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The reconstruction of past trends in party membership can be fraught, especially when parties themselves kept no aggregate records. This was the case with the British Conservative party prior to 1946. The aggregate figures never existed, and the data that would be required to construct no longer exist to the required extent. Nonetheless, this article argues that it is methodologically possible to offer more detailed analysis than hitherto, by analysing local as well as national-level Conservative sources, triangulating with the national-level Labour party statistics and taking insights from more explicitly political science literature. This paper's substantive argument is that although Conservative membership fell after 1939, it did not collapse; that it recovered somewhat from early 1943 onwards and that recovery then afforded the party a base from which it was able to build, with spectacular success after 1945. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the development of the impact of family background on young people's political engagement during adolescence and early adulthood in order to test a number of hypotheses derived from the impressionable years and family socialization perspectives. The study analyses data of the British Household Panel Study and Understanding Society to assess these hypotheses. Political interest and voting intentions are used as outcomes of political engagement. The study finds parental education to have no effect on initial levels of these outcomes at age 11 but to be positively related to the change in these outcomes between ages 11 and 15. This indicates that the effect of parental education becomes stronger over time and that social disparities in political engagement are widening significantly during early adolescence. In contrast, parental political engagement is positively related to initial levels of voting intentions at age 11 but not related to the change in voting intentions between ages 11 and 15, which supports the hypothesis drawn from the family socialization perspective. Neither parental education nor parental political engagement are related to post-16 changes in political engagement. These results point to early adolescence as a crucial period for the manifestation of social inequalities in political engagement. They provisionally suggest that the influence of parental education runs through educational conditions in lower secondary and that these conditions could play an important role in amplifying the said inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the British Bombing Restriction Committee's efforts in preventing the British Royal Air Force's (RAF's) aerial bombing of civilians in Germany during World War II, from 1941 through 1945, including the committee's pacifist protests. An overview of committee chairperson H. Stanley Jevons' advocating that British aerial bombing be restricted to military targets in Germany is provided. British politician George Bell's perspective on aerial bombing is discussed.

A growing literature in the United States suggests that exposure to the criminal justice system can reduce routinized civic and political participation. It is unclear, however, whether this demobilizing effect is unique to the United States, or is a more fundamental consequence of criminal justice exposure. Mobilizing publicly available data on the policing of anti-social behaviours, stop and search powers and political participation in London, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, this paper explicitly tests for demobilization in the United Kingdom. Results from ordinary least squares and panel fixed-effect regressions find lower levels of political participation in communities exposed to higher rates of policing, though this effect is moderated by Black, Asian and Muslim share of the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discussed COVID-19 pandemic responses among select ASEAN countries. Topics discussed include actions that helped save lives in UK during Covid-19, vaccination detail of ASEAN countries with Singapore vaccinating 28.8% of its people, followed by Cambodia at 10.6%, and importance of plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycle for countries with developing economies to strategically prepare and craft response plans for future disease outbreaks.

This paper examines current and past party membership in Britain by means of a large-scale internet-based survey. It shows that party members differ from voters in being higher status and more educated, but more likely to be retired than the population in general. It examines the differences between the characteristics of Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat members, and explores the differences between current and former members. The latter outnumber the former by almost two to one, indicating that the grassroots party organisations are continuing to decline in Britain. This paper then discusses the implications of this finding for British politics, suggesting that while parties at the centre will continue to operate, parties in the community will not fulfil their functions effectively. It then shows that a decline of membership will weaken partisanship in the electorate, and this in turn will undermine the effectiveness of central government in Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of labour immigration policy requires nation states to make fundamental decisions on how to regulate: (i) the number of migrants to be admitted; (ii) the selection of migrants; and, (iii) the rights of migrants after admission. In practice, the debate over these three elements of immigration policy involves a wide range of economic, social, legal, moral, and political considerations. Recognizing the inherent inter-disciplinarity of the subject, this paper focuses on the implications of economic theories and research for regulating the number, selection, and rights of migrant workers in high-income countries. It examines the asymmetric economic interests of migrant-receiving and migrant-sending countries in the debate over the 'optimal' design of labour immigration policy and, in light of this analysis, provides a brief economic assessment of the core components of labour immigration policy in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct payments have brought new opportunities for self-determination and independent living to disabled people in the UK, featuring prominently in government strategy and the 2006 White Paper, 'Our Health, Our Care, Our Say'. However, ten years after direct payments legislation, take-up remains low and implementation varies greatly. Rates of take-up in England remain more than double those in other parts of the UK, raising questions about devolution and equity. This paper presents data from a national study to examine some of the mechanisms underlying uneven outcomes for disabled people in different parts of the United Kingdom, with particular reference to the politics of devolved governance. The analysis focuses on scope for interpretations of policy; resources for information and training; the impact of mandatory duties and targets; extensions to new user groups; and the role of support organizations and disability activism. The evidence suggests that local variations have been produced