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Cultural and institutional terms. 1.British political culture.The key role of precedent, custom and common sense as factors that have shaped Britain’s political culture. A move away from consensus politics, typical of the post-war period, to a more confrontational style in the late 1970s and 1980s. Changes in the electorate in the 1990s: the decline of traditional allegiances and the growing importance of those who are concerned with their own personal development and of ‘single-issue’ voters. 2.The leading parties: The Labour and the Conservatives. Strong and weak points of the two-party system. Other parties. The Labour Party as the traditional party of the Left, its role in the post-war reforms (the creation of the welfare state, including the NHS, etc.). The party’s crisis in the 1970s and 1980s. The “New Labour”, its policies since 1997 as the governing party. The Conservative Party as the traditional party of the Right. Its free-market reforms of the 1980s. Its divisions over European integration and the electoral debacle of 1997. Strong points of the two-party system: strong one-party government (a guarantee against coalition crises); rigid party discipline and a sense of responsibility. Weak points: a narrow political spectrum in the country; lack of choice for ambitious young politicians who do not share some of the basic principles of the two parties. Other parties: the Liberal Democratic Party – the only serious part of the centre; Sinn Fein (the political wing of the IRA – the Irish Republican Army) – the Catholic Irish nationalist party; the Ulster Unionist Party – the Protestant party in Northern Ireland; Plaid Cymru – the Welsh nationalists; the Scottish National Party; the Green Party. 3.The electoral system. Based on the first-past-the post (FPTP, or simple majority) principle, which usually ensures a clear parliamentary majority (reducing the risk of the so-called ‘hung parliament’, i.e. one in which no party has an overall majority), but may and often does distort the proportion between the overall electoral support for a particular party and the number of the seats it gets in the House of Commons. The country is divided into constituencies with roughly equal numbers of voters, usually about 66,000 voters, each constituency sending one MP to the House of Commons. General elections are held every five years (but the governing party may decide ‘to go to the country’ before the expiry of their term in office). Voting is not compulsory, the right to vote is given to British citizens (together with some other categories of residents) of at least 18 years of age. If an MP dies, resigns or is made a peer during the life-time of a Parliament, a by-election is held. 4.Non-governmental organisations. They are usually set up to further the interests of a particular group of people or to address some problem that the citizens feel is not getting adequate attention from the government. Cultural and institutional terms. The Labour Party, the ‘New Labour’, the Conservative Party, the Liberal Democratic Party, Sinn Fein, the Ulster Unionist Party; the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system, an MP, a constituency. Questions:
References: Левашова В. А. Современная Британия. М.: Высшая школа, 2007. McDowall D. Britain in Close-Up. Longman Ltd., 2005. Лекция 3. Административно-территориальное деление и местное самоуправление. Local government. План.
Cultural and institutional terms. 1.The history of local administration in Britain. The modern system of local administration. The system of local government in Britain has a long and varied history. The county system of local administration dates back to Anglo-Saxon times (about 1,000 years ago), but the first modern systematic framework of local councils was not established until the late 19th c., it was a three-tier system: county – borough or district – parish councils. In the 1960s and 1970s a major reform of the system was undertaken: generally speaking, a two-tier system was introduced in England, Wales and parts of Scotland and a single-tier system in Northern Ireland. The 1990s saw a new reform which has produced a number of single-tier (unitary) councils (authorities) in England, Scotland and Wales. Local government is above all a system of providing public services, such as town planning, housing, education, police, transport, environmental health, fire, consumer protection, social services, libraries, theatres and cinemas and many others. These services, are of three kinds: (1) Environmental services, includeing the supervision of water supplies, street cleaning, measures for ensuring food hygiene, street lighting, the provision of public baths, parks and recreation grounds, etc.; (2) Protective services including fire, police services and civil defence; (3) Personal services, such as maternity and child welfare, education and housing, the provision and upkeep of libraries, museums and even art galleries. All these services are of two kinds: (a) compulsory / mandatory, i.e. required by law, for example, providing schools and teachers; (b) permissive, i.e. those that can be provided at the authorities’ own discretion, like a museum or gallery. Britain’s central government, especially through Parliament, has considerable control over the country’s local government: it may specify the services that must be available at the local level, it may also change the powers and structures of local government, it can in fact even abolish a particular authority, as it did with the Greater London Council (GLC) in 1985. 