Towards an English narrative of democracy?

Abstract

This article explores the opportunity for, and some of the political, ideological and institutional impediments to, the articulation of an English narrative of democracy. Such a narrative would locate an understanding of recent developments in the politics, governance and political economy of England within the much broader and challenging framework of the political history of England, and in particular the English tradition of radical thinking and political movements. On the one hand, this article identifies potential for the development of an English narrative in the recent scholarship of historians, and the growing evidence of popular support for a political and institutional expression of English identity. On the other hand, this article identifies the two greatest obstacles to the development of an English narrative as the tradition of British modernisation, which has been the dominant political narrative during the twentieth-century British politics, and the absence of political imagination about democracy, citizenship and England among the British political elite. The conclusion drawn is that an English narrative of democracy could help provide a fair and just settlement for England, but major ideological and institutional impediments remain to its development.