not only by 'local' factors, but also by different opportunity structures for policy development in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This raises questions about the impact of devolution on equity and opportunity for disabled people in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores a citizen-based approach to social work which may counter modern negative managerialist pressures on practice. It links the discourse concerning the growth of user involvement in public policy with the discourse about participation in political activity and suggests a role for social workers in supporting service users in initiatives such as self-help, campaigning and community action which offer a new interpretation of community-based social work. By engaging in this activity, health and social care professionals can support people to participate in emerging forms of active and inclusive citizenship. While participation in traditional political activity such as voting and political party membership is declining in the UK, people in marginalized groups are finding ways to have their voices heard about issues which directly concern them. increasingly, groups such as disabled people, older people and mental health service users/survivors are taking part in activity which marks a shift of focus to include both self-help and campaigning. In contrast to their disillusion with traditional political activity, people across a range of groups have gained strength and encouragement from campaigning achievements. The paper draws on a national research study which offers fresh insights on these issues as a basis for exploring participative approaches to social work practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the extent to which the Citizen's Charter initiative, as embodied in the White Paper of the British government in July 1991, is a mechanism to empower citizens. Main features of charter; Quality and consumerism in public management; Enhancement of quality of citizen's interchange with public sector organizations.

UK science and policy networks increasingly advocate ‘upstream public engagement’, that is, early public deliberation around potentially controversial science and technology. In the last two decades, neuroscience has advanced considerably, and non-medical uses of brain imaging technologies (BIT) are now raising substantial concerns. The 2010 Brain Imaging Dialogue (BID) brought together scientists, health practitioners, sociologists, philosophers, ethicists, religious representatives, citizens, policy-makers and legal experts to deliberate on non-medical uses of BIT. I present the BID as a community of inquiry that sought to stimulate policy deliberation in Scotland. The paper tells the story of the process from the perspective of the public engagement practitioners who organised it, drawing lessons about the community of inquiry method and concluding with reflections on the challenges of connecting upstream engagement to ongoing policy-making. Taking cues from practitioners’ experiences, I propose an institutional mechanism for the uptake of outputs from deliberative processes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper draws on the 2009/2010 British Election Survey to explore the political engagement of young people in Britain in the context of social change. Focusing on political involvement, attitudes and priorities, we examine contrasting generational perspectives in the context of an election centred on a range of issues that had the potential to stimulate the interest of younger voters. While clear generational differences in engagement exist, there are also age-related similarities in attitudes towards involvement. In terms of political priorities, differences suggest a conflict of interests in which generations construct political agendas in ways that reflect an interest in securing personal advantage of their own segment of the electorate at the expense of others. Further, there is a structural problem relating to young people's political participation stemming partly from a lack of effective representation and partly linked to a failure to appreciate the ways in which socio-economic changes have impacted on the lives of the younger generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people populate a uniquely strategic position within society in general and particularly in party political debate about the future development of citizenship and the national community. Political parties in the UK have however been historically reluctant to engage with young people or represent their interests in the formulation of policies, instead prioritising older voters. However, the political resonance of issues linked to youth citizenship and democratic engagement has risen recently as political parties have sought to address steep declines in levels of civic and civil activism and the preparedness of young people to vote in elections. This paper explores the emerging party politics associated with such shifts, assessing the extent to which political parties have sought to reform how they engage with young people or reassert traditional modes of citizenship and political participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Westminster Parliament has been prompted to develop an e-Petitions system in light of the fact that similar tools are now well established in the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly. The Number Ten e-Petitions site, too, has proved inspirational although discussions within Westminster about the development of a comparable system have focused on the risks associated with it. This paper describes the momentum towards a Westminster-based e-Petitions system, highlighting the dilemmas that have emerged during discussions about the form it should take: should Westminster try to replicate the popular style of the Number Ten website and risk inundation with Parliamentary graffiti? Or would it be better to develop a system that ties in with Parliamentary processes-and do these processes themselves need to change? We discuss the move towards e-Petitions in the context of broader debates about e-Democracy and its role in revitalising political engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In common with many western democracies, the UK seems to face a crisis in public political participation. Turnout has fallen dramatically, particularly in recent general elections, faith in the political system is stretched and citizens feel they are not consulted nor their views taken seriously by the government. The search is on for a way out of the potential crisis. A recent major report by the Rowntree-funded Power Commission offers a diagnosis of the problem of political participation in modern Britain and suggests a strategy to remedy it. In this paper, we critically assess some of the Commission's major analyses and recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the keenness of the British government to promote political participation and strengthen democratic practices through the use of Internet-based technologies. Worthy to note is the fact that indeed the National Local E-democracy project and the Department for Constitutional Affairs' Innovations Fund in Great Britain have greatly help in the funding towards the development of e-democracy tools within a governmental framework.