2.Local elections. Local finances. Local councillors are usually elected for four years. In Scotland local elections now are held every three years. Every British citizen who is not subject to a disqualification and is on the electoral register has the right to vote at a local government election if he or she is aged 18 and over. A candidate for election as councillor normally represents one of the national parties although some stand as independent. The number of members elected to a council normally depends on the population of its area: most county councils have between 40 and 100 councillors, and district councils between 30 and 50. The procedure for local government voting is similar to that for parliamentary elections (i.e. the first-past-the-post system), except in Northern Ireland where local elections are held on the basis of proportional representation. Local governments employ some two million people in administrative, professional and technical capacities. In addition to professional administrators, local councils also employ teachers (half the number of those employed by them), health staff, social workers, firemen, manual workers and the police. A large part of local government revenue now comes mainly from the central government grants, allotted after the government has assessed the cost of providing standard services in a particular area, the rest is raised locally, by local taxation and by collection of rents, fees and payments on property provided by the council. In the 1980s, the Conservative government decided to replace the old ‘rates’ system based on property with a ‘community charge’, popularly called a ‘poll tax’, which was the same, regardless of the property or income earned. At the time of its introduction, it was extremely unpopular due to a widespread sense of unfairness. Because of its great unpopularity, in 1993 it was replaced with a new tax — called the ‘council tax’ the amount of which depends both on the number of people living in the house and the value of the property itself. Cultural and institutional terms. County, borough / district, parish councils; two-tier / single tier (unitary) councils; environmental, protective, personal services; compulsory / mandatory, permissive services; councillor; rates; community charge (poll tax); council tax. Questions:
References: Левашова В. А. Современная Британия. М.: Высшая школа, 2007. McDowall D. Britain in Close-Up. Longman Ltd., 2005. Лекция 4. Правоохранительные и судебные органы. План.
Cultural and institutional terms.
The present legal system comprises three separate systems: (1) that for England and Wales, (2) that for Scotland and (3) that for Northern Ireland. They differ from each other in terms of procedure, courts and the legal professions. The development of English law has been slow and haphazard, mostly because of the strong sense of tradition in English society. There is no civil code and no criminal code in England. It is customary to single out three main sources of contemporary English law: (1) Statute law (largely to do with criminal justice) created by Acts of Parliament which are supreme over all other forms of law except for some European Union law; (2) common law (unwritten law / case law) which is the outcome of the past decisions and practices based on custom and common sense (the doctrine of precedent means that the decisions of higher courts bind the judges of lower courts); (3) European Community law, the latest element in English law resulting from Britain's membership in the EU (since 1973), it derives from the EC / EU treaties, from the Community legislation and from the decisions of the European Court of Justice, EU law takes precedence over domestic law in a growing number of areas. There are two main branches of law in the UK — (1) criminal law concerned with acts punishable by the state, and (2) civil law which covers disputes between two or more parties — individuals, companies or other organisations. The distinction between the two branches is not precise: e.g., courts may be classified as criminal courts and civil courts, but magistrates’ courts normally have both a civil and criminal jurisdiction. Still, the court system, generally speaking, comprises two types of courts: criminal courts and civil courts. The criminal court structure in England and Wales comprises two levels. The lower court (or court of first instance) is the magistrates’ court, which deals with summary (the less serious) offences, and conducts preliminary investigation into the more serious offences. Such more serious (‘indictable’) offences are mostly tried by the Crown court. Magistrates’ courts are open to the public and the media, they usually consist of three to seven lay magistrates known as Justices of the Peace (JPs). Special ‘juvenile courts’ comprise experienced magistrates and include at least one member of either sex, proceedings are held in private, the media are not allowed to identify a young person concerned in the proceedings (whether a defendant, victim or witness). The Crown Court is the higher court dealing with very serious offences like murder, manslaughter, rape and robbery, which account for about 2 per cent of all criminal cases. Thus, the Crown courts have exclusive jurisdiction over all ‘indictable’ offences. Innocence or guilt is determined at a trial presided by a