Blair Administration Research Articles

Scandal and Media in the United Kingdom

This article looks at the recent spate of political scandal news, both financial and sexual, in the United Kingdom during the Major and Blair administrations. Scandal revelations, especially those produced by the press, may be due in part to the audience-building strategies of the media. Dissenting views, in contrast, may possibly be offered as a result of the media’s own legitimation needs. Stories of scandal serve to undermine institutions in the public’s mind and can often provoke the setting up of government and parliamentary committees leading to the regulation of particular activities. This article shows how the accumulation of scandal stories may have serious repercussions for the popularity of governments and prime ministers and may influence the representation of all aspects of policy.

UK African Policy in the Post-Cold War Era: From Realpolitik to Moralpolitik?

The end of the Cold War led Western states to review their policies towards Africa. Against this background, the British government under John Major stressed the need for‘new thinking’ while the Blair administration promised to give‘a new priority’ to Africa. This article examines how far Britain has in practice adapted its African policy to the challenges of the New World Order. It evaluates and explains the changes which have taken place, focusing on the‘multilateralisation’ of UK—African relations and on Britain's new-found willingness to intervene in African affairs. Finally, it looks at‘ideological’ differences between the Major government, which based its policy on realpolitik, and the Blair administration, which has adopted a‘third way’ stance on African policy. While these differences should not be overstated, they have marked an identifiable change in Britain's response to Africa's challenges.

War and Self-Defense

When the Bush and Blair administrations justified the 2003 war on Iraq as an act of preemptive self-defense, this was greeted in many quarters with understandable skepticism. How can the right of self-defense be legitimately invoked when no prior aggressive attack has occurred and there is no evidence that one is imminent? This question, much debated in the months leading up to the war, invites us to reflect critically on the content of the right of self-defense. Yet there is a deeper question to be asked about the idea of a war of self-defense; namely, how is it that war can be considered an act of self-defense at all? How exactly is it that the concept of self-defense can provide a justification for war? It is this question that I ask in War and Self-Defense and the answer I arrive at is a surprising one.

Re-thinking 'role models': equal opportunities in teacher recruitment in England and Wales

Since 1997, the Blair administration has taken various steps to make school teaching a more inclusive occupation. For example, in England and Wales it has introduced measures to increase levels of male recruitment to primary teaching and attract more ethnic minority entrants to the profession. This paper shows how these policies have been legitimated by an appeal to commonsense notions about the salience of ‘role models’ in socialization. Underlying official discourse in this sphere is the assumption that the ‘targeted recruitment’ of male or ethnic minority teachers will provide much-needed ‘role models’ in schools for those groups most likely to experience educational failure and disaffection. Thus, matching teachers and children by gender or ethnicity is seen as a panacea for male or Black ‘underachievement’. This paper begins by weighing the strengths and weaknesses of current policies on gender, ethnicity, and teaching. Having subjected the ‘role model’ argument to critical scrutiny, it moves on to discuss the dilemmas encountered by male entrants to primary teaching during the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) and ethnic minority students preparing to teach in either the primary or secondary sectors. Drawing upon the findings of two recently completed studies, the students' responses to the policies under consideration and their lived experiences during school placement are considered. The paper concludes by exploring the implications of the discussion for policy.

Back to the market: yet more reform of the National Health Service.

Yet more reform of the National Health Service in England has been announced by the Department of Health. In opposition, the Labour Party criticized the creation of an "internal market" for health care by the Conservative government, but five years into the Blair administration, market incentives are to be reinvigorated and the private sector is to be embraced in ways not seen hitherto. New guidance signals the introduction of competitive contracting using cost-per-case currencies, more choice for patients in where they will receive hospital treatment, and the freeing of NHS care providers from the direct political control of ministers. It is intended that the monopolistic features of the NHS in England should give way to greater pluralism, in particular through contracts with privately owned health care organizations. However, there is little evidence to suggest that these policies will be effective, and a number of practical problems may obstruct implementation.

Parliamentary sovereignty and the new constitutional order: legislative freedom, political reality and convention

Although the constitutional reform programme undertaken by the Blair administration is formally consistent with the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, it is clear that the human rights and devolution legislation, in particular, significantly alter the political and constitutional environment within which Parliament's legislative powers are exercised. This paper considers whether it is meaningfiul, within this new constitutional setting, to adhere to the traditional notion of sovereignty. It is argued that the disparity between a Parliament whose powers are formally unlimited yet increasingly constrained, in political terms, by norms based on fundamental rights and devolved governance may be accommodated, in the short term, by means of constitutional conventions which trace the constitutionally acceptable limits of legislative action by Parliament. However, following examination of the nature of convention and its relationship with law and constitutional principle, it is argued that the possibility arises, in the long term, that conventional limits upon legislative freedom may ultimately evolve into legal limiis, thus ensuring that the fundamental values embraced by the legal order are acknowledged not merely in pragmatic or conventional terms, but as a matter of constitutional law.

Representing rurality? New Labour and the electoral geography of rural Britain

The first Blair administration faced clamorous criticism from some lobby groups for its handling of rural issues. Yet Labour has presented itself as a ‘one–nation’ party representing both urban and rural areas. This paper examines the basis of recent claims about the parliamentary representation of rural Britain, and analyzes the results of the last two General Elections. It illustrates how the malleability of the category of ‘rural’ allows for contrasting claims about rural representation, and highlights the continuity of party representation among those constituencies located outside the main urban areas in the 1997 and 2001 parliaments, despite regular rural protest.