In recent decades, governments have increasingly employed expert assessments and formal decision-making technologies. While these promise objectivity and transparency, they are just as likely to buffer decisions from public scrutiny. Countries such as Britain and the United States have experienced a sharp decline in electoral participation. Social scientists have responded with participatory techniques to resituate the non-expert citizen at the heart of decision making. This paper explores three specific problems with such methods: evaluation; representation; and agenda setting. It concludes that participatory techniques may have significant potential to inform and supplement representative democracy. However, under current arrangements, it is impossible for them to escape political-cultural constraints that reduce complex moral and aesthetic issues to scientific framings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an editorial, the editors note how crucial the role is of public health activism in enforcing efficient and effective public health management. The government is the lead institution in any national response to the pandemic and to ensure transparency on its end, it is important for any network of health organizations and associations not to shy away from embracing an activist role. In this correspondence, the author explores the case of the Alliance of Health Workers, a union of government and private health workers, and its advocacy towards an empowered status of healthcare professionals in the Philippines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The CCINC designated Hong Kong among twenty "priority countries" for U.S. anti-narcotics efforts, noting that the colony "undoubtedly plays a major role in the transit/trafficking of Southeast Asian heroin" and urging that "the seriousness of the trafficking problem demands increasing CCINC attention to enforcement efforts in Hong Kong."[23] Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress proved equally energetic in meeting public demands for tougher action against drug abuse. 16 For description of the Thailand-Hong Kong pipeline, see: McCoy et al. I The Politics of Heroin i , 236-237; "Southeast Asia: The Road to Hong Kong", I Drug Enforcement i 1, no. 5 (1974): 32-33. 17 For an overview of Hong Kong police corruption and narcotics trafficking, see Peter N. S. Lee, "The Causes and Effects of Police Corruption: A Case in Political Modernization", in I Corruption and its Control in Hong Kong: Situations up to the Late Seventies i , ed. C. K. Hawkins, "The Drug Problem in Hong Kong", May 7, 1957, enclosure in "Memorandum for Executive Council", February 11, 1958, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (hereafter FCO) 1030/899, The National Archives, Kew, United Kingdom (hereafter TNA); and Hong Kong Legislative Council, I The Problem of Narcotic Drugs in Hong Kong i (Hong Kong, 1959). U.S. Treasury officials during the early 1980s, for instance, noted that the flow of money from the United States to Hong Kong closely followed the flow of heroin from Southeast Asia to the United States.[72] Narcotics trafficking and money laundering, in other words, were tightly correlated, so while Hong Kong was no longer the "heroin-producing capital of the world", it remained at the center of various illicit global flows well after the 1970s. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the papers featured in the January 2006 issue of the periodical "Parliamentary Affairs," including a one by retired British Labour legislator Tam Dalyell, which looks back on how the country came to participate in the invasion of Iraq.