judge, with a jury of twelve citizens. The English law presumes the innocence of an accused person, i.e. the burden of establishing guilt lies with the prosecution. The Central Criminal Court in London (known as the Old Bailey) is now one of the Crown Court centres. Such centres have barristers’ chambers, which provide defence, prosecution and judicial services for the Crown courts of their areas. The administration of the Crown Courts is organised by the Lord Chancellor’s Department in London, the Lord Chancellor being the chief legal officer in the country. The purpose of the civil law is to cover business related to the family property, contracts and torts (non-contractual wrongful acts suffered by one person at the hands of another), it also includes constitutional, administrative, industrial, maritime and ecclesiastical law. The civil court structure comprises two types of court, like the criminal court structure: (1) the county court and (2) the High Court. The main difference between them is that most minor claims can be dealt with in the county court, whereas more expensive (usually above 5,000 pounds) and complicated cases are decided in the High Court. However, some civil matters can also be heard by High Court judges sitting in the Crown court, and by magistrates in the magistrates’ court. 2. The police . Fighting crime. The law and order situation. The legal profession. Crime prevention is an important aspect of government policy. The Crime Prevention Agency (with the Home Office) develops prevention and reduction initiatives. They cooperate with local government authorities, the police and independent organisations (like Crime Concern). The ‘civilian police’ are responsible for the maintenance of law and order. Their duties are varied, ranging from assisting at accidents to safeguarding public order. Their main function is, of course, the control of crime. Unlike many other countries, Britain has no national police force controlled by central government. The oldest police force in the country is the Metropolitan Police, founded in 1829 by Sir Robert Peel to fight crime in London, and from which the modern forces have grown. Outside London, the police are all local forces. The professional head of each regional force is the Chief Constable, who is responsible for all operational and administrative decisions including the actions of the force. The lowest ranking police officer is called a constable. The Metropolitan Police (or, the ‘Met’ as it is popularly called) zone of operation covers Greater London, but it also provides certain national police services, including the maintenance of a national record of all criminals and crimes, to which local police forces may refer. The “Scotland Yard” is the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which gets its popular name from the New Scotland Yard, where its offices are situated. The British police are generally believed to be among the finest in the world. The legal profession is one of the best-paid in Britain. England is almost unique in having two different kinds of lawyers, with separate jobs in the legal system: (1) Solicitors who deal with general legal work, though specialisation in one area of the law is now widespread. They practise mainly in private firms, but also in local and central government, in legal centres, etc. They are organised by their professional body, the Law Society. In the past, the solicitor was only able to appear for his client in the lower courts (county and magistrates’ courts). Because he could not appear in the higher courts, it was - and in fact still is - usual for a solicitor to hire a barrister if the case was to be heard in a superior court; (2) Barristers are the senior branch of the legal profession, who have the right to fight a case in the higher courts (Crown courts and the High Courts). They belong to the Bar, which is an ancient legal institution and now controlled by the Bar Council. There are also four legal societies, or Inns of Court in London (Gray’s Inn, Lincoln’s Inn, Middle Temple and the Inner Temple). They are law colleges dating from the middle ages. Barristers (=professional advocates) have two main functions: first, to give specialised advice on legal matters and, secondly, to act as advocates in the higher courts. A lot of work in English solicitors’ firms is done by managing clerks, now called ‘legal executives’, who are a third type of lawyers. They now have their own professional body, ‘The Institute of Legal Executives’. Barristers are self-employed individuals practising the law from ‘chambers’, together with other barristers. The barrister may have difficulty in earning a reasonable living or in becoming established in the early years of practise, but if he or she persists and builds up a successful practice, in due course he or she may become a Queen’s Counsel (QC), known within the profession as ‘taking silk’. The judges constitute the judiciary, or the third arm of the constitutional system. Compared with other countries, Britain has a relatively small number of judges. As there is no judicial profession in England, all judges are usually appointed from the ranks of senior barristers. Cultural and institutional terms. Statute law, common law; a magistrate’s court, a magistrate, a Justice of the Peace (JP), a Crown Court, a county court, a High Court, the Old Bailey; the Metropolitan Police, a constable, a Chief Constable, a solicitor, a legal executive, a barrister, a Queen’s Council, taking silk. Questions:
