Political Power and Democratic Control in Britain

Political Power and Democratic Control in Britain
Author: David Beetham
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 544
Release: 2002-09-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1134864116

Democratic Institutions and Practices is the second study carried out under the Democratic Audit of the UK. This volume explores the formal institutions and processes of the liberal democratic state: including the executive, elections, parliament and the civil service.

Democracy in Britain

Democracy in Britain
Author: Matt Cole
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2006-04-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0748626697

This textbook brings together an introduction to the political theory of democracy since Ancient times and a critical picture of its place in Britain today.The author examines the work of Plato and Aristotle, Rousseau and Mill, Marx and Weber, and locates them and others in the debate about what democracy means. He then scrutinises Britain's claim to be a developing democracy, from the power of the Prime Minister and the role of political parties to the influence of pressure groups and the media, as well as recent constitutional changes.In the context of declining public trust in political institutions and increasing reluctance to vote, crucial questions are tackled: do we have a democracy, and why does it matter? Key Features:*A wide-ranging, accessible introduction to the place of Democracy in Britain today*Divided into two halves: on democratic theory (reflecting its history, development, and key concepts) and democratic practice (examining political institutions)*Offers examples of documentary material to illustrate the ideas presented*Up-to-date: includes material written after the 2005 General Election

Democracy

Democracy
Author: David Beetham
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2012-12-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1780741480

As the U.S. strives to establish democracy in Iraq and contemplates its own democratic system in the wake of a series of controversial presidential elections, David Beetham offers new insights into democracy. He looks at real examples such as the role of the citizen and how large corporations affect democracy as well as contemplating the future of democracy in the developed and developing worlds.

The UK's Changing Democracy

The UK's Changing Democracy
Author: Patrick Dunleavy
Publisher: LSE Press
Total Pages: 521
Release: 2018-11-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1909890464

The UK’s Changing Democracy presents a uniquely democratic perspective on all aspects of UK politics, at the centre in Westminster and Whitehall, and in all the devolved nations. The 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU marked a turning point in the UK’s political system. In the previous two decades, the country had undergone a series of democratic reforms, during which it seemed to evolve into a more typical European liberal democracy. The establishment of a Supreme Court, adoption of the Human Rights Act, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish devolution, proportional electoral systems, executive mayors and the growth in multi-party competition all marked profound changes to the British political tradition. Brexit may now bring some of these developments to a juddering halt. The UK’s previous ‘exceptionalism’ from European patterns looks certain to continue indefinitely. ‘Taking back control’ of regulations, trade, immigration and much more is the biggest change in UK governance for half a century. It has already produced enduring crises for the party system, Parliament and the core executive, with uniquely contested governance over critical issues, and a rapidly changing political landscape. Other recent trends are no less fast-moving, such as the revival of two-party dominance in England, the re-creation of some mass membership parties and the disruptive challenges of social media. In this context, an in-depth assessment of the quality of the UK’s democracy is essential. Each of the 2018 Democratic Audit’s 37 short chapters starts with clear criteria for what democracy requires in that part of the nation’s political life and outlines key recent developments before a SWOT analysis (of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) crystallises the current situation. A small number of core issues are then explored in more depth. Set against the global rise of debased semi-democracies, the book’s approach returns our focus firmly to the big issues around the quality and sustainability of the UK’s liberal democracy.

Governing Britain

Governing Britain
Author: Patrick Diamond
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014
Genre: Great Britain
ISBN: 9780755621453

"Number Ten Downing Street and the Cabinet Office are at the apex of power in British government, but relatively little is known about the day to day functioning of these great institutions of state. With an unprecedented level of access, and wide-ranging interviews from former ministers, senior civil servants and political advisers, Patrick Diamond examines the administrative and political machinery serving the Prime Minister, and considers how it evolved from the early years of New Labour to the election of the Coalition Government in 2010. Drawing on previously unpublished material, Diamond provides a unique analysis which considers the continuing power of the civil service, the tensions between permanent officials and political aides, and the hard grind of achieving policy change from the centre in Whitehall. By exploring the ideological beliefs underpinning the policy-making process and in illuminating the importance of the British Political Tradition in shaping the institutions and practice of statecraft, this book reveals the contemporary realities of government and democracy in practice."--Bloomsbury publishing.

Political Power and Corporate Control

Political Power and Corporate Control
Author: Peter A. Gourevitch
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 365
Release: 2010-06-20
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1400837014

Why does corporate governance--front page news with the collapse of Enron, WorldCom, and Parmalat--vary so dramatically around the world? This book explains how politics shapes corporate governance--how managers, shareholders, and workers jockey for advantage in setting the rules by which companies are run, and for whom they are run. It combines a clear theoretical model on this political interaction, with statistical evidence from thirty-nine countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America and detailed narratives of country cases. This book differs sharply from most treatments by explaining differences in minority shareholder protections and ownership concentration among countries in terms of the interaction of economic preferences and political institutions. It explores in particular the crucial role of pension plans and financial intermediaries in shaping political preferences for different rules of corporate governance. The countries examined sort into two distinct groups: diffuse shareholding by external investors who pick a board that monitors the managers, and concentrated blockholding by insiders who monitor managers directly. Examining the political coalitions that form among or across management, owners, and workers, the authors find that certain coalitions encourage policies that promote diffuse shareholding, while other coalitions yield blockholding-oriented policies. Political institutions influence the probability of one coalition defeating another.

The Political Power of the Business Corporation

The Political Power of the Business Corporation
Author: Stephen Wilks
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2013-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1849807329

The large business corporation has become a governing institution in national and global politics. This study offers a critical account of its political dominance and lack of democratic legitimacy.

Democracy and the Human Rights Act

Democracy and the Human Rights Act
Author: Dennis Dixon
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 380
Release: 2017-04-28
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1351999958

This book discusses the extent to which the UK Human Rights Act successfully balances protection of rights and democracy. It is generally accepted that the Act prevents government from violating fundamental rights, but the extent to which the Act can legitimately be overridden as a result of public opinion and participation is less clear. The work considers the Act’s effect on this popular element of the British Constitution. It uses analytical tools from republican political theory to explore the claim that the Act achieved a reconciliation between the protection of rights and democracy. In particular, it employs republican analysis of domination to consider how the Human Rights Act could operate so that public opinion invigilates legislative responses to judicial decisions. The key question is whether judicial decisions under the Human Rights Act serve to ‘remove, reduce or replace’ opportunities for the electorate to control judicial decision-making, remembering always that the electorate is seldom engaged in politics, but should it choose to, its ability to do so is at the heart of democracy. The study also examines the difficulty of isolating national constitutional forms where bills of rights are internationalised as with the European Convention on Human Rights. The book will be a valuable resource for students and academics researching constitutional legal theory and comparative constitutional law. While the focus is on the UK HRA, broader theoretical issues of constitutional review will have significant international interest and relevance to domestic debates on a British Bill of Rights.