Representative Democracy: Public Policy and Midwestern Legislatures in the Late Nineteenth Century

This book outlines the association between Scotland and England since the Union of the Crowns in 1603. Individual chapters range in focus from the late nineteenth century to the foreseeable future. They cover topics from the monarchy, constitution, parliamentary procedure, public policy and finance to the attitudes, experiences and identities of the ordinary Scots and English — both as majorities and as minorities in each other's country. They also include the natural inequality of the union in consequence of population sizes; trends in culture and identity; the changing role of the state; cross-border sympathy; and the pressure of adversarial politics. Gini's ‘Coefficient of Inequality’ is used to calculate the concentration of income or wealth within countries. Culture and identity are not merely conceptually and empirically distinct, they seem to be trending in opposite directions: cultures are merging, identities diverging. An overview of the chapters included in this book is shown.

Download Full-text

Party Constraints on Leaders in Pursuit of Change

Studies in American Political Development ◽

10.1017/s0898588x00000705 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 151-176

Author(s):

Patricia Sykes

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Public Policy ◽

United Kingdom ◽

Significant Influence ◽

Party System ◽

Late Nineteenth Century ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Late Nineteenth ◽

The U.S

Since the late nineteenth century, dissatisfaction with the U.S. party system has led political scientists to look across the Atlantic for ”responsible parties,” cohesive teams with leaders who articulate and promote distinctive programs for public policy. Yet U.S. political scientists have been misguided when they have searched for a different, superior set of parties in the United Kingdom. British parties have never possessed the internal cohesion characteristic of the responsible-parties model. Nor have they, for that matter, empowered their leaders to pursue change. When parties prove significant, influence operates in the British environment much as it does in the U.S. context—as a commodity bargained for among groups within the two major parties.

Download Full-text

Elite and Liberal Democracy: A New Equilibrium?

Topoi ◽

10.1007/s11245-021-09762-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Antonio Campati

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Liberal Democracy ◽

Vertical Dimension ◽

Representative Democracy ◽

Late Nineteenth Century ◽

Representative Government ◽

The Third ◽

Late Nineteenth ◽

Democratic Principles ◽

The Relationship

AbstractIn contemporary democracies, the balance between the minority principle and democratic principles, one of the components underlying the relationship between liberalism and democracy, is being broken. This paper offers a reflection on this theme – crucial for the future of representative government – in relation to the importance of the theory of elites. The article is divided into three parts: the first part briefly traces the main phases of the theory of elites from the late nineteenth century to the present, indicating, for each, the salient features; the second part focuses on the elements characterizing the alliance between the minority principle and democratic principles, which forms the basis of liberal representative democracy, with specific consideration paid to the geometric architecture of democracy, comprising a horizontal dimension and a vertical dimension; finally, the third part argues the need for strengthening the logic of distance to consolidate the connection between the theory of elites and liberal representative democracy.

Download Full-text