Civilisation Britannique: Politique Britannique, économie et société au XXè siècle (document en anglais)

BRITISH CIVILISATION: BRITISH POLITICS, ECONOMY AND SOCIETY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

I. 1900-1939

A. INTRODUCTION TO THE POLITICAL SYSTEM

→ The ‘British Democracy’ is very old: it has functioned alongside the monarchy from as early as the twelfth century (creation of Parliament). The House of Lords limited the individual power of the King.

→ As time passed, the power of the House of Lords decreased, while the power of the House of Commons increased, until in the twentieth century the power of the peers was all but ceremonial.

– 1912: the House of Lords could veto legislation passed by the House of Commons, but the veto would only last two years, later reduced to just one.

– Tony Blair would go on to reduce the number of people in the House of Lords (where there used to be more than 1500). Only people who had participated in voting debates could have a seat. The number of peers by hereditary right has also been reduced (non-lifetime titles have, however, increased).

→ The momentum towards a democratisation of the British political system can be felt in the first half of the twentieth century, notably with the creation of the Labour Party at the beginning of the century from an alliance of trade unionists and intellectuals.

– 1905: 29 candidates from the (then called) Labour Representative Committee were elected.

– 1906: These 29 MPs formed the Parliamentary Labour Party within the House of Commons.

→ The Labour Party defended the interests of the working class:

– Reforms, workers’ rights, close links to the Trades Union Congress (TUC, Congress House, London), and as such to the Trade Unions themselves (although not all Trade Unions belonged to the Congress).

→ The Labour Party, prior to 1995, is not to be confused with New Labour, which took a growing distance from Old Labour (relaxing ties with the Trade Unions, becoming more of a middle-class party).

→ The press began to fully develop with the BBC (1922) with important newspapers today being the Times (1785, traditionally right-wing, has supported Labour in the 21st century), the Guardian (Labour orientated, 1936 owned by Scott Trust, Manchester Guardian founded in 1821), the Daily Telegraph (Conservative orientation, founded 1855) and the Independent (left-centre orientated, created 1986)

→ There was no national suffrage in the United Kingdom until 1927, when all persons over the age of 21 were allowed to vote.

→ The democratisation of education had also begun. More and more people were in education and into secondary schools:

– Public schools were private and independent schools

– State schools

→ Social reforms were on the horizon with social care, pensions, etc.

B. EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY FOREIGN POLICY

→ Decolonisation was equally underway. The British Empire’s aim was to create an Empire on which the sun would never set, yet little by little, the white colonies began to detach themselves from the Commonwealth (Canada and Australia were to become ‘dominions’)

– Ireland had been a British colony since the Tudor days (Welsh monarchy of Britain and Ireland, 1485-1603), where the colonisers had become known as the ‘Olde English’. This Celtic, Gaelic country, was not home to a King, but rather a selection of tribes.

– Elisabeth the 1st had wanted Ireland under British Yoke, after completely eradicating the Gaelic system in 1603, 1641 saw the Irish Rebellion, an attempted coup d’Etat by the Irish Catholic gentry, which rapidly descended into bloody violence between the native Irish Catholics and the English and Scottish protestant settlers. The battles ended when Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army defeated the Irish ‘Catholic Confederation’s army’ and Ireland was reintegrated into the British Empire in 1653.

– 1801: the Irish Parliament had disappeared, and Ireland was no longer autonomous, it was controlled by Westminster.

– 1920: through devolution, Ireland obtained autonomy of government, but the British monarch remained their Head of State.

– 1921: The Partition, Anglo-Irish treaty was ratified narrowly in 1921, leading to the Irish Civil War (1921-1923), during which Ireland was declared a Free State (constitution in 1937, declared Republic in 1949).

– Northern Ireland (Ulster) chose to remain a part of Britain, threatening civil war if they were not allowed to remain under British rule.

→ The first black colony to obtain independence was Ghana, capital city Accra (at the en of the 1950s).

→ The last British colony to obtain independence was Hong Kong in 1997.

→ After the First World War, ridden with debt, the British economy was in decline. With the slump in 1929 it became more and more important for the government to become involved.

– John Maynard Keynes: believed in state interference in order to increase employment and purchase power, while reducing poverty.

→ The Second World War brought about tremendous solidarity among British Citizens, the fear of invasion and the imperviousness to the German assailants’ attacks led to the denomination ‘Citizen’s Army’.

→ The war effort showed that it was possible to create social unity and fight unemployment: the war created jobs. Keynes’ views (1936) became increasingly important.

– Keynes advocated the management of the economy be the state.

→ People in the United Kingdom felt the need for change.

→ The result in politics was the consensus, emerging out of the ‘laissez-faire’ attitude of the pre-war years (private businesses, private economy and very little state influence)

– A consensus is the movement made by the two main political parties toward a common centre ground; instead of breaking what the previous government had done, governments that succeeded one another would try and carry on the task undertaken by their predecessor.

→ Privileges falling away, the possibility of climbing the social ladder becoming reality and the imminent creation of the Welfare State were all a result of the solidarity found during war time.

II. THE

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