Pocket Politics – serie

This book is the only one of its kind, providing a clear and exhaustive analysis of the different approaches to the future of Britain’s second chamber. The House of Lords has long been the subject of proposals for reform – some successful, others not – and calls for the existing membership to be replaced by elected members have been a staple of political debate. The debate has been characterised by heat rather than light, proponents and opponents of change often talking past one another. This work gives shape to the debate, drawing out the role of the House of Lords, previous attempts at reform, and the different approaches to the future of the House. It develops the argument for each and analyses the current state of the debate about the future of the upper house in Britain’s political system.

This book considers the reasons for Donald Trump’s surprise victory in the 2016 presidential election. It charts the prolonged campaign and the realigning processes that took place, analysing the ideas that defined the Trump platform, the electoral shifts in states regarded as solid ‘firewalls’ for the Democratic Party and the responses of Republican Party elites.Although he is subject to contradictory pressures, the book places Trump firmly within the right-wing populist tradition. However, it argues that the sentiments that drove his campaign were not only a response to economic fears, high levels of inequality and racial resentment – they were also shaped by the structural character of American governance, which fuels hostility towards Washington DC and the ‘political class’. The book concludes by assessing the extent to which Trump’s victory and parallel developments in Europe mark a reconfiguration of neoliberalism.

The book explores the Russian leadership’s strategic agenda and illuminates the range of problems it faces in implementing it. Given these difficulties and the Russian leadership’s concerns about an unstable and increasingly competitive world, the Russian official and expert community often use the term 'mobilisation' to describe the measures that Moscow is increasingly resorting to in order to implement its agenda. The book explores what this means, and concludes that many of the terms used in the Western debate about Russia both misdiagnose the nature of the challenge and misrepresent the situation in Russia. At a time when many of the books about Russia are focused specifically on the war in Ukraine and the deterioration in relations between the Euro-Atlantic community and Russia, or are biographies of Vladimir Putin, it offers a new and unique lens through which to understand how Russia works and how Russian domestic and foreign politics are intimately linked.

Is lobbying, particularly by ‘lobbyists for hire’, resulting in a distortion of the democratic process? Does business, with its highly sophisticated and well-resourced lobbying operations, have an undue influence on decisions by politicians? The book assess the impact of lobbying on the UK political system, the extent to which it shapes the political decision-making process and the extent to which this influence is beneficial or malign. The book outlines various lobbying groups and their methods of persuasion, plus the weakness of political action groups and social media when faced with the might of the lobbying industry. The book is ideal reading for anyone seeking an introduction to lobbying.

An analysis that takes the complexity of British defence policy apart to view its anatomy and show how policy is made in this area. British defence policy is in a phase of great transition as the country confronts its Brexit future and also as world politics becomes more threatening and potentially unstable. This book uses the most up to date information to examine in a concise and readable way all the elements that go to make up Britain’s defence policy as it goes through the most significant transition since the end of the Cold War in 1991.By analysing the costs of defence, the equipment issues, the personnel, the technical and intelligence back-up for it, and the strategies to employ military forces, this book offers a brief but rich guide to understanding an area of policy that many people find baffling.

Referendums are ubiquitous; from Brexit in the United Kingdom in 2016 to same-sex marriage in Australia in 2017 Why are referendums held at all? And when they are held, why are they won or lost? Moreover, what are the consequences of having referendums? Do they strengthen or weaken democracy? Are they mainly won or mainly lost or do they strengthen populist leaders? Or, are referendums a shield against demagogues and overeager politicians? Government by Referendum analyses why politicians sometime submit issues to the people Based on an historical analysis, but with an emphasis on the last two decades, the book shows that referendums often have been lost by powerful politicians. While sometimes used by autocrats, mechanisms of direct democracy have increasingly performed the function of democratic constitutional safeguards in developed democracies.

China’s rise from the poverty, isolation and stagnation of the 1970s to the world’s second largest economy is a transformative event perhaps unequalled in human history. The world today pays more attention to China, looks to it with more admiration than perhaps any other time. Yet, this rise also hides many deep-rooted problems and competing ideologies. Economically, socially and politically China has transformed itself but there is much that remains uncertain. This book aims to give an insight into China by exploring everyday life for her citizens, in their own voices. Providing both an overview of the political situation and context in China with ethnographic insights, The Politics of Everyday China aims to give both the new student of China and those who have encountered the subject before an insight that goes beyond the usual cliché and surface description.

Our unwritten Constitution is past its sell-by date. If the Union is to be preserved we must recognise the UK as a federal country along the lines of Canada and Australia, and soon. Such is the argument made by Brice Dickson in this lucid and timely intervention to the debate on Britain’s political future. A federal structure, he reasons, could maximise the benefits of cooperation between semi-autonomous regions while at the same time paying due respect to the nationalisms that exist within constituent parts of the country. The devolution of powers to the home nations, coupled with the trials and tribulations associated with Brexit and reform of the House of Lords, point to grave risks in the UK’s current constitutional position. Dickson proposes a Constitutional Reform Act which would federalise the nation, provide a modern Bill of Rights, formalise allocation of public expenditure to devolved regions, and contain a clause setting out the 'purpose' of the UK.The UK has an enviable record in rising to a variety of challenges down the centuries, but the fallout from our recent history makes greater certainty and predictability imperative. This urgent analysis by one of our leading constitutional experts points to how that might best be achieved.