References: Левашова В. А. Современная Британия. М.: Высшая школа, 2007. McDowall D. Britain in Close-Up. Longman Ltd., 2005. Лекция 5. Общая характеристика экономики Соединенного Королевства. A General View of the British Economy. План
Cultural and institutional terms. 1.Economic Problems. Industry. Agriculture. The Financial Sector. Britain was the first country to industrialise. In 1850 it had as many merchant ships as the rest of the world put together, and it led the world in most manufacturing industries and international trade. But this lead did not prove durable. Early in the 20th century it was overtaken by its rivals, the USA and Germany. After two world wars and the rapid loss of its colonial empire, Britain was unable even to maintain its position in Europe. After 1945 Britain tried to find a reasonable balance between government intervention in the economy and a largely free-market economy such as that of the United States, while both Labour and the Conservatives were generally reluctant to break from the consensus based on Keynesian economics. People seemed reluctant to make the painful adjustments that might be necessary to reverse the country’s economic decline. In fact, prosperity increased during the late 1950s and in the 1960s, diverting attention from Britain’s decline compared to its main competitors. But by the mid-1970s both Labour and Conservative economists were thinking of moving away from Keynesian economics (in principle, based upon stimulating demand by injecting large amounts of money into the economy). Eventually, it was the Conservatives who decided to break with the old economic formula in 1979, when they introduced a series of free-market reforms which improved the country’s economic performance, albeit at the cost of much social dislocation. Every country’s first resource is land, and densely-populated Britain has little of it. Only about 2 per cent of the population work on farms. After 1945 governments encouraged them, both by advice and financial inducements, to use their land effectively, and when the UK joined the European Community most farms were well equipped and highly mechanised. Now their efficiency is even embarrassing: environmentalists complain that insecticides and fertilisers used in agriculture have polluted air and water, and too much food is being produced. To relieve the problem, each year much good farmland is sold for building, and farmers are encouraged to put some land to other uses, e.g. facilities for recreation. However, agriculture is only a small part of the whole economy. For about 200 years, manufacturing has been more important, but by the 1970s it was clear that Britain’s old manufacturing industries, like textiles and shipbuilding, and some of its newer industries, like car manufacturing, were less efficient than the same industries in other Western countries. In general, the value of goods produced by a hundred workers had for many years increased much less in Britain than, for example, in West Germany. In some factories, there was simply not enough new equipment; in others, new equipment was not being used efficiently. Strikes were frequent. After 1979, when Mrs Thatcher’s government came to power, some sections of the old industries improved their productivity and became more profitable than before, but some were less successful and some even failed to survive. Besides, new ‘high-tech’ industries developed, and there was a new diversity, with some growth of small-scale enterprise. Two parallel developments have affected Britain more than most other European countries: (1) the increase in the service industries, as distinct from the productive ones; (2) the increase in the proportion of people employed in ‘white collar’ jobs, as distinct from manual jobs: in fact, more than half of all working people (whether employees or self-employed) are now providing services. Although some service work is, of course, manual, less than half of all working people are in jobs traditionally associated with the working class. It was the development of coal production which determined Britain’s economic leadership of the world in the 18th and 19th centuries. Coal mining was once a powerful industry, but since the defeat of the miners’ strike in 1985 economic reform and change have reduced the importance of the coal industry. Coal is expected to decline further. It is generally more polluting and less efficient than natural gas. Oil and gas were discovered in the North Sea at the end of the 1960s. They turned Britain from a net importer of energy into a net exporter. British policy makers insist that energy should be derived from a balance of different sources. Easily the most controversial of these is nuclear energy. Britain established the world’s first large-scale nuclear plant in 1956. Nuclear energy became a highly emotive subject, particularly after disasters, such as Chernobyl. Besides, its real commercial cost (by the 1990s) was twice as high as for coal-fired power station. Unless a much safer and more efficient system is designed, nuclear power probably has little future. In the early 1990s Britain also started to take renewable energy sources much more seriously than before. There has been a long tradition in Britain of directing the economy through the financial institutions which together are known as ‘the City’: the Bank of England, the retail and wholesale banks, insurance companies (most notably Lloyds) and