After Brexit and Other Essays

Abstract

This book contains a selection of articles and papers by Andrew Gamble on political economy and British politics which have appeared over the last forty years. The essays 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. The book has four main themes – political economy, Europe and America, Thatcherism, and the British constitution. It provides a frame for thinking about how the increasing Europeanisation of Britain’s laws, institutions, policy-making processes and its regulatory regime over the four decades of membership intersected with other domestic issues and debates, including the response to the relative decline and poor performance of the economy, the character of Britain’s hybrid Anglo-liberal model of capitalism, the reshaping of the post-war Keynesian welfare state, the rise and fall of Thatcherism, the transformation of both the Conservative and Labour parties, the relationship between Britain and the United States, the new regulatory state, and the changing constitutional order. The book includes a biographical introduction, notes on the essays and an epilogue which reflects on what the essays got wrong and what they got right.