter begins with a brief discussion of EU institutional structures in comparison with national institutional structures. It then examines the EU’s comparative effects on unitary, regionalized, and federal member-states by considering in turn its impact on national executives, parliaments, subnational authorities, and courts. It follows with a more detailed exploration of the EU’s effects on four countries: France, Britain, Germany, and Italy. Although Europeanization has been more disruptive to the unitary structures of France than to those of Britain, Britain has had a harder time accepting EU-related changes and yet has had a better compliance record. And despite the fact that Europeanization has been least disruptive to Germany’s federal structures and most reinforcing to the regionalized structures of Italy, Germany’s compliance record is little better than that of France, while Italy’s is the worst.Less
The chapter begins with a brief discussion of EU institutional structures in comparison with national institutional structures. It then examines the EU’s comparative effects on unitary, regionalized, and federal member-states by considering in turn its impact on national executives, parliaments, subnational authorities, and courts. It follows with a more detailed exploration of the EU’s effects on four countries: France, Britain, Germany, and Italy. Although Europeanization has been more disruptive to the unitary structures of France than to those of Britain, Britain has had a harder time accepting EU-related changes and yet has had a better compliance record. And despite the fact that Europeanization has been least disruptive to Germany’s federal structures and most reinforcing to the regionalized structures of Italy, Germany’s compliance record is little better than that of France, while Italy’s is the worst.
Vivien A. Schmidt
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199266975
- eISBN:
- 9780191709012
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199266975.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, European Union
This chapter begins with a brief overview of the EU’s policymaking processes in comparison with national processes. It then outlines the EU’s impact on the macro patterns of its member-states’ ...
More
This chapter begins with a brief overview of the EU’s policymaking processes in comparison with national processes. It then outlines the EU’s impact on the macro patterns of its member-states’ national policymaking and its impact on the micro patterns of member-states’ sectoral policymaking. This is followed by an extensive illustration of both macro and micro patterns of policymaking in France, Britain, Germany, and Italy. Although Europeanization has been equally (although differently) disruptive to the statist patterns of policymaking of France and of Britain, Britain has had a harder time accepting EU-related changes but an easier time in influencing their formulation. Europeanization has yet again been least disruptive to Germany’s corporatist and legalistic patterns of policymaking, and most salutary to those of Italy, by reinforcing corporatism while denying clientelism.Less
This chapter begins with a brief overview of the EU’s policymaking processes in comparison with national processes. It then outlines the EU’s impact on the macro patterns of its member-states’ national policymaking and its impact on the micro patterns of member-states’ sectoral policymaking. This is followed by an extensive illustration of both macro and micro patterns of policymaking in France, Britain, Germany, and Italy. Although Europeanization has been equally (although differently) disruptive to the statist patterns of policymaking of France and of Britain, Britain has had a harder time accepting EU-related changes but an easier time in influencing their formulation. Europeanization has yet again been least disruptive to Germany’s corporatist and legalistic patterns of policymaking, and most salutary to those of Italy, by reinforcing corporatism while denying clientelism.
Vivien A. Schmidt
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199266975
- eISBN:
- 9780191709012
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199266975.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, European Union
The chapter begins with a brief sketch of the EU’s representative politics in comparison with national politics. It then examines the EU’s effects on national politics generally as well as ...