the Stock Exchange of the City have for a long time played an important role in Britain’s economy. Traditionally, the Bank of England, which serves as Britain’s central bank, has three main roles: (1) to maintain the stability and value of the currency, the pound sterling; (2) to maintain the stability of the financial system; (3) to ensure the effectiveness of the financial services sector. There are two main kinds of bank: (1) ‘retail banks’ for personal and small business accounts, also known as ‘the high street banks’; (2) ‘wholesale banks’ which handle large deposits at higher interest rates, many of these are known as ‘merchant banks’. Lloyds is essentially a market, not a company, where different syndicates compete with each other and other insurance companies for business. The British practice of guiding the economy through the City’s financial institutions gives rise to major problems. Those who invest in the City may be concerned with making maximum profit in the minimum amount of time, which inevitably conflicts with the national economic interest. Most industrialised countries enjoy a significantly higher level of industrial investment than Britain where banks, insurance companies, pension funds and building societies frequently prefer to invest in other areas. When Labour returned to power, it gave the Bank of England statutory power to set interest rates, independently of government, abandoning a key lever for short-term considerations, in favour of allowing the Bank to set interest rates purely as part of long-term economic strategy. Labour also took steps to ensure that the Bank’s decisions were more open and more accountable to the House of Commons. 2.Economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s. In 1979 many of the old industries were owned by the state. Their managing boards were told by the new government to aim at profit, and to prepare for being sold off to the private sector. Many steel plants were eventually closed, but in a few years those which survived no longer needed subsidies. Coal production was now concentrated in the most efficient pits. No industry has probably suffered so great a change for the worse as shipbuilding, in which Britain led the world for 200 years or so. But many other industries became more competitive in the 1980s. In general, from 1979 to 1997 the Conservatives put their new ideas into practice. Income tax was reduced from 33 per cent to 24 per cent. The government also increased Value Added Tax (VAT) on goods and services. It gave every encouragement to a free-market economy. Measured purely in financial terms, the results were excellent: by 1987 the FT-SE (pronounced ‘footsie’ but standing for Financial Times—Stock Exchange) index of share values was five times higher than it had been in 1983. But the belief that it would force industry to become ‘fit and lean’ led only partly to greater efficiency, as has been said, it also led to the collapse of much of Britain’s manufacturing industry. Thatcher’s belief that ‘monetarism’ alone could produce the revolution she sought proved ill-founded. The resulting surge in unemployment dramatically increased public expenditure. By 1985 it was clear that monetarism was not a panacea for Britain’s economic problems, and it was quietly abandoned. But its damage had been considerable. By 1983, as a result of the new policy and for the first time in more than 200 years, Britain imported more manufactured goods than it exported. By 1990 Britain was in the deepest recession since 1930, and it proved longer and deeper than the recession that hit other members of the European Union. The Conservative ‘heartlands’ were particularly hard hit. The recession affected the property market, leading to a collapse of prices and wide-spread disillusionment with the Conservative party. The Conservatives’ greatest transformation was the privatisation of government-owned enterprises. They reduced the size of the state-owned sector by over two-thirds. The greatest benefits of privatisation were that it forced prices down and forced standards of service up to the benefit of customers and shareholders. After the departure of Thatcher, the Conservatives under John Major quietly returned to a form of Keynesian economics. There were some bright spots, too. ‘High-tech’ industries have developed in three main areas, west of London along the M4 motorway or ‘Golden Corridor’, the lowlands between Edinburgh and Dundee, nicknamed ‘Silicon Glen’, and the area between London and Cambridge. The Cambridge Science Park is the flagship of high-tech Britain. Britain publishes 100,000 new books yearly, and boasts the largest export publishing industry in the world. The majority of profitable retailers in Europe are British, too. 3.The workforce. The trade unions. There are currently approx. 