Browse

This book gathers a group of political actors and academics who believe that a radically more active citizenship is a worthy aim. They spell out how it can be achieved in their particular area of concern, looking at the obstacles and how they might be overcome. Together, they show us how we can realise the dream of a citizen culture and the benefits that it would bring for democracy in the United Kingdom. The first and final chapters set the tone, respectively, on civic republicanism today and political identity. Other chapters consider active citizenship in relation to: Labour government policy; Scottish devolution; public services; gender equality; schools; multiculturalism; integrating immigrants; lifelong learning; Europe and international understanding; young people and Scottish independence.

This book is an historical introduction to the varieties of citizenship in Britain, starting in the Middle Ages and bringing the story right up to the present day. Both the status and understanding of citizenship in practice and the theoretical and advisory writings on the subject are introduced, and their inter-relationships are explored. Among the key themes to be examined are: local and national strata; the issue of parliamentary suffrage; women excluded and included as citizens; the influence of classical ideas; nationhood and imperialism; the role of political and social theorists; interpretations by modern political parties; the role of education; environmental citizenship; multiculturalism; globalisation; and human rights. Organised chronologically, each chapter is divided into sections in order to present the reader with different themes in a manageable form. The book is unique in its historical coverage of citizenship in Britain — moving from the Middle Ages to the present day. It reveals the great complexity of the development of citizenship in Britain and demonstrates the importance of an historical perspective in understanding the issue of citizenship in Britain today.

This book is the first major study of the historical writings of religious dissenters in England between the 1690s and the 1790s. It redefines the way we understand religious and political identities in the eighteenth century and provides a synoptic overview of the development of religious dissent in England between the Restoration and the early nineteenth century, using Dissenters' writings to open up new and different perspectives on how the past was perceived in this period. These writings are located within the wider political culture, and the author explores how the long shadow of ‘the Great Rebellion’ of the 1640s stretched across the division between Church and Dissent. The author is not simply concerned with history as a representation of the past, but history also as part of the bitterly divided collective memory of the present. Focusing on the relationship between the history that historians wrote, and the history which men and women experienced, the author provides the reader with new perspectives on eighteenth-century England.

Global politics are deeply affected by issues surrounding cultural identity. Profound cultural diversity has made national majorities increasingly anxious, and democratic governments are under pressure to address those anxieties. Multiculturalism – once heralded as the insignia of a tolerant society – is now blamed for encouraging segregation and harbouring extremism. The author of this book makes a case for a new progressive politics that confronts these concerns. Drawing on comparisons between Britain and India, he shows how the global Left has been hamstrung by a compulsion for insular identity politics and a stubborn attachment to cultural indifference. The author argues that, to combat this, cultural identity must be placed at the centre of the political system.

One of the key aims of devolution in Scotland was to change the way people felt about their country and the way they were governed. This book draws on a range of Scottish Election Studies and Scottish Social Attitudes surveys to explore the early success — or otherwise — of devolution in meeting this objective. It asks how the Scottish public has reacted to the initial experience of devolution, and the lessons this experience might have for the future of devolution. The following questions are considered: How have public attitudes towards the governance of Scotland within the Union evolved from pre-devolution to the end of the first term of the Scottish Parliament? What has happened to support for the principal advocates for leaving the Union, the SNP? Why are fewer people voting in devolved elections than in UK elections? To what degree does the behaviour of those who vote reveal a sense of involvement in the work of the Parliament? What are voters' attitudes to the additional member electoral system? Who are regarded as fellow Scots by those who are all themselves ‘Scottish’? What are Scots' attitudes towards the Pakistani and English minorities in Scotland? The book presents a comprehensive analysis of the Scottish public's evolving view of devolution.

Who is the ‘real’ IRA? The Real IRA, the Continuity IRA, the Irish National Liberation Army, the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA have all assumed responsibility for the struggle for Irish freedom over the course of the late-twentieth century. Yet, as recently as 1969, there was only one Irish Republican Army trying to unify Ireland using physical force. This book explains how and why the transition from one IRA to several IRAs occurred, analysing all the dissident factions that have emerged since the outbreak of the Northern Ireland troubles. It looks at why these groups emerged, what their respective purposes are and why, in an era of relative peace and stability in Northern Ireland, they seek to prolong the violence that has cost over 3,500 lives. The book includes interviews with members of all dissident and mainstream republican organizations, all loyalist factions and security force sources, and shows the influence of Irish America in provoking dissent within republicanism.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) has played a significant role in the politics of Scotland in the last forty years. In particular, it has contributed to and shaped the impact and dynamics of devolution. This collection brings together academics, writers, commentators and analysts of Scottish politics to address the nature of the SNP: its position in Scotland, its influence on devolution, its role as a minority administration and its relationship with other institutions in Scotland, the UK and Europe. The SNP has consistently had problems with intellectuals and thinkers, but this is not unusual in party politics. The issue of independence and the debate between it and the Union is one of the main fault-lines of Scottish politics.

This book addresses issues of national identity and nationalism in Scotland from a political and linguistic perspective, comparing a variety of attitudes and opinions from the political elite to the masses, and examining the nature of national identity held by members of these groups and the differences within and between them. There is consideration of non-civic aspects of national identity, as well as a measure of political party nationalism in Scotland over the past forty years that illustrates the ideological movements of each major party during this period. This work also represents the first comprehensive examination of the discourse involved in the expression of national identity within Scottish politics and society, combining quantitative and discourse analysis methods to illustrate the articulation of national identity by differing groups in different contexts.

Is terrorism ever morally justified? How should historical and cultural factors be taken into account in judging the morality of terrorist acts? What are the ethical limits of state counter-terrorism? For three decades, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA) waged an ‘armed struggle’ against what it considered to be the British occupation of Northern Ireland. To its supporters, the IRA was the legitimate army of Ireland, fighting to force a British withdrawal as a prelude to the re-unification of the Irish nation. To its enemies, it was an illegal, fanatical, terrorist organization whose members were criminals willing to sacrifice innocent lives in pursuit of its ideological obsession. At the centre of the conflict were the then-unconventional tactics employed by the IRA, including sectarian killings, political assassinations, and bombings, which devastated urban centres – tactics that have become increasingly commonplace in the post-9/11 world. This book is a philosophical examination of the morality of the IRA's violent campaign, and of the British government's attempts to end it.

The Scottish parliamentary and local elections of 2007 were significant for two key reasons: the SNP was brought to power for the first time in its history, posing a fundamental challenge to the 300-year Scottish-English Union; and the local elections used the Single Transferable Vote — the first time such an electoral system has been used in Great Britain since 1945. This book explores the significance of these two developments, asking whether they herald a revolutionary break with the past or simply mark a continuing evolution of existing patterns of Scottish politics. It does so using, as a source of evidence, representative high-quality annual sample surveys of the Scottish public that since 1999 have regularly measured how people in Scotland have reacted to devolution and how they have behaved in elections. The book aims to give an insight into the identities, attitudes and electoral behaviour of people in Scotland during the first decade of devolution.