Bridging deliberative democracy and crisis management scholarship, we construct theoretical expectations about the role of deliberative minipublics in fostering public compliance with difficult political decisions. Our expectations are tested with a randomized cross-national survey experiment (United States and United Kingdom, N = 2088), in which respondents read a realistic news item depicting a political decision-making process leading to the extension of COVID-19 lockdown measures that follows either a (1) citizen deliberation, (2) public consultation, (3) politician deliberation, or (4) nothing. The findings show minipublics are unlikely to foster public compliance during a health crisis. On the contrary, reading about a minipublic could decrease compliance when individuals are distrustful of minipublics. This study has implications for citizen participation, deliberation, and leadership during future pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Great War was widely seen in Britain as a struggle for civilian and constitutional standards of government against the evils of ‘Prussian militarism’. Yet the British political class itself was by no means a purely ‘civilian’ caste. During the war 264 MPs—some 40 per cent of the membership of the House of Commons—volunteered to serve in the armed forces. These men occupied a unique and controversial position both within Parliament and in the forces. A shared experience of military service could provide a common identity, and even a basis for common action, for MPs from rival parties, and many of these men came to support an apparently ‘military’ agenda at Westminster. At the same time, fighting MPs could act as agents of parliamentary oversight and control over the military establishment. Yet the importance of these ‘Service Members’ was not only evident in the realm of civil–military relations, and this article explores the significance and consequences of attempts by Service Members to claim a special political authority as the ‘representatives’ of the armed forces in the House of Commons, to offer an important new perspective on wartime British debates about the workings of representative politics, the nature of political citizenship, and the authority of Parliament as an institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the friendship between Huguenot poet Guillaume de Saluste Du Bartas and King James VI of Scotland in the 16th century, and how their relationship affected Du Bartas popularity. The poet's diplomatic work for King Henri de Navarre of France is discussed, as well as his efforts to negotiate marriage between James and Henri's sister Catherine de Bourbon. Du Bartas route from France to Scotland is described, as well as his reputation in the court of Queen Elizabeth, and the author discusses the connection between diplomacy and English translations of French poetry.

The National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL; now known as Liberty) was conceived in the putative anti-left policing of political protest in 1934 but it was actually the result of a chance encounter in the press between Ronald Kidd and Lord Trenchard, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, at the end of 1933. Kidd’s campaign, which centred on the policies and actions of the Commissioner, attracted prominent cross-party backing for a civil liberties pressure group. At the same time, associations with the radical left and ‘fellow travelling’ community ensured the NCCL would be regarded by the authorities as a communist front organization and would fall under the assiduous watch of the security services. Nonetheless, the NCCL became a rallying point for disparate concerns for police powers and civil liberties and contributed to the inter-war culture of non-party politics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

UK sectoral regulatory authorities are hybrid communities of, among others, lawyers and economists. Since the liberalization of essential services, expert economists enjoy broad discretionary powers in advancing the agencies' broad statutory objectives. Yet, despite the significant societal impact of economic regulation, existing scholarship in the fields of competition law and regulation and public law has, with very few exceptions, disregarded these actors and the very essence of their work. This article aims to address this gap in the literature by blending theoretical with empirical insights deriving from 14 semi-structured elite interviews with regulatory economists in the regulatory agencies for energy (Office for Gas and Electricity Markets), telecoms (Office for Communications), and water (Office of Water Services). It explores the increased reliance on economics in the regulatory decision-making process and the impact this has had on the authorities' decision-making and discretion, when making complex trade-offs between the various goals of the regulatory enterprise. In doing so, it puts forward a theoretical framework inspired by Craig Parsons' typology of political action so as to identify and examine the nature and scope of the constraints that inform and shape the influence of economics in the exercise of regulatory discretion. This endeavour is significant in the sense that it is the first of its kind and, in that it provides a normative framework of analysis that can be applied in other areas of regulation heavily infused with and influenced by economic evidence and analysis, such as 'pure' competition law enforcement by both sectoral and competition authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a long decline in membership in political parties across Western democracies, parties in the UK have seen an upsurge, especially in young members. Surprisingly, few studies have explored young members of political parties. This article addresses this gap and examines the following: Who are the young party activists? What do they think about politics? What are their motivations for political participation? This article draws on a unique dataset of activists in the three main parties youth factions in the UK. It finds that the youth faction activists have very similar socioeconomic backgrounds, perceive themselves to be politically effective and hold quite positive views about politicians. The analysis also shows that these young people do not consider their youth faction to be the only way for them to influence politics and are not self-interestedly motivated—that is, joining to begin or advance a political career. Finally, the article proposes improvements as to how political parties, and their youth factions, engage with young people in order to secure their future viability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing individual-level