More
The chapter begins with a brief sketch of the EU’s representative politics in comparison with national politics. It then examines the EU’s effects on national politics generally as well as differentially between majoritarian and proportional representation systems in terms of questions related to party politics and electoral participation, referenda and citizen activism, trust in government, identity and class between majoritarian and proportional representation systems. This is followed by a more detailed consideration of the EU’s effects in France, Britain, Germany, and Italy. While Europeanization has been equally problematic for the polarized, majoritarian politics of France and Britain, Britain has been more politically polarized for much longer around the issue of Europe than France, despite the fact that it has shielded itself more from EU encroachments on national policies. Europeanization has been least disruptive to Germany’s consensus-oriented, proportional representation system and most salutary to Italy’s more conflictual, mixed system of representation.Less
The chapter begins with a brief sketch of the EU’s representative politics in comparison with national politics. It then examines the EU’s effects on national politics generally as well as differentially between majoritarian and proportional representation systems in terms of questions related to party politics and electoral participation, referenda and citizen activism, trust in government, identity and class between majoritarian and proportional representation systems. This is followed by a more detailed consideration of the EU’s effects in France, Britain, Germany, and Italy. While Europeanization has been equally problematic for the polarized, majoritarian politics of France and Britain, Britain has been more politically polarized for much longer around the issue of Europe than France, despite the fact that it has shielded itself more from EU encroachments on national policies. Europeanization has been least disruptive to Germany’s consensus-oriented, proportional representation system and most salutary to Italy’s more conflictual, mixed system of representation.
Stephen Small
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199257799
- eISBN:
- 9780191717833
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199257799.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
In the late 1770s, the American Revolution encouraged the combination of an array of political languages into a powerful Irish patriotism focused on the unsatisfactory connection with Britain. ...
More
In the late 1770s, the American Revolution encouraged the combination of an array of political languages into a powerful Irish patriotism focused on the unsatisfactory connection with Britain. Patriots used ancient constitutional arguments to attack the British government’s denial of the traditional ‘English’ birthrights of Irishmen. While Irish patriotism was focused on Britain during the agitation for free trade and legislative independence, these languages formed a loose consensus. But they were full of contradictions, containing the seeds of radical reform, Catholic emancipation, and republican separatism, as well as justifications for elitist politics and Protestant Ascendancy. The desire to make Ireland a rich, commercial country continued to be highly influential in all forms of patriot, radical, and republican thought throughout the decade.Less
In the late 1770s, the American Revolution encouraged the combination of an array of political languages into a powerful Irish patriotism focused on the unsatisfactory connection with Britain. Patriots used ancient constitutional arguments to attack the British government’s denial of the traditional ‘English’ birthrights of Irishmen. While Irish patriotism was focused on Britain during the agitation for free trade and legislative independence, these languages formed a loose consensus. But they were full of contradictions, containing the seeds of radical reform, Catholic emancipation, and republican separatism, as well as justifications for elitist politics and Protestant Ascendancy. The desire to make Ireland a rich, commercial country continued to be highly influential in all forms of patriot, radical, and republican thought throughout the decade.
Nicholas von Maltzahn
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198128977
- eISBN:
- 9780191671753
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198128977.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Milton Studies
Censored and incomplete, Milton's History of Britain stands as a broken monument to the controversies of the 17th century, as well as to the political and religious ambitions of Milton himself. This ...
More
Censored and incomplete, Milton's History of Britain stands as a broken monument to the controversies of the 17th century, as well as to the political and religious ambitions of Milton himself. This book is a comparative study of the History's composition and publication which allows new perspectives on Milton's republican allegiances from the 1640s to the 1670s, and beyond. Now the History can be seen as Milton's response to the crisis of the English Revolution in 1648–9. This examination of the History also permits a wider view of the publication and reception of Milton's work in the Restoration; in particular, the work's censorship makes it a central text in the study of Restoration publishing. This first full-length study makes Milton's History available to scholars as never before. Because early modern histories can only be understood with reference to the texts they recycle, the History has hitherto proved largely impenetrable. This study provides the contextual information with which we can make sense of the composition and publication of the History.Less
Censored and incomplete, Milton's History of Britain stands as a broken monument to the controversies of the 17th century, as well as to the political and religious ambitions of Milton himself. This book is a comparative study of the History's composition and publication which allows new perspectives on Milton's republican allegiances from the 1640s to the 1670s, and beyond. Now the History can be seen as Milton's response to the crisis of the English Revolution in 1648–9. This examination of the History also permits a wider view of the publication and reception of Milton's work in the Restoration; in particular, the work's censorship makes it a central text in the study of Restoration publishing. This first full-length study makes Milton's History available to scholars as never before. Because early modern histories can only be understood with reference to the texts they recycle, the History has hitherto proved largely impenetrable. This study provides the contextual information with which we can make sense of the composition and publication of the History.
