United Kingdom

Administration and social conditions

Discussions of governmental organization and politics include Dennis Kavanagh, British Politics: Continuities and Change, 4th ed. (2000); Ian Budge et al., The New British Politics (1998); Jeremy Paxman, Friends in High Places: Who Runs Britain? (1990); John Mohan (ed.), The Political Geography of Contemporary Britain (1989); David Butler, The Electoral System in Britain Since 1918, 2nd ed. (1963, reprinted 1986); Alan R. Ball, British Political Parties: The Emergence of a Modern Party System, 2nd ed. (1987); and John Kingdom, Government and Politics in Britain, 2nd ed. (1999). Philip Norton, The British Polity, 3rd ed. (1994); Peter Hennessy, Cabinet (1986); and Michael Ryle and Peter G. Richards (eds.), The Commons Under Scrutiny, 3rd rev. ed. (1988), discuss the constitutional framework. Peter Hennessy, Whitehall (1989), provides a detailed history of the civil service. Peter Hennessy, The Hidden Wiring: Unearthing the British Constitution (1995), presents a survey of current governmental and administrative practice.

Sources on the operations of local government include David Wilson and Chris Game, Local Government in the United Kingdom (1994); Tony Travers, The Politics of Local Government Finance (1986); Richard Jackman, Paying for Local Government (1986), a report to Parliament; and Tony Travers, Change for Local Government: A Commentary on the Government’s Proposals for Local Authority Finance (1998).

R.M. Jackson, Jackson’s Machinery of Justice, 8th ed., ed. by J.R. Spencer (1989); and Robert Reiner, The Politics of the Police, new ed. (1999), look at the political aspects of the administration of law and law enforcement. Considerations of education include Keith Evans, The Development and Structure of the English School System (1985), a study of school management and organization; and Roy Lowe, Education in the Post-War Years: A Social History (1988), which explores the change in policies in the mid-20th century that continue to influence the educational system of the United Kingdom. Michael Sanderson, Education and Economic Decline in Britain, 1870 to the 1990s (1999), explores the hypothesis that education policy has contributed to the United Kingdom’s recent economic problems.

Nicholas Timmins, The Five Giants: A Biography of the Welfare State, rev. and updated (2001), offers a survey of the evolution of the United Kingdom’s welfare state since the 1940s. Contrasting views on the administration of welfare economics are discussed in Julian Le Grand, The Strategy of Equality: Redistribution and the Social Services (1982); Howard Glennerster, Paying for Welfare: Towards 2000, 3rd ed. (1997); Nicholas Barr, The Economics of the Welfare State, 3rd ed. (1998); and A.B. Atkinson, The Economic Consequences of Rolling Back the Welfare State (1999). Christopher Ham, Health Policy in Britain: The Politics and Organisation of the National Health Service, 4th ed. (1999), examines public policy and the politics of the health care system. Analyses of policies on income maintenance and redistribution and provision of housing include A.B. Atkinson, The Economics of Inequality, 2nd ed. (1983); J.A. Kay, The British Tax System, 5th ed. (1990); A.E. Holmans, Housing Policy in Britain: A History (1987); and Peter Malpass and Alan Murie, Housing Policy and Practice, 5th ed. (1999). Nicholas A. Barr

Cultural life