theories of electoral participation requires survey-based measures of turnout. Yet, due to a combination of sampling problems and respondent misreporting, postelection surveys routinely overestimate turnout, often by large margins. Using an online survey experiment fielded after the 2015 British general election, we implement three alternative survey questions aimed at correcting for turnout misreporting and test them against a standard direct turnout question used in postelection studies. Comparing estimated to actual turnout rates, we find that while all question designs overestimate aggregate turnout, the item-count technique alleviates the misreporting problem substantially, whereas a direct turnout question with additional face-saving options and a crosswise model design help little or not at all. Also, regression models of turnout estimated using the item-count measure yield substantively similar inferences regarding the correlates of electoral participation to models estimated using "gold-standard" validated vote measures. These findings stand in contrast to those suggesting that item-count techniques do not help with misreporting in an online setting and are particularly relevant given the increasing use of online surveys in election studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consultation procedures are used increasingly in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. This account looks critically at consultation as presently practised, and suggests that consulters and consultees need to do much more to ensure both the participatory validity and democratic value of such exercises. The possibility of a 'right to be consulted' is examined. Some ideas from a governmentality perspective are developed, using the growth of localism as an example, to suggest that consultation is often a very structured interaction: the actual operation of participation mechanisms may not always create a space for an equal exchange between official and participant views. Examples of best practice in consultation are examined, before consideration is given to recent case law from the UK seeking to establish basic ground rules for how consultations should be organised. Finally, the promise of consultation to reinvigorate democracy is evaluated and weighed against the correlative risk of 'participatory disempowerment' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is provided which discusses juvenile education and enlightenment in Great Britain during the French Revolution period of the late 1780s and 1790s, including the role that enlightenment education played in influencing children to question their social position. The impact that the French Revolution had on radicalizing the youth of Great Britain is discussed. The article references the diary of the English Quaker Louisa Gurney.

Online surveys have seen a rapid growth in the past decade and are now frequently being used for electoral research. Although they have obvious advantages, it is unclear whether the data produce inferences similar to more traditional face-to-face surveys, particularly when response to the survey is correlated with the survey variables of interest. Drawing on data from the latest American National Election Study and British Election Study, we examine how age affects political engagement, comparing responses between face-to-face and online surveys. The results indicate that online surveys, particularly those where respondents have opted in, reduce variance and overestimate the proportion of those who are politically engaged, which produces different conclusions about what motivates citizens to vote. These findings suggest a need to acknowledge selection bias when examining questions about political engagement, particularly when it comes to election surveys that rely on opt-in panels that are more likely to attract those who are interested in the subject matter and thus more politically engaged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented which discusses the Quakers' involvement in politics and their relationships with British Army soldiers during the Crisis of 1659 amidst Great Britain's Revolution. An overview of the Quaker merchant George Bishop's political activity as a pamphleteer, including his tract titled "Mene Tekel" and his attitude on the relationship between Christianity and state, is provided.

Do media organisations turn on unpopular governments and, if so, why? I model a demand-side and supply-side explanation and derive testable implications that can be used to differentiate between them. I take these predictions to the data by examining whether British newspapers give more coverage to investigations into government members of parliament when the government is behind in the polls. Instrumenting for poll leads with plausibly-exogenous macroeconomic variables I find that a 1 SD increase in a government's poll lead leads to a 30-60% decline in coverage. I also find suggestive evidence that this effect is demand driven. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a more systematic assessment of John Maynard Keynes’s attitude to Liberalism, and his engagement with the Liberal Party, than has previously been attempted. It does so as a means of exploring how the study of ideologies should be approached. To Keynes, ideologies were not simply constellations of fixed principles; in his view, policies were always contingent on circumstances, and thus what was appropriate now would become outdated in the future. The Liberal, therefore, needed a flexible and experimental psychological attitude, in order to devise solutions that were appropriate to changing conditions. Using his 1925 lecture ‘Am I a Liberal?’ as a starting point, it is argued here that Keynes saw Liberalism primarily as a discursive practice in the public sphere, that is to say as a technique for ‘doing politics’. We need not take Keynes’s evaluation of his own Liberal mind-set at face value, but it nonetheless casts light on the nature of Liberalism in this period. In spite of the Liberal party’s electoral decline, the political conditions of the 1920s were particularly well suited to Keynes’s vision. For him, Liberalism depended upon, but would also help to facilitate, what he referred to as ‘the emancipation of the mind.’ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented which discusses the English legislation known as the Heresy Ordinance of 1648, including its role in limiting religious freedom and religious toleration during the English Civil War of 1642 through 1649. An overview of the debate in the British Parliament's House of Commons over the Heresy Ordinance, including the role that Presbyterian members of parliament (MPs) played in this regard, is provided.