Review: Scottish Government and Politics

As an early pre-2001 General Election reader of Peter Lynch's new text book of Scottish Politics, it was the reference in the introductory chapter to 'the first Blair administration' that initially brought home the nature of his achievement. This phrase did not jar after 7 June, but it does highlight the challenge that Lynch set himself: to capture a tumultuous, continuing, process of political change in readable and educative form, while at the same time building in a reasonably durable shelf-life. In large part I think he has achieved the task, and many students, and indeed devolution ingenues more generally, will be grateful for it.

The Twilight of Westminster? Electoral Reform and its Consequences

The UK political system has long exemplified ‘majoritarian’ or ‘Westminster’ government, a type subsequently exported to many Commonwealth countries. The primary advantage of this system, proponents since Bagehot have argued, lie in its ability to combine accountability with effective governance. Yet under the Blair administration, this system has undergone a series of major constitutional reforms, perhaps producing the twilight of the pure Westminster model. After conceptualizing the process of constitutional reform, this paper discusses two important claims made by those who favor retaining the current electoral system for Westminster, namely that single-member districts promote strong voter-member linkages and generate greater satisfaction with the political system. Evidence testing these claims is examined from comparative data covering 19 nations, drawing on the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems. The study finds that member-voter linkages are stronger in single member than in pure multimember districts, but that combined districts such as MMP preserve these virtues. Concerning claims of greater public satisfaction under majoritarian systems, the study establishes some support for this contention, although the evidence remains limited. The conclusion considers the implications of the findings for debates about electoral reform and for the future of the Westminster political system.

On Process, Events and Unintended Consequences: National Identity and the Politics of Welsh Devolution

Former Secretary of State for Wales, Ron Davies, may have understood all along that 'devolution is a process not an event' (Davies 1999). The same cannot be said for other senior members of his own party. Rather it appears that many of the leading figures in the first Blair administration were unaware of how radical the constitutional reforms that they were initiating really were. Nowhere is this better evidenced, of course, than in the Labour leadership's serial mishandling of successive battles for the Labour leadership in Wales. Indeed the conduct of the Prime Minster and his closest advisers during these battles the first involving Davies, the second following his resignation, and the third in effect a palace coup to replace a candidate foisted on an unwilling Welsh party by Downing Street suggests not only (hat they were less than fully cognisant of the dynamics that were being unleashed by devolution, but, moreover, that they have been rather slow on the uptake.

The Civil Service Under Stress: The Fall in Civil Service Power and Authority

The failures of governments of both parties in the 1970s had prepared for radical changes in the nature of government under Margaret Thatcher. Among them were that ministers resumed greater power over their civil servants. While various aspects of the relationship between ministers and officials changed and despite the introduction of special advisers, close partnership — the Haldane relationship — was largely retained between them until the end of the 1980s. In the 1990s ministers began to operate less closely with the civil service, largely because they found they had less time for departmental work under the Major and the first Blair administrations. Many of the skills for which civil servants had been trained became less in demand because of the ending of the Cabinet style of government, the reduced importance of ministers appearing before parliament and the greater involvement of spin doctors and media handlers in preparing public documents. However, new skills were required: more rapid accessing of information and more skill in implementation and responsibility for it. The Wilson reforms of 1999 were in large part aimed to remedy these shortcomings. There remains a question whether enough of the Haldane relationship survives for government not to be driven towards greater definition of the rules in which civil servants operate.

Is There Space for Organisation from Below within the UK Government's Action Zones? A Test of 'Collaborative Planning'

The institutional structure and urban policy preferences of the Blair administration have now emerged from the British government's comprehensive spending review. In a series of recent publications, notably from the Department of Transport, Environment and the Regions (DETR) and the Social Exclusion Unit (SEU) report Bringing Britain Together, the government places a welcome emphasis on the importance of working with communities and in community economic development. Unfortunately though, these initiatives contrast with a simultaneous commitment to fiscal restraint and work-based labour market policies, which seem to mark continuity. The extent to which the urban policy agenda and institutions are open to influence from community organisations promoting social justice claims that differ from those of government is therefore unclear. This paper uses Healey's 'collaborative planning' approach to explore the potential for the engagement of one such community organisation, Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS), to test the extent to which the new policy institutions are open to influence 'from below'.

Learning from the US? The influence of American ideas upon ‘new labour’ thinking on welfare reform

English This article assesses how far New Labour thinking about welfare reform has been influenced by ideas and developments in the United States. Having entered office declaring its determination to ‘think the unthinkable’, the Blair administration has subsequently been in earnest pursuit of the workable. It has looked to the US for ideas about wage supplementation and- especially- welfare to work programmes. More broadly, the language in which these policies are presented and justified has drawn heavily upon that of US politicians and commentators. The article discusses the extent and the significance of this ‘Americanisation’ of the welfare debate. It argues that its most important consequence has been to sustain and enhance a moralism which is common to New Labour and Thatcherism, but distrusted by both ‘One Nation’ conservatism and ‘Old Labour’ social democracy.