Javed Majeed
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198117865
- eISBN:
- 9780191671098
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198117865.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Drawing on contemporary critical work on colonialism and the cross-cultural encounter, this book is a study of the emergence of utilitarianism as a new political language in Britain in the late-18th ...
More
Drawing on contemporary critical work on colonialism and the cross-cultural encounter, this book is a study of the emergence of utilitarianism as a new political language in Britain in the late-18th and early-19th centuries. It focuses on the relationship between this language and the complexities of British Imperial experience in India at the time. Examining the work of James Mill and Sir William Jones, and also that of the poets Robert Southey and Thomas Moore, the book highlights the role played by aesthetic and linguistic attitudes in the formulation of British views on India, and reveals how closely these attitudes were linked to the definition of cultural identities. To this end, Mill's utilitarian study of India is shown to function both as an attack on the conservative orientalism of the period, and as part of a larger critique of British society itself. In so doing, the book demonstrates how complex British attitudes to India were in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and how this might be explained in the light of domestic and imperial contexts.Less
Drawing on contemporary critical work on colonialism and the cross-cultural encounter, this book is a study of the emergence of utilitarianism as a new political language in Britain in the late-18th and early-19th centuries. It focuses on the relationship between this language and the complexities of British Imperial experience in India at the time. Examining the work of James Mill and Sir William Jones, and also that of the poets Robert Southey and Thomas Moore, the book highlights the role played by aesthetic and linguistic attitudes in the formulation of British views on India, and reveals how closely these attitudes were linked to the definition of cultural identities. To this end, Mill's utilitarian study of India is shown to function both as an attack on the conservative orientalism of the period, and as part of a larger critique of British society itself. In so doing, the book demonstrates how complex British attitudes to India were in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and how this might be explained in the light of domestic and imperial contexts.
Yoon Sun Lee
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195162356
- eISBN:
- 9780199787852
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195162356.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
In the late 18th and 19th centuries, non-English conservatives such as Burke, Scott, and Carlyle, among others, influentially shaped Britain's political attitudes and literary genres because they ...
More
In the late 18th and 19th centuries, non-English conservatives such as Burke, Scott, and Carlyle, among others, influentially shaped Britain's political attitudes and literary genres because they stressed the conventional, theatrical, and even fetishistic character of civic emotions such as patriotism — and they illuminated the crucial role that irony could play in the construction of nationalism. They represent a public sphere shaped less by natural sentiment or rationality than by equivocal, even ironic deference and a highly conventional suspension of disbelief in the face of political fictions. Burke's counter-revolutionary works present British politics as a theater in which sublime ideas and abstractions are not always convincingly personified. Scott's activities as historical novelist and as antiquarian only thinly reconcile the disparities between the realities of British commercial empire and the sentimental, archaicizing self-image of a nation at war. Carlyle expands the insights of Romantic irony through the trope and eventual doctrine of fetishism: labor that forgets the role it has played in creating the forces that appear to command it.Less
In the late 18th and 19th centuries, non-English conservatives such as Burke, Scott, and Carlyle, among others, influentially shaped Britain's political attitudes and literary genres because they stressed the conventional, theatrical, and even fetishistic character of civic emotions such as patriotism — and they illuminated the crucial role that irony could play in the construction of nationalism. They represent a public sphere shaped less by natural sentiment or rationality than by equivocal, even ironic deference and a highly conventional suspension of disbelief in the face of political fictions. Burke's counter-revolutionary works present British politics as a theater in which sublime ideas and abstractions are not always convincingly personified. Scott's activities as historical novelist and as antiquarian only thinly reconcile the disparities between the realities of British commercial empire and the sentimental, archaicizing self-image of a nation at war. Carlyle expands the insights of Romantic irony through the trope and eventual doctrine of fetishism: labor that forgets the role it has played in creating the forces that appear to command it.