35 million people of working age in Britain. Compared with a couple of decades ago, there has been a massive change in employment patterns. There has been an increase in the proportion of people employed in ‘white collar’ jobs, as distinct from manual jobs. In fact, more than half of all working people (whether employees or self-employed) are now providing services. There has been some growth in the number of those who work for schools and hospitals, social services, the police and prisons, and in public administration, while the biggest growth has been in the finance, banking and insurance sector, along with ‘other services’, including the law, advertising, catering and entertainment. Another recent change has been the growth of self-employment. This development was encouraged by the government through training courses, tax incentives and an ‘enterprise allowance scheme’. In 1970 only about 20 per cent of the workforce was female compared with 46 per cent of the workforce in 1995. Other developments indicate job loss, job insecurity and workplace stress. Those in work tend to work longer hours than before, but with falling productivity, which is bad for health, standards of work, and family life. One of the reasons is that Britain has one of the least regulated labour markets of any industrialised country. There is a growing gap between the earnings of the rich and poor. The most important lobby organisation for owners and managers is the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which seeks to support industrial growth and planning, and to create a climate conducive to efficiency and profitability. The trade unions: from 1945 until 1979 the trade union movement was a central actor in the British economy. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) was established in 1868 as a coordinating body. The TUC’s concern that the workers’ interests be represented in Parliament led to the establishment of the Labour Party in 1900, and the unions dominated Labour until the 1990s. In particular, union power grew after 1945, with the number of members increasing, but with fewer and more powerful unions as a result of amalgamation. During the 1960s and 1970s the unions were so powerful that no government could operate without consulting them: ‘beer and sandwich lunches at Number Ten’ were a familiar feature of political life. The Conservative Party introduced new union laws in the 1980s and 1990s in order to restrict and regulate the power of unions and to shift the balance of power within each union, hoping that ordinary members of unions would moderate the behaviour of their leaders. Union power was further weakened by a serious fall in membership. Since the early 1990s British unions have tried to learn from their less adversarial European counterparts, changing their attitude to the European Community from hostility to enthusiasm. Union relations with Labour have also changed. While still relying on union funding, Labour has gradually reduced union voting power at its annual Conference. 4.Major trends in the economy. Britain is much better off in terms of economic efficiency now than it was in the 1970s and 1980s. But some trends which made it “the sick man of Europe” are still there and give cause for concern. Reasons for poor economic performance were: the stress of two world wars and the loss of empire; unlike other European powers, Britain failed to rebuild its industries in 1945. But the most complex reasons are probably cultural. Despite the major economic changes of the Industrial Revolution, the old gentry class of Britain did not oppose the rising middle class but made skilful adjustments to allow them to share power. In Britain’s private education system, a culture of respect for the professions but contempt for industry continued long after the Second World War. Britain failed to give technical and scientific subjects as much importance as its competitors, as a result Britain has one of the least trained workforces in the industrial world. Britain also fails to invest in research, which is most clearly seen in the area of Research and Development (R and D), most of which is directed towards immediate and practical problems in Britain. British companies spend less on R and D than many of their competitors in Europe and North America. Another worrying factor is the absence of ‘team spirit’: little effort is made to interest the workforce in a company’s well-being, joint consultations between management and workers are still rare, few companies offer incentive schemes for increased productivity. With its youthful energy, Labour set itself the target of curing these ills and is generally believed to be doing well. Cultural and institutional terms. Keynesian economics, trade unions, the TUC, the CBI, lobbying, R and D, incentive scheme. Questions:
References: Левашова В. А. Современная Британия. М.: Высшая школа, 2007. McDowall D. Britain in Close-Up. Longman Ltd., 2005. Лекция 6. Социальный сектор. Тенденции социального развития. The Social Profile: Major Trends. План
Cultural and institutional terms. 1.Social problems. Britain’s population has been changing in age and compositions since the second world war. Fluctuations in fertility have serious implications for the health services and education, as well as employment. The post-war ‘baby boom’ was followed by a relative decline in births leading to changes in the balance between the age groups. Now Britain’s population is one of the oldest in Europe and getting older. Other important problems include: persistence of class distinctions, growing inequality in terms of income, unemployment, immigration (integration of ethnic minorities), loss of role models by the young (especially boys from working class backgrounds) who may feel confused and uncertain as a result. 