The British Political Tradition and the Material-Ideational Debate

Abstract

This article: Critically discusses recent material on the British Political Tradition (BPT) using broader discussions of the relationship between material relations, institutions and ideas as a frame for that discussion. Argues that the BPT has played a key role in shaping the institutions and processes of British politics and that it provides a key element of the context in which any attempt at change occurs. Operates as a path-dependency which constrains, but does not prevent, change; Argues that there are three path-dependencies not one, an institutional one, a discursive one and a political-economic one. Makes significant contributions to our understanding of British politics and to debates about historical institutionalism and path dependency.Recently there has been a revival of interest in debates about the British political tradition. In part, this is a reflection of the ‘ideational turn’ in Anglophone comparative politics. However, this ideational turn immediately raises two of the most important meta-theoretical debates in social science; the relationships between institutions and ideas and the material and the ideational. In our view, anyone who suggests that political traditions shape political outcomes has to take a position on these debates, although they are rarely addressed. This article seeks to address that omission. We argue that, while the predominant ideas about democracy and political practice in the UK, what we term the British Political Tradition, do affect the institutions and processes of government, these ideas exist in a dialectical relationship with those institutions and, more broadly, with the material context within which the tradition, and indeed the institutions, operate(s).