Michael Veseth
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195064209
- eISBN:
- 9780199854998
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195064209.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This book surveys the growth and decline of the Florentine economy, and that of Victorian Britain, and relates their experiences to the United States in the era following World War II, a period ...
More
This book surveys the growth and decline of the Florentine economy, and that of Victorian Britain, and relates their experiences to the United States in the era following World War II, a period notable for accumulating public debt. It also speculates on what options the United States may have to avoid the fates of Florence and Victorian Britain in the future.Less
This book surveys the growth and decline of the Florentine economy, and that of Victorian Britain, and relates their experiences to the United States in the era following World War II, a period notable for accumulating public debt. It also speculates on what options the United States may have to avoid the fates of Florence and Victorian Britain in the future.
Ronald Hutton
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205708
- eISBN:
- 9780191676758
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205708.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History, British and Irish Early Modern History
From the Twelve Days of Christmas to the Spring traditions of Valentine, Shrovetide, and Easter eggs, through May Day revels and Midsummer fires, and on to the waning of the year, Harvest Home, and ...
More
From the Twelve Days of Christmas to the Spring traditions of Valentine, Shrovetide, and Easter eggs, through May Day revels and Midsummer fires, and on to the waning of the year, Harvest Home, and Halloween, this book takes us on a journey through the ritual year in Britain. It presents the results of a comprehensive study that covers all the British Isles and the whole sweep of history from the earliest written records to the present day. Great and lesser, ancient and modern, whether performed by Christians or pagans, all rituals are treated with the same attention. The result is an account that illuminates the history of the calendar we live by, and challenges many commonly held assumptions about the customs of the past and the festivals of the present. The first work to cover the full span of British rituals, the book challenges the work of specialists from the late Victorian period onwards, reworking our picture of the field and raising issues for historians of every period.Less
From the Twelve Days of Christmas to the Spring traditions of Valentine, Shrovetide, and Easter eggs, through May Day revels and Midsummer fires, and on to the waning of the year, Harvest Home, and Halloween, this book takes us on a journey through the ritual year in Britain. It presents the results of a comprehensive study that covers all the British Isles and the whole sweep of history from the earliest written records to the present day. Great and lesser, ancient and modern, whether performed by Christians or pagans, all rituals are treated with the same attention. The result is an account that illuminates the history of the calendar we live by, and challenges many commonly held assumptions about the customs of the past and the festivals of the present. The first work to cover the full span of British rituals, the book challenges the work of specialists from the late Victorian period onwards, reworking our picture of the field and raising issues for historians of every period.
Colin Thain and Maurice Wright
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198277842
- eISBN:
- 9780191684203
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198277842.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics, Political Economy
The Treasury is at the heart of British Government, responsible for deciding how much to spend and on what. Both the institution and the public expenditure process are the focus of this book. Based ...
