Book Notes
| Published date | 01 December 1989 |
| Date | 01 December 1989 |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9248.1989.tb00297.x |
| Subject Matter | Book Notes |
Political Studies
(1 989), XXXVII, 676-7 13
Book
Notes
British
Politics
Robert
W.
D.
Boyce,
British Capitalism at the Crossroads
1919-1932:
A
Study in Politics,
Economics and International Relations
(Cambridge, Cambridge
University
Press,
1988),
xv
+
504
pp.,
E40.00
ISBN
0
521 32535
8.
This book traces the story of policy-making at the highest levels of the British state in the critical
decade of the 1920s. It details the readjustments made by different sections of the political, industrial
and financial establishments to the declining international position of the domestic economy, and to
the confused and unstable situation of post-war Europe. Throughout the 1920s. advocates of
economic internationalism battled for the ear of government with those who saw a greater
role
for
economic protectionism, state aid to industry and a cheaper pound. The author roots that
disagreement
in
the contrasting interests
of
different sections of the British capitalist class, and argues
persuasively -as others before him havedone- that City interestsgained the upper hand in the 1920s,
at the cost of lower exports, inadequate industrial restructuring and higher unemployment.
Robert Boyce’s study will be an important point
of
reference for those interested in the causes of
economic decline,
in
the rise of corporatism in British political life, in the character of early Labour
governments, and in the workings of international economic affairs. The study is solidly based on
extensive
use
of primary sources and constitutes an easily accessible and reliable guide to key interwar
economic debates whose long-term consequences still remain with
us.
DAVID COATES
University of Lee&
Rodney
Brazier,
Constitutional Practice
(Oxford, Oxford University Press,
1988),
xix
+
The jacket blurb
of
this book claims that the author addresses ‘such important and topical questions
as:
Is
Mrs Thatcher the most powerful Prime Minister to date?. . . Are we actually governed by secret
Cabinet Committees? .
.
.’.
Disappointingly, but probably wisely, Rodney Brazier
-
a constitutional
lawyer by trade
-
steers
clear of such shark-infested waters, sticking fairly closely to the more friendly
shoreline of orthodox constitutional analysis, albeit with due awareness of the political context
of
his
subject. The result is a scholarly book, written in quite a lively style but with a slightly old-fashioned
feel to
it
-
though this reviewer, at any rate, thought none the worse
of
it for that. Of the
1
I
chapters,
the
ones
on ‘Government Formation from a Hung Parliament’ and on ‘The Constitutional Position
of the Judiciary’ (a subject area on which the author has written extensively and authoritatively
elsewhere) are of particular interest.
If
published in paperback the book might well find
a
very
respectable niche in a cross-disciplinary student market.
285
pp.,
f30.00
ISBN
0
19 825596
9.
GAVIN DREWRY
Royal
Holloway
and Bedford
New
College
Michael
Dockrill,
British Defence since 1945
(Oxford, Basil
Blackwell,
1989),
vii
+
Michael Dockrill surveys British defence policy since 1945 in a workmanlike way ideal for the
undergraduate audience at which
it
is aimed.
He
takes the reader through the key policy and military
0032-321 7/89/04/0676-38/$3.00
0
1989
Political Studies
171
pp.,
E17.50
ISBN
0
631 16054 X, E6.95
pbk
ISBN
0
631 16055
8.
Book
Notes
677
events since
1945:
the creation ofNATO, Korea, Suez, the Sandys’ White Paper of
1957,
withdrawal
from East of Suez, the development of the nuclear deterrent, and the Falklands and many other
stages in the development of policy.
Only in the concluding chapter is the reader asked to get to grips with the key questions of post-war
defence policy: whether the reduction in UK forces and the virtual abandonment of
a
global military
role was inevitable
or
the consequence of successive changes in circumstances, and the more potent
question as
to
whether there is evidence of a coherent defence policy over the post-war years, or
whether in fact successive governments simply reacted to the economic and political pressures
of
the
day.
These are important questions for the student
to
consider and Dockrill’s conclusion that
‘.
. .
Britain’s reduction in status from a great power to a regional power
. .
.
was the result of new
international circumstances and had little
to
do with the size
of
her military establishment
.
.
.’
begs
many important questions.
MICHAEL MATES
House
of
Commons
Alf
Dubs,
Lobbying:
An
Insider’s Guide
to
the Parliamentary Process
(London,
Pluto
Books on political lobbying are increasingly in vogue. To date, most have come from the pens
of
political consultants and most have been written primarily for the benefit of the businessman. This
book is different in several respects. For a start, it is the first ‘insider’s’ account; the author, Alf Dubs,
being a former Labour MP and front-bench spokesman. Dubs is chiefly concerned
to
pass on his
pearls
of
wisdom to trade unions and (by inference, left-wing) pressure groups. In practice, a much
wider audience will benefit from the comprehensive and constructive advice he proffers on matters
parliamentary, not least the citizen with a grievance to air, for whom this constitutes by far the most
useful
of
the various ‘handbooks’ now on offer. This is largely due to Dubs’s simple and
straightforward style. He cuts through the jargon and never overlooks the basics. The book is
strongest when he writes from personal experience: it is laced with instructive anecdotal material,
easy-to-follow illustrations and the examples of ‘how not to’ are welcome and just as helpful as the
hints on ‘how to’.
