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Finance Capital and Pressure-Group Politics in Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2009

Michael Moran
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Extract

The rise of pressure-group politics in Britain has stimulated a corresponding growth of academic interest in pressure groups. Some distinguished early case studies were crowned in 1965 with Beer's majestic interpretation, while the last decade saw various accounts of the constitutional significance and merits of group activity. These bursts of academic energy illuminated parts of the pressure-group universe but left others in twilight. We are well informed about the lobbying activities of manufacturing industry, of organized labour and some of the professions. By contrast, there exists hardly any systematic discussion of how the interests of financial institutions are represented in government.

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Articles
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 11 , Issue 4 , October 1981 , pp. 381 - 404
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

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3 An excellent exception is Longstreth, Frank, ‘The City, Industry and the State’ in Crouch, Colin, ed., State and Economy in Contemporary Capitalism (London: Croom Helm, 1979), pp. 157–90.Google Scholar An interesting early study is Aaronovitch, Sam, The Ruling Class (London: Laurence and Wishart, 1961).Google Scholar

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21 For the Take-Over Panel see Committee to Review the Functioning of Financial Institutions, Second Stage Evidence, Vol. 1 (London: HMSO, 1979), pp. 3–20Google Scholar; for the CSI, Bank of England, Annual Report 1978 (London: Bank of England, 1978), pp. 16–17Google Scholar; for the money brokers, Parker, Carol, ‘Money Brokers Re-examine Their Role’, The Banker (04 1974), pp. 329–35.Google Scholar Representatives of broking firms were involved later; a Sterling Brokers' Association was set up in August 1979.

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41 See London Clearing Banks, Evidence to the Wilson Committee, Chaps. 6 and 18, for historical statistical evidence.Google Scholar

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43 London Clearing Banks, Evidence to the Wilson Committee, pp. 175–6Google Scholar; for the industrial strategy, CLCB oral evidence to Wilson, see Second Stage Evidence, Vol. 3 (London: HMSO, 1979), p. 123.Google Scholar

44 The rescue is described vividly by the Governor in Select Committee on Nationalised Industries (Sub-Committee C), Minutes of Evidence (HC 166–i, i66–ii, 1977–1978)Google Scholar. For comment about the general nature of the shift to direct incorporation see Wilson, , Report, p. 340.Google Scholar

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