Maritime history seems to be suffering an identity crisis, rising in popularity but unsure of its place within historical scholarship and divided in approach. Seafarers, as a consequence, have remained marginal within mainstream history. This article argues that only by integrating the study of maritime topics into wider historical debates can maritime history overcome these doubts, taking as a case study the role of seafarers and the navy in British politics during 1625−42. First examining previous interpretations offered by scholars, largely based on a conception of seafarers as politically and socially isolated from developments ashore, the article then reassesses the available evidence for popular political activity within the maritime community. It argues that seafarers were deeply involved in the political and religious divisions that drove Britain into civil war in 1642; and, more broadly, that scholars should recognize the importance of both local and global approaches to maritime history - that they should think outside the gundeck. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses empirical data to establish and analyse the links between pre-parliamentary political experience and career trajectory once elected to the House of Commons. It suggests a move away from the existing occupation focused frameworks towards a broader ‘political experience’ approach which distinguishes between traditional and non-traditional routes into Parliament. The framework is validated using data focusing on the 1997 cohort of newly elected Members of Parliament. It tracks the political careers of these individuals, asking who reaches the top positions, at what speed and whether there is a relationship between career trajectory and pre-parliamentary political experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1977 Housing (Homeless Persons) Act provided the first statutory definition of homelessness. This article examines who should be credited with inspiring the legislation. This article shows that the homelessness lobby, co-ordinating their activities through the Joint Charities Group and Campaign for the Homeless and Roofless, interposed themselves between Whitehall and Parliament and the public, mediating a message about the changing nature of ‘hidden’ homelessness and its growing scale. At the same time elements of the civil service, particularly within the Department of Environment, sought to harness this lobby in order to help promote its agenda for improving the utilization of, and uniformity of access to, the housing stock within Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, the author examines how the 19th-century street sellers of London, England, undermined British capitalism and the bourgeoisie. Broadly, the author is concerned with the generation of urban class conflict in 19th-century Great Britain. More specifically, the author examines street sellers' engagement in such subversive working-class activities as participation in public meetings, involvement in the Chartist reform movement, work with radical organizations, and the selling of inexpensive goods to the poor, and the ways in which they promoted working class solidarity and socialization. Also examined are street vendors' efforts to appropriate public space.

Policing has recently attracted a great deal of controversy set against the recent wave of student disturbances and the use of paramilitary tactics to disperse, contain, and kettle protestors. Moreover, the controversial application of stop and search powers under the Terrorism Act 2000 has raised further questions about the accountability of the police.The responsibility of holding the police to account currently falls to the 43 police authorities operating across England and Wales. This article draws on ground-breaking research on police authorities using questionnaire and in-depth interview data to outline just how it is that police authority members approach their duties and responsibilities. It outlines the role and potential of police authorities to influence police policy and operations and discusses how the work of police authorities has impacted on participation by local citizens. Our starting position is that citizen participation is a prerequisite for the effective delivery of accountable policing. This has serious consequences for the proposed Police and Crime Commissioners, which are intended to replace police authorities in November 2012. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The concept of the ‘property-owning democracy’ has been one of the ideological and rhetorical constants of twentieth-century Conservatism. Coined by Noel Skelton in 1923 the concept has been periodically revived, renewed, and reworked by subsequent generations of Conservatives. But although the concept has remained a constant, its meaning has transformed as generations of Conservatives have reinterpreted and redefined the concepts that comprise it. As the Conservative understandings of ‘property’ and ‘democracy’ changed over the course of the twentieth century, so too has the meaning of the ‘property-owning democracy’. Probably the most significant of these shifts occurred under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher in the 1970s and 1980s. The growing influence of economic liberalism in the party led to a redefinition of the ‘property-owning democracy’ and a greater stress on its central role within the party’s strategy to transform Britain. This article will examine how the meaning of the ‘property-owning democracy’ was transformed during this key period in the ideological transformation of not only the Conservative Party but ultimately of British politics as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using veterans of the First World War who became Conservative party M.P.s after 1918, this article re-examines the way the conflict was interpreted in post-1918 Britain. Pointing to the substantial numbers of men who fulfilled the above criteria (and how they used the conflict to reach such office) it illustrates one way in which the war was already being used as a significant political device before the more famous authors like Robert Graves began to bend the event to their narrative will from 1929. This had two important consequences: the Conservative party was given a greater 'national' appeal by proxy; and a somewhat simplified account of the war experience began to be forwarded, albeit not without some contestation and contradiction, earlier than we might think. