РефератыИностранный языкDoDoes The UK Political System Tend Towards

Does The UK Political System Tend Towards

Conflict Or Consensus Essay, Research Paper


In order to have a stable government it is important to


have consensus.? Consensus is a general


understanding and agreement on fundamental principles.? In politics there are three main types of


consensus, Societal Consensus, Political Consensus and consensus in policy


making.Societal


consensus is overall public opinion, the political beliefs of the public.? Normally most people?s political opinions


are not too diverse, the majority falling somewhere around the centre


ground.? The area of the political


spectrum where the bulk of the public?s opinion lies is called the


consensus.? To get elected, a political


party must also fall in this area, in order to appeal to the public.Therefore


the main political parties all have policies that are similar, as they all want


to appeal to the public.? This is


Political Consensus.? The parties may


still disagree over certain policies or issues, but on key issues their


policies are very similar.? If a party


was to introduce policies that were outside the consensus, they would lose


popularity and would not be elected.?


This means that governments often continue the policies of their


predecessor.Consensus


in policy making is the practice of involving other groups in determining


policies, in addition to the cabinet.?


This may be Trade Unions, pressure groups or other appropriate group.Historically


Britain has enjoyed consensus politics.?


Following the Second World War a consensus between the main political parties


developed.? There was a climate of


co-operation between Labour and Conservatives following their coalition


government during the war and the parties agreed in certain key areas.? Both parties accepted Keynesianism, an


economics system that bridged Capitalism and socialism, arguing for full


employment brought about by government intervention in the economy.? There was cross-party support for the report


by William Beveridge calling for a ?Welfare State?The


Labour government of 1945, led by Clement Atlee introduced policies in six key


areas, which became the foundation for the post-war consensus.? These were – the commitment to full


employment, using Keynesian economic ideas to achieve it.? To have a mixed economy, including both


publicly and privately owned industries.?


The introduction of a ?Welfare State?, with the establishment of the NHS


and benefits for those in need.? The


formalisation of links with Trade Unions, involving them in policy making.? The commitment to reducing the gap between


the rich and poor and to help regions with economic problems.? The commitment to NATO and to make Britain a


nuclear power, maintaining close ties to America.In


1951 the Conservative Party was elected and although there were some minor


changes, they continued the policies of the previous Labour Government.? They only had a very small majority and so


had to rule out any unpopular policies.?


This meant keeping most of Labours policies.? The Conservative Party leadership was moderate and the more


right-wing MPs were marginalised.? The


Tories therefore had no choice or indeed no desire to change the policies


started by Labour.The


Conservative economic policy was so similar to Labour?s previous one that the


phrase ?Butskellism? was coined after R.A. Butler the Tory chancellor and Hugh


Gateskell the chancellor under Labour.? Moderates


succeeded Churchill as Prime Minister and so these consensus policies were


continued.? They remained unchanged when


Labour came to power in 1964.The


consensus policies had remained unchallenged until the 1970?s when they began


to be put under pressure.? When Edward


Heath came to power in 1970, he did so with a commitment to more right-wing


policies, such as curtailing the power of the Unions, reducing state control of


industry and promoting the free market.?


However in 1972 as unemployment rose to over one million and his


policies became less popular he did a ?U-turn?.? He abandoned his right-wing policies and adopted more consensus


policies; he even adopted some left-wing policies such as nationalisation.? However despite continued consultation and


involvement of the Unions, it was the Unions who brought down his government in


1974 with the miner strike.This


followed by a labour government, but they only had a tiny majority of 3 seats.? This meant that the Labour government had to


<
p>pursue moderate policies despite pressure to introduce radical left-wing


policies.? It had to give up on


Keynesian economics because of economic problems, causing disputes with


Unions.? This led to the ?Winter of


Discontent?.? This was when public


sector workers brought the country to a stand still by widespread strikes.? They were very unpopular and the public


called for Union power to be curbed.This


spelled the end for the post-war consensus as on the back of this public


dissatisfaction Margaret Thatcher came to power with radical right-wing


policies.? She abandoned Keynesianism in


favour of Monetarism and the free market.?


She severed links with the unions and took away much of their


power.? She did not pursue full


employment, and did not see it as the government?s responsibility to lessen


inequality, instead seeing it as an incentive to work harder.? She was however unable to drastically reform


the welfare state as it had wide spread public support.? Foreign and defence policy was continued


with support for NATO and the nuclear deterrent.? During this time Labour moved further left outside of the


societal consensus, making itself unelectable.?


Mrs Thatcher?s years in government saw much conflict, with social unrest


and inner-city riots in 1981 and 1985 and the Poll-Tax demonstrations in 1989.With


the election of John Major more moderate policies were followed and today a new


consensus has emerged to the right of the previous one, with Tony Blair and his


so called ?Third Way? continuing many policies that would not have seemed out


of place in Thatcher?s or Major?s governments.?


His belief in ?inclusive? politics has seen him abandon many traditional


socialist Labour ideas and adopt traditional Tory ones.? The new consensus could be described as not


an ideological consensus but as a pragmatic consensus, based around individual


issues as they arise rather than deep-seated political beliefs.New


Labours policies of privatising air-traffic control and its commitment to


cutting tax are in line with Tory beliefs, but there are still many points on


which New Labour and the Conservative don?t agree.? The EU and the Euro is a major source of disagreement in British


politics with the Conservatives staunchly Euro-sceptic and against the single


currency with New Labour in favour.?


However even this divisive issue has brought about a consensus, one


between New Labour, the Lib Dems and dissident Tories, in the Britain in Europe


group.There


are however many conflicts today in Britain, the obvious one being in Northern


Ireland, with the troubles starting in 1969 and having been a source of serious


conflict ever since.? The violence


between Loyalists and Republicans within Northern Ireland and the IRA terror


campaign on the mainland have been the main threat to Britain?s internal


security for many years.? There are also


many other sources of conflict in Britain today, including the Anti-Hunt lobby


and the Countryside alliance and the Anti-capitalist riot in London in the summer.? There are many organisations that may pose a


threat in the future such as the ALF, Reclaim the Streets and Earth First.? A potential source of future conflict could


be Scottish and Welsh devolution.? This


may in fact weaken the union not strengthen it as English resentment at not


having an English parliament grows and as Scottish and to a lesser extent Welsh


nationalism grows in popularity.Despite


these sources of conflict, British politics tends mostly towards consensus,


since there is an agreement amongst both the public and the major political


parties on the key issues, such as the belief in the existence of a National


Health Service and benefits.? Britain


has a stable government with no risk of being overthrown.? This is because the public recognises the


government?s right to govern even if they don?t agree with what the government


is doing.? The public accepts the


democratic principle and therefore the government has legitimacy.? There is no party that wishes to drastically


change the political system, although New Labour has introduced the reform of


the House of Lords and limited electoral reform, but this is not too


drastic.? This is helped by Britain?s


mainly two party system as this keeps extreme parties out of parliament.? The new consensus does not appear to have


any major opponents and so it is likely to continue well in to the next


century.

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