This is not, however, a book for the serious lobbyist: there is no discussion on the work of
government departments and Dubs has made little effort to familiarize himself in any detail with the
structure and activities of the Conservative Party. Rather it is a guide to working with MPs and
provides an honest account of what they can help
to
accomplish
-
both inside and outside
Westminster
-
on your behalf. As such, the contents lend credence to the quotes on the dust-jacket
from MPs of both parties who, in welcoming the book, acknowledge that it is likely to make their
lives and those
of
their colleagues that much busier. As
a
lively summary of what goes on at
Westminster, it is also likely to make the lives of students of parliament that much more interesting.
CLIFF GRANTHAM
Westminster Briefing
Press,
1988),
ix
+
228 pp., ISBN
0
7453 0137
1.
Cosmo
Graham
and Tony Prosser (eds),
Waiving the Rules: The Constitution under
Thatcherism
(Milton Keynes, Open University Press,
1988),
x
+
212 pp.,
ISBN
0
335
15580 4, pbk ISBN
0
335 15579
0.
This is
a
collection
of
essays mainly by political scientists and lawyers about some
of
the
constitutional consequences of Mrs Thatcher’s time in office. There are contributions on financial
regulation, privatization, the changes in central-local relationships, the health service, trade unions,
law and order. There is also a more historical chapter on economic decline and the extent to which it
created conditions tending to establish some kind of popular endorsement of Mrs Thatcher’s
programme.
678
Book Notes
Two problems are clearly presented by this type of book. One is that such work tends to date very
quickly indeed. Curiously the first sentence
of
the Introduction demonstrates this: ‘It is now
unarguable that the ascent to power of Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister in 1979 represented a
major change of direction in British political life’. This must have been written at least
18
months ago.
Would it be asserted
so
confidently now? And anyway,
if
‘political life’ is taken to refer to the
practices of politics, as opposed to substantive policies on such matters as eye tests, the selling-off of
water,
or
incentives to use unleaded petrol, is it not the case that we now seem to
be
back to old-
fashioned two-party politics and the constitution as delineated by Herbert Morrison? The other
problem is that we really do not know what
our
constitution is
or
contains. Consequently, virtually
all statements about what is happening to
it
are essentially contestable.
So
what the authors are really
discussing in these essays are what they regard as some of the political effects of Thatcherism.
NEVIL JOHNSON
Nufield College, Oxford
John Gyford, Steve Leach
and
Chris Game,
The
Changing Politics
of
Local
Government
The Widdicombe Committee on the Conduct of Local Authority Business was appointed by
ministers in the expectation that its report would pillory local government but, in the event, the
committee’s members found the general prospect fair. The report provides much sensible advice for
local authorities and the four volumes of research are a goldmine of information for students of local
government. This book, written by three of the committee’s researchers, is a most useful summary of
the Widdicombe research which also sets it in the wider context of contemporary studies of the
politics of local authorities.
The authors illustrate well the variety of British local government, reminding
us
again of the wealth
of local political systems and cultures that exist in
our
supposedly homogeneous country. This book
is essentially concerned to explore the political activity that goes on within local authorities and, as
such, it is a most valuable antidote to the pedlars ofmanagement in local government, some
of
whom
seem to marginalize political activity
or
try to sanitize it. There are some blemishes. The book
sometimes becomes a recital of information rather than always presenting a cogent analysis of it.
Proof-reading and referencing are sometimes regrettably careless
-
was the book prepared in a hurry?
However, in general
it
is easy to read and well organized.
(London,
Unwin
Hyman,
1989),
xii
+
370
pp.,
€10.95
pbk
ISBN
0
04
445299
3.
HOWARD ELCOCK
Newcasrle-upon- Tyne Polytechnic
Richard
Holt,
Sport and the British;
A
Modern History
(Oxford, Oxford University
Press,
The study of sport has now reached a certain maturity, at least in respect of its historical
development. Richard Holt has produced an excellent account of the history of British sport as a
whole, a feat which would not have been possible ten years ago. The overwhelming majority of more
particular researches which he quotes were published in the
1980s.
The themes of his long chapters are those which have become established as the major areas of
debate in this field: the nature and decline
of
traditional sport, the elite-amateur ethos of the public
schools, the diversity
of
urban, working-class sport, the importance of sport
to
imperialist and
nationalist projects and the persistence, as stimuli and threats, of violence and commercialism in
sport. He insists, in the manner of Edward Thompson and Raymond Williams, on the autonomy of
working-class culture, which leads him into a gentle, though persistent, chiding of ‘hegemonic’
theorists of sport. His own major theme, though expressed with the historian’s usual modesty,
concerns modern sport as an adaption
of
ancient cultural roots, particularly those concerned with
masculinity and masculine solidarity.
1989),
xii
+
396
pp.,
E19.50
ISBN
0
19 822586
5.
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