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizenship has become a major topic for debate and the subject of public policy in recent years, as academics and policy-makers across the Western world have tried to understand and respond to what is widely seen as a weakening of democracy. In the UK, the increasing alienation of citizens from electoral politics has manifested itself in a sharp fall in electoral turnout, membership of political parties and levels of public trust in the political class. In this context, citizenship education provides an opportunity to address the demand-side of political participation by helping a diverse citizenry make sense of a complex political world and by strengthening democracy through the promotion of active citizenship. This article explores the differences between the approaches to citizenship education that have been adopted in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and, in so doing, highlights policy lessons that can be drawn from these varied experiences. It argues that the evidence suggests a common framework for citizenship education across the four home nations based on four key principles—political literacy, experiential learning, appropriate institutional structures and supply-side measures—would help promote active involvement by citizens in forms of political participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people in Britain are often characterised as disconnected from the formal political process and from democratic institutions. Certainly their rate of abstention in general election contests over the last decade has led to concerns amongst the political classes that they have a disaffection from politics that is deeply entrenched and more so than was the case with previous youth generations, and may in the future become habit-forming. In this article, we consider the results from an online national survey of 1025 British 18 year olds conducted in 2011, and compare these with the results from a similar study conducted by one of the authors in 2002. In doing so, our aim is to assess the extent to which young people's levels of political engagement have changed over the course of the intervening years, and if so, how they have changed. The results from this comparison indicate that, contrary to popular wisdom, today's generation of young people are interested in political affairs, and they are keen to play a more active role in the political process. However, their recent experience of their first general election in 2010 has left them feeling frustrated. Indeed, our study has revealed a considerable aversion to formal, professional politics which is as deep today as it was for the predecessor 2002 youth cohort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last decade, a media-security nexus has emerged that has exacerbated pervasive feelings of the precariousness of citizenship among British Muslims. Legally, citizenship became reversible while political and media discourses and religious discrimination compounded by racism created deep unease about belonging, identity and the very possibility of multicultural citizenship. With diminishing prospects for effective participation in formal political processes, except through the domineering framework of counter-terrorism, young British Muslims sought alternative arenas and modes of political debate and engagement. They expressed their dissent from the suffocating politics of security in informal ways that were deemed efficacious in their own terms. While a sense of loss of status and respect, and deep disappointment at how fellow Muslims were being vilified, was present among older generations, young British Muslims responded in politically creative ways that can be described as ‘dissenting citizenship’. This article reflects on findings from an ESRC-funded collaborative ethnography, Shifting Securities, conducted across 12 cities in Britain between 2004 and 2007 that investigated how a very diverse, multi-ethnic group of some 239 British people experienced citizenship and security in a time of relentless news of terrorism, conflict and natural disaster catastrophes and ‘creeping securitisation’ in day-to-day life in Britain. Our research suggests that dissenting rather than disaffected citizenship is a growing trend particularly among multi-ethnic youth who aspire to work critically within and revitalise mainstream politics to safeguard their citizenship status via local and translocal personalised forms of political action rather than engage in conventional forms of national party politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural action has been used to promote community development for at least thirty years in the UK, often with good results. During that period, the theories, values, and approaches of professionals have varied and evolved, but there has been a noticeable shift in focus – particularly in cultural policy – from collective to individual outcomes, in line with the growing individualization of policy since the 1980s. Yet the potential of cultural action to bring people together and to build a foundation for lasting community development work remains important. This article considers the processes by which arts-based community projects can lead to the development of both informal and formal collective organization, and