Constituency Size and the Growth of Public Expenditures: The Case of the United Kingdom

2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-142
Author(s):  
George S. Ford ◽  
Mark Thornton ◽  
Marc Ulrich
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Public Economics ◽  
Public Expenditures ◽  
Vast Array ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Core Issue ◽  
Constituency Size ◽  
Empirical Investigations

Abstract The growth of government has long been a core issue of public economics with a vast array of hypotheses offered and empirical investigations conducted. One key element of this quest, with respect to democratic governments, has been the size of the legislature which is seen increasing, decreasing, or neutral with respect to the growth of government. We argue that the inconclusive empirical results are the result of a misspecification and that instead of legislature size, it is constituency size that matters and that the larger the constituency size, the more government grows because of poorer representation. We test this hypothesis using the case of the United Kingdom over the 20th century and find that constituency size is positively related to the growth of government.

The International Law Standard in the Statutes of Australia and the United Kingdom

1979 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 628-646 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Crawford
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Robert Wilson ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
International Role

In a series of articles in this Journal, Professor Robert Wilson drew attention to the incorporation of references to international law in United States statutes, a technique designed to allow recourse to international law by the courts in interpreting and implementing those statutes, and, consequently, to help ensure conformity between international and U.S. law. The purpose of this article is to survey the references, direct and indirect, to international law in the 20th-century statutes of two Commonwealth countries in order to see to what extent similar techniques have been adopted. The choice of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Australia as the subjects of this survey is no doubt somewhat arbitrary (although passing reference will be made to the legislation of Canada and New Zealand). But the United Kingdom, a semi-unitary state whose involvement in international relations has been substantial throughout the century, and the Commonwealth of Australia, a federal polity with substantial legislative power over foreign affairs and defense -whose international role has changed markedly since 1901, do provide useful examples of states with constitutional and legislative continuity since 1901, and (as will be seen) considerable legislative involvement in this field.

Angels and Devils: Moral Landscapes of Childhood

1996 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 581-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gill Valentine
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Young People ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Contested Meanings

What it means to be a child varies over space and time. Historically, the dominant Western construction of childhood has oscillated between representing children as the bearers of original sin—devils—or as innocent—angels, in the United Kingdom in the 19th and for much of the 20th century it was this latter imagining of childhood that took hold. But the murder of toddler Jamie Bulger by two 10-year-old boys in 1993 has been pivotal in reengaging a demonised conceptualisation of what it means to be a child. The author begins by considering some of the contested meanings of childhood and then goes on to explore the contemporary ‘othering’ of children and some of the spatial restrictions being imposed on young people by adults in an attempt to (re)draw boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them’.

The pre-history of health psychology in the United Kingdom: From natural science and psychoanalysis to social science, social cognition and beyond

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 472-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Murray
Keyword(s):  
Health Psychology ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Social Cognition ◽  
Social Science ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Uk

Health psychology formally came of age in the United Kingdom in the 1980s, but it was prefigured by much discussion about challenges to the dominance of biomedicine in healthcare and debates. This articles focuses on what could be termed the pre-history of health psychology in the UK. This was the period in the earlier 20th century when psychological approaches were dominated by psychoanalysis which was followed by behaviourism and then cognitivism. Review of this pre-history provides the backdrop for the rise of health psychology in the UK and also reveals the tensions between the different theoretical perspectives.

scholarly journals It’s the EU immigrants stupid! UKIP’s core-issue and populist rhetoric on the road to Brexit

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 248-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ceri Hughes
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Newspaper Coverage ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Road ◽  
News Releases ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Core Issue ◽  
On The Road ◽  
Prevalent Form

The 2016 vote to leave the European Union was one of the biggest developments in recent United Kingdom political history. Only one political party was wholly united for Brexit – the United Kingdom Independence Party. This research finds that in the years leading up to Brexit, the United Kingdom Independence Party presented itself as a rigid core-issue complete-populist party. Content analysis shows how pervasive the European Union was in much of the party output and in the contemporaneous newspaper coverage of the party. The party also utilizes complete-populist rhetoric, with ‘othering’ populism as the most prevalent form. The consistent concentration on the European Union collocated with populist messaging, in both news releases and select newspaper coverage, may have helped afford the United Kingdom Independence Party issue-eliteness in the referendum campaign. But this same work may have also ultimately contributed to make them irrelevant by 2017, and possibly moribund by 2018.

Confusion Now Hath Made His Masterpiece: Brexit and the Bard

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (S1) ◽  
pp. 25-28
Author(s):  
Matthias Goldmann
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
Free Exercise ◽  
National Pride ◽  
Friday Morning ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Splendid Isolation

400 years after Shakespeare's death, a tragedy of Shakespearian dimensions has unfolded in the United Kingdom: Brexit. One Friday morning in June 2016, staring in disbelief at the incoming news, we were asking ourselves: “Are you sure/That we are awake? It seems to me/That yet we sleep, we dream.” A look at Shakespeare's work in the context of Brexit is no lofty, purpose-free exercise. For one, Shakespeare's work is instructive for explaining British national pride, its indulgence in splendid isolation that obviously provided one of the intellectual undercurrents of the Leave campaign (though the causes for voting Leave are, of course, a lot more multifaceted). The English nation formed itself in the Elizabethan age against the background of a century of quarrels with France in what was then the recent past. The pride that the British took from their victories is nowhere better reflected than in Henry V's Crispin's day speech. A small number of English soldiers heroically resisted the French forces. “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.” Shakespeare infused the play with a feeling of togetherness based on England's victorious fight against continental powers. It was this idea of nationhood that carried England and the whole of the United Kingdom successfully through the turmoil of the 20th century. Small wonder that some demanded compelling (economic) reasons to continue bonding with the continent.

scholarly journals Government-Voluntary Sector Compacts Reconsidered

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Rathgeb Smith
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Voluntary Sector ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The World ◽  
The Welfare State

AbstractAs the articles in this special issue demonstrate, the emergence of government-voluntary sector compacts around the world is intimately linked to comprehensive transformations the welfare state is undergoing in many countries. The fact that the first compact was developed in England is significant; since the early 20th century, the development of the welfare state in many societies has been significantly influenced by the ideas coming from policymakers, scholars and advocates in the United Kingdom.

The Framing of Choirs and Their Conductors

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Durrant
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Choral Music ◽  
Choral Conducting ◽  
Choral Singing ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Choral Societies

The British choral tradition is rooted in its ancient cathedrals and chapels, where the office of Evensong is sung, often daily. In addition, choral societies are to be found in most localities where singers come together and perform some of the major works in the western canon. Although singing itself occurs in a variety of forms this chapter looks at conductor-led choral singing. It does not give a fulsome picture of UK choral conducting and singing. Nonetheless, through a brief history starting from the John Curwen’s tonic sol-fa ideas for singing and culminating in a 20th century choral music renaissance; through an analysis of the English choral tradition; through a consideration of revivals of UK singing such as “Sing Up”; and through questionnaires and interviews with conductors and singers, the chapter explores some of the personal, cultural and sociological, educational, and musical issues and interests that can be found in the United Kingdom now.

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