2.The Health Service. The NHS was set up in 1948 to provide free medical treatment to anyone who needs it. The system rests on a network of GPs (General Practitioners, or family doctors). Besides, there exist large numbers of hospitals and community health services. Over 80 per cent of the costs of the NHS are funded out of the income tax system, the balance is paid for out of the National Insurance contributions and from the standard prescription charges for some kinds of services. The cost of maintaining the NHS has always been very high. Some recent trends, such as the growth of the proportion of older people in the population and new treatments and drugs which tend to be expensive, have further exacerbated the problems of the health service. 3.Social benefits. The British ‘welfare state’ provides a wide range of benefits to various groups of people with special needs or problems. The state earnings-related pension scheme provides protection for the elderly against destitution. There exist unemployment benefits, child benefits, etc. The local authorities provide institutional accommodation to the elderly while at the same time supporting services designed to encourage them to live at home, e.g. the home delivery of hot meals (‘meals on wheels’), domestic help, laundry services and adaptations in the home like fixing handrails, etc. It is a fundamental principle of the system to encourage the elderly and the disabled to live in the community, as far as possible. 4.The family. The nuclear family is still considered the ideal arrangement, even by the young, but in fact it has been in decline for the last few decades: only 40 per cent of the population live in this way. The most important trends in the area of family life: an increasing proportion of people living together (cohabiting) before marriage or instead of being formally married; a drop in the overall number of marriages; a high divorce rate; a high number of single-parent families; an increase in the number of ‘non-marital’ babies (born outside marriage). Cultural and institutional terms. The welfare state; a social benefit; a child (unemployment) benefit; the NHS; a GP; the National Insurance; ‘meals on wheels’; non-marital babies. Questions:
References: Левашова В. А. Современная Британия. М.: Высшая школа, 2007. McDowall D. Britain in Close-Up. Longman Ltd., 2005. Лекция 7. Отношение к европейской интеграции. The problem of European integration. План.
1.The main stages in the process of European integration. The Treaty of Rome (1957) is generally seen as the starting point in the process of European integration. It was initially a kind of European Common Market which gradually transformed itself into a wider and more closely integrated European Community and, in 1992, officially became the European Union. Britain joined the Community in 1973, and there existed a possibility that it might leave it, since there was no consensus among the politicians as to the wisdom of British membership. 2.The attitude of the most important parties and social groups to European integration. The debates ‘on Europe’ in the countries political life. Britain did not share the enthusiasm of the founding members of the community for an economic and political network that would take Europe to integration. It was feared that membership compromised Britain’s sovereignty and left too many powers to Brussels. The TUC and the Labour Party at first viewed the Community with some apprehension. Gradually, however, they re-assessed the pros and cons and overcame their scepticism. In fact, in the 1990s, it was the Conservative party that found it difficult to come to terms with the increasing pace of European integration, and their highly publicised “split over Europe” is sometimes seen as one of the factors in their electoral defeat of 1997. In 1992, when John Major agreed to the Treaty of Maastricht, he opted out of the Social Chapter (safeguarding minimal employment conditions throughout the Union) and the planned single currency. The Labour government immediately signed the Social Chapter, but made Britain’s membership of the single currency contingent on a referendum. 3.Britain and the single European currency. Nothing in the mid-1990s was politically so divisive as the question of whether Britain should enter the European Monetary Union (EMU). The Conservatives were deeply split on the issue, and Labour managed to maintain its unity only by pledging to join EMU ‘when the time was right’. After Britain’s ‘exit’ from the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) in 1992, it wanted longer to prepare the economy for monetary integration. Nevertheless, Labour took measures to prepare for it. Probably the first step was to surrender the power to set interest rates to the Bank of England. The advantages of entering EMU included lower interest rates, greater economic stability and possibly higher productivity. The dangers of staying out included the prospect that the financial markets would come to view sterling as weaker than the Euro. Yet there is also a strong case against entry. The loss of control over interest rates (which is an important instrument of fiscal policy) may mean, to some extent, a loss of sovereignty. Besides, Britain is unlike other EU members in the high proportion of mortgage holders (home owners with housing loans) who are very susceptible to interest rates. The limitation on government borrowing also seriously limits government’s options. Cultural and institutional terms. The Treaty of Rome (1957); the Treaty of Maastricht (1992); the Social Chapter; the European Community; the European Union; the single currency. Questions:
References: McDowall D. Britain in Close-Up. Longman Ltd., 2005. Лекция 8. Система образования. |
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