their potential in empowerment. Central to this process, it is argued, is cultures focus on peoples strengths and interests, rather than on externally defined problems. The paper draws on two contrasting examples to demonstrate the continuing importance of cultural action in very different social and economic situations: the authors research into voluntary arts development in rural England and Wales, and his experience of community cultural projects in south-east Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there has been considerable interest in public participation in new and controversial technologies in the last two decades, less attention has been paid to how different 'publics' and 'participation' are constructed and defined in the context of policy development and the contingencies (historical, cultural, and situational) that can contextualize these processes. This study examines the development of xenotransplantation policy in the US, Canada and the UK in order to understand the emergence of different publics and versions of participation in the social appraisal of a controversial biomedical technology. By examining publics in invited arenas and those that operate in public spaces outside of these official rooms (paying special attention to animal rights and welfare groups), we suggest that a broader understanding can be gained of the nuances in policy trajectories. Contrasting experiences in three case countries with close cultural and historical traditions further elucidate the nature of the framing activities of policy-makers around public participation and the boundary work around different practices that emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the emergence of black power as an ideology and a movement in the UK in the period 1967–72. It argues that two different interpretations of black power appeared immediately after Stokely Carmichael’s appearance at the Dialectics of Liberation conference in London during the summer of 1967. The first, embodied in Obi B. Egbuna’s manifesto for the United Coloured People’s Association, was broadly Marxist–Leninist and separatist in tone; whereas C. L. R. James’s interpretation, set out in his ‘Black Power speech’, looked to a mass movement to bring about change. Through a consideration of agitational material, Home Office documents, and interviews with former members of the British Black Panther Movement, it is clear that the Panthers quickly diverged from the path set out by Egbuna. Indeed, by 1970, under the leadership of Althea Jones-Lecointe, the Panthers were a community-based organization who had rejected separatism and the vanguardist aspect of Leninism. In this sense while the Panthers were not a Jamesian organization there was enough common ground for a collaboration of sorts between James and the British Panthers. This collaboration was facilitated by James’s great-nephew Darcus Howe and coincided with the Mangrove Campaign, the high point of black power’s influence in Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An essay is presented on the history of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Great Britain since 1945. It examines the relationship between NGOs and political activism and engagement. The author particularly explores environmental NGOs and NGOs committed to international development and aid. He links support for NGOs to declining public trust in elected officials and political institutions. The role of professional and technocratic expertise in NGOs is also considered.

Since Plato the arts have worried those concerned with the maintenance and stability of the polis. More recently politicians and commentators have expressed fears that the manner in which formal politics is depicted in fiction has been a contributory factor in the breakdown of trust in British political culture. By comparison the USA is pointed to as offering a far more positive tradition of cultural representations of politics and politicians. This article seeks to assess such claims arguing that neither tradition—British or American—can be so easily characterised. It goes on to argue for the importance of taking the fictional representation of politics seriously not only for its worth as a contemporary record of attitudes and assumptions about British political culture but also its ability to reveal and consider aspects of political activity that traditional methods might find difficult to measure and record. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article questions the utility of the term 'radicalization' as a focus for counter-terrorism response in the UK. It argues that the lack of clarity as to who the radicalized are has helped to facilitate a 'Prevent' strand of counterterrorism strategy that has confusingly oscillated between tackling violent extremism, in particular, to promoting community cohesion and 'shared values' more broadly. The article suggests that the focus of counterterrorism strategy should be on countering terrorism and not on the broader remit implied by wider conceptions of radical-ization. This is not to diminish the importance of contextual or 'root cause' factors behind terrorism, but, if it is terrorism that is to be understood and countered, then such factors should be viewed within the terrorism-counterterrorism discourse and not a radicalization-counter-radicalization one. The article goes on to consider the characterization of those presenting a terrorist threat to the UK as being 'vulnerable' to violent extremism. While it argues that the notion of vulnerable individuals and communities also lends itself to a wider 'Prevent' remit, it cautions that the impetus towards viewing terrorism as the product of vulnerability should not deflect us from what has generally been agreed in terrorism studies-that terrorism involves the perpetration of rational and calculated acts of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]