Notes on the Essays

Summary

There are four main themes.

Theme 1: Britain's political economy

• 1 After Brexit (2019)

• 2 Explanations Of British Decline (1999)

Theme 2: Europe and America

• 3 The European Disunion (2006)

• 4 The Anglo–American world view (2019)

Theme 3: Thatcherism

• 5 The Free Economy and the Strong State (1979)

• 6 Thatcherism and Conservative politics (1983)

• 7 Economic Growth and Political Dilemmas (1983)

• 8 The crisis of Conservatism (1995)

• 9 The Thatcher myth (2015)

Theme 4: The British constitution

• 10 Theories of British politics (1990)

• 11 The constitutional revolution in the UK (2006)

• 12 What's British about British politics? (2016)

Many of these essays employ a political economy approach to the study of British politics. It is an approach developed in four linked books which I have published over the last thirty years: The Conservative Nation (1974), Britain in Decline (1981), The Free Economy and the Strong State (1988) and Between Europe and America (2003). They attempt to understand the shifting agendas, issues, outcomes and debates in British politics through an analysis of the political economy of the British state, exploring the historical, institutional and ideological contexts which have shaped it. This work has had a particular emphasis on the Conservative party and its central role in British politics, but I have always had a wider interest in British politics and comparing it to other political systems. The essays in this book have been chosen to illustrate these different aspects of my writing on British politics and its political economy.

Theme 1: Britain's political economy

‘After Brexit’ (Chapter 1) was a contribution to a book edited by Colin Hay and Daniel Bailey, Diverging Capitalisms: Britain, the City of London, and Europe published by Palgrave-Macmillan in 2019. It was written after the Referendum result but before it was clear what kind of Brexit the May Government was seeking to deliver. I have updated the essay to reflect the replacement of May by Johnson (although at the time of writing it is still not completely clear what the Johnson Government is aiming for or will deliver).