More
The Treasury is at the heart of British Government, responsible for deciding how much to spend and on what. Both the institution and the public expenditure process are the focus of this book. Based on research undertaken with the cooperation of the Treasury and Whitehall departments, it shows how the key decisions of planning, allocating and controlling public expenditure are made. With access to treasury Expenditure Controllers and senior financial officials in the main spending departments, the book provides an account of the roles, relationships and inter-actions of the key players in Whitehall Expenditure Community as they confront each other in annual rituals of the Expenditure ‘Survey’. It explains how the rules of the expenditure game were re-drawn in the 1980s in the relentless search for cuts, greater economy and efficiency in the design and delivery of public services, and the creation of a more enterprising administrative culture. It discusses how and why the Treasury was rarely able to impose its constitutional authority to stem the tide of rising public expenditure through the turbulent years of the Thatcher and Major Governments. The book also demonstrates that the Treasury is locked into a system of mutually constrained power relationships with the Whitehall departments, and obliged to negotiate discretionary authority to control their spending.Less
The Treasury is at the heart of British Government, responsible for deciding how much to spend and on what. Both the institution and the public expenditure process are the focus of this book. Based on research undertaken with the cooperation of the Treasury and Whitehall departments, it shows how the key decisions of planning, allocating and controlling public expenditure are made. With access to treasury Expenditure Controllers and senior financial officials in the main spending departments, the book provides an account of the roles, relationships and inter-actions of the key players in Whitehall Expenditure Community as they confront each other in annual rituals of the Expenditure ‘Survey’. It explains how the rules of the expenditure game were re-drawn in the 1980s in the relentless search for cuts, greater economy and efficiency in the design and delivery of public services, and the creation of a more enterprising administrative culture. It discusses how and why the Treasury was rarely able to impose its constitutional authority to stem the tide of rising public expenditure through the turbulent years of the Thatcher and Major Governments. The book also demonstrates that the Treasury is locked into a system of mutually constrained power relationships with the Whitehall departments, and obliged to negotiate discretionary authority to control their spending.
Michael Veseth
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195064209
- eISBN:
- 9780199854998
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195064209.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This book is an experiment in comparative economic history. That is, it attempts to apply a model of structural change and fiscal crisis to two critical periods of the past: Renaissance Florence and ...
More
This book is an experiment in comparative economic history. That is, it attempts to apply a model of structural change and fiscal crisis to two critical periods of the past: Renaissance Florence and Victorian Britain, as well as to recent events in the United States. These qre periods of great economic changes and – not coincidentally – fiscal crisis and tax reform. In other words, these are times and places where the book thinks the outlines of the model hold. The book's ultimate goal is to apply the insights provided by past episodes to an analysis of problems today. This is not a history book but one which uses history to explore a profound contemporary problem: the problem of structural change and fiscal crisis. The goal is not to enlighten the understanding of the past but to use the past to improve the understanding of the present.Less
This book is an experiment in comparative economic history. That is, it attempts to apply a model of structural change and fiscal crisis to two critical periods of the past: Renaissance Florence and Victorian Britain, as well as to recent events in the United States. These qre periods of great economic changes and – not coincidentally – fiscal crisis and tax reform. In other words, these are times and places where the book thinks the outlines of the model hold. The book's ultimate goal is to apply the insights provided by past episodes to an analysis of problems today. This is not a history book but one which uses history to explore a profound contemporary problem: the problem of structural change and fiscal crisis. The goal is not to enlighten the understanding of the past but to use the past to improve the understanding of the present.
Edward C. Page
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198277279
- eISBN:
- 9780191684166
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198277279.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
Why do some countries appear to be far more centralized than others? In some countries local government has responsibility for a wide range of public services, while in others these services are ...
More
Why do some countries appear to be far more centralized than others? In some countries local government has responsibility for a wide range of public services, while in others these services are delivered by national and other non-local bodies. Moreover national government oversees the operation of local government with varying degrees of stringency. In addition, local politicians in some countries seem to have greater influence over their national counterparts than those in others. The answer to this question can be found in the distinctive patterns of development experienced in southern and northern Europe. Differences in national–local relations also have direct implications for patterns of policy-making at the local level. This book examines the legal and political bases of relationships between national and local government in Britain, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, and Spain, and assesses the causes and consequences of differences in such relationships.Less
Why do some countries appear to be far more centralized than others? In some countries local government has responsibility for a wide range of public services, while in others these services are delivered by national and other non-local bodies. Moreover national government oversees the operation of local government with varying degrees of stringency. In addition, local politicians in some countries seem to have greater influence over their national counterparts than those in others. The answer to this question can be found in the distinctive patterns of development experienced in southern and northern Europe. Differences in national–local relations also have direct implications for patterns of policy-making at the local level. This book examines the legal and political bases of relationships between national and local government in Britain, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, and Spain, and assesses the causes and consequences of differences in such relationships.
