Democracy in Britain
Subtitle: a reader
By: edited by Jack Lively and Adam Lively.
Contributors: Lively, Jack.; Lively, Adam.
Publisher: Blackwell Publishers
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Format: Hardback
Number of pages: 344
Subjects: Democracy -- Great Britain.; Representative government and representation -- Great Britain.; Great Britain -- Politics and government.
Description: The long development of representative and democratic institutions in Britain - usually slow but sometimes violent - has been accompanied by continuous debate on the nature and value of such institutions.
Debate has centred, in particular, on constitutional and political issues: the relationship between Crown and Parliament, and Cabinet and the House of Commons; the role of political parties; the extent of voting rights and the structure of the electoral system. Around these political arguments has developed an equally crucial wider debate, addressing such issues as: the impact of democracy on individual rights and liberty; the political role of the ordinary citizen; the economic consequences of democracy; and the nature of a democratic culture.
Democracy in Britain is an indispensable guide to those arguments and issues. As much a literary anthology as a political reader, it includes a rich and varied selection of key writings, from the debates around Britain's representative and democratic institutions, from constitutional commentary and diaries to poetry and fiction; from Locke and Burke to Dryden and Auden; and from Magna Carta to Spycatcher.
*   This volume provides the best resource available for the understanding and study of Britain's system of representative democracy. *   The editors have made efforts throughout to make the material selected accessible to non-specialists. [3   Rather than following one side of the debate on British democracy, this presents the reader with both sides of the argument.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [306]-311) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction.; label: 1.
title: Does the British Constitution Exist?; label: 2.
title: Crown and Parliament, Government and People.; label: 3.
title: Representation of Groups.; label: 4.
title: Agreeing to be Governed.; label: 5.
title: Parties and Elections.; label: 6.
title: Democracy and Freedom.; label: 7.
title: Nations and Empire.; label: 8.
title: Democracy and the Economy.; label: 9.
title: A Democratic Culture?; title: Biographical Notes.; title: Index.