The ideas that shaped post-war Britain (A Fontana Press original)

SELDON, ANTHONY

Marquand, David

Fontana Press

This analysis of Britain's current social condition attempts to explain how and why Britain has reached this stage. The author brings together historical, philosophical, political and economic arguments to support his theories and traces the roots of some recent problems back to the 19th century. The text examines particularly the dissolution of Keynsian social democracy, the governing philosophy of the post-war period and the poverty of neo-liberal and neo-socialist policies offered by the New Right and the New Left, which cannot encompass the complexities of an adjustment policy the country is currently facing. A former Labour Member of Parliament from 1977 to 1978, David Marquand is the joint editor of the "Political Quarterly" journal and a recipient of the George Orwell Memorial Prize.

The Unprincipled Society

Business & Money

Marketing & Sales

HarperCollins, Publishers

Ramsay MacDonald

J. Cape

The unprincipled society: New demands and old politics

Economics

In this account of the dilemmas and ambiguities of the 20th-century British Left, David Marquand explores the origins and implications of the central paradox of British democracy. In the 19th century the vote was championed by radicals and opposed by conservatives, yet, since universal adult suffrage came to Britain, Conservative or Conservative-dominated governments have held power for more than 70% of the time. The author was a Labour MP for 11 years before taking part in the creation of the SDP. His previous books include "Ramsay MacDonald" and "The Unprincipled Society".

The Progressive Dilemma

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

Heinemann

John P. Mackintosh: On Parliament and Social Democracy

Addison-Wesley Longman Ltd

This book considers the government of the United Kingdom and relationships with Ireland in the light of the sense of identity of each of the nations and regions. It examines the extent to which this receives satisfactory institutional expression and whether these institutions need reform, both internally in each case and in the totality of relationships and interrelationships; and analyzes the impact of 1992 and moves to European integration. The various authors examine two matters that have run in parallel, but have rarely been discussed together in any depth. They are, firstly, the arguments that the constituent nations of the United Kingdom need more appropriate, democratic national institutions; and, secondly, the arguments for reform of the UK constitution, including the notion of a federal devolution that provides for national parliaments in Wales and Scotland, and for power-sharing government in Northern Ireland in some new relation with the Republic.

National Identities: The Constitution of the United Kingdom

CROUCH, COLIN

Blackwell Pub.

Has Europe's extraordinary postwar recovery limped to an end? It would seem so. The United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Italy, and former Soviet Bloc countries have experienced ethnic or religious disturbances, sometimes violent. Greece, Ireland, and Spain are menaced by financial crises. And the euro is in trouble. In The End of the West, David Marquand, a former member of the British Parliament, argues that Europe's problems stem from outdated perceptions of global power, and calls for a drastic change in European governance to halt the continent's slide into irrelevance. Taking a searching look at the continent's governing institutions, history, and current challenges, Marquand offers a disturbing diagnosis of Europe's ills to point the way toward a better future.
 Exploring the baffling contrast between postwar success and current failures, Marquand examines the rebirth of ethnic communities from Catalonia to Flanders, the rise of xenophobic populism, the democratic deficit that stymies EU governance, and the thorny questions of where Europe's borders end and what it means to be European. Marquand contends that as China, India, and other nations rise, Europe must abandon ancient notions of an enlightened West and a backward East. He calls for Europe's leaders and citizens to confront the painful issues of ethnicity, integration, and economic cohesion, and to build a democratic and federal structure.
 A wake-up call to those who cling to ideas of a triumphalist Europe, The End of the West shows that the continent must draw on all its reserves of intellectual and political creativity to thrive in an increasingly turbulent world, where the very language of "East" and "West" has been emptied of meaning.

The End of the West: The Once and Future Europe (The Public Square)

History

Europe

Princeton University Press

Has Europe's extraordinary postwar recovery limped to an end? It would seem so. The United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Italy, and former Soviet Bloc countries have experienced ethnic or religious disturbances, sometimes violent. Greece, Ireland, and Spain are menaced by financial crises. And the euro is in trouble. In The End of the West, David Marquand, a former member of the British Parliament, argues that Europe's problems stem from outdated perceptions of global power, and calls for a drastic change in European governance to halt the continent's slide into irrelevance. Taking a searching look at the continent's governing institutions, history, and current challenges, Marquand offers a disturbing diagnosis of Europe's ills to point the way toward a better future.
 Exploring the baffling contrast between postwar success and current failures, Marquand examines the rebirth of ethnic communities from Catalonia to Flanders, the rise of xenophobic populism, the democratic deficit that stymies EU governance, and the thorny questions of where Europe's borders end and what it means to be European. Marquand contends that as China, India, and other nations rise, Europe must abandon ancient notions of an enlightened West and a backward East. He calls for Europe's leaders and citizens to confront the painful issues of ethnicity, integration, and economic cohesion, and to build a democratic and federal structure.
 A wake-up call to those who cling to ideas of a triumphalist Europe, The End of the West shows that the continent must draw on all its reserves of intellectual and political creativity to thrive in an increasingly turbulent world, where the very language of "East" and "West" has been emptied of meaning. In a new preface, Marquand analyzes the current Eurozone crisis--arguing that it was inevitable due to the absurdity of combining monetary union with fiscal disunion--and raises some of the questions Europe will have to face in its recovery.

Reference

'One of Britain's leading political thinkers'  John Gray  The follies and failures of bankers, regulators and governments have loomed large in public debate over the past five years. In this passionate and hard-hitting book, David Marquand digs deeper. At the heart of our predicament, he argues, lies a profound crisis of our moral economy, our public culture and our democracy. The empire of money has grown remorselessly for three decades,  narrowing the space for a common life without which democratic institutions are empty shells. Increasingly, worth is equated with wealth and greed is thought to be good. Inequality has soared as a narrow elite of the super-rich has raced away from the rest of us. Humiliation at the bottom of the pile is matched by callous indifference at the top. The better angels of our nature survive, but they have taken a heavy hit. We are sleepwalking towards a seedy barbarism.  The long struggle to master markets and curb property rights in the public interest - a struggle waged by leaders of all the main political families of our history, whether conservative, liberal and socialist or social-democratic - has gone into reverse. The language of the public interest is rarely heard; the notion that the common good should take precedence over individual appetites has virtually disappeared from political discussion. Public trust, essential for properly functioning markets as well as for democratic rule, has plummeted. The fetish of 'free choice' has mutated into an unsought communal fate.  Marquand's message is plain: we cannot go on as we are. He sets out the framework of a new public philosophy, based on the values of stewardship, democratic dialogue, civic engagement and freedom from humiliation, to spring the trap into which we have stumbled.  DAVID MARQUAND is one of the leading left of centre political philosophers in the UK. He is a former Labour Member of Parliament and Chief Advisor in the Secretariat General of the European Commission, and from 1996 to 2002 was Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford. His many books include Ramsay MacDonald, The Unprincipled Society: New Demands and Old Politics, The Progressive Dilemma: From Lloyd George to Blair, Decline of the Public: The Hollowing-out of Citizenship, Britain Since 1918: The Strange Career of British Democracy and The End of the West: The Once and Future Europe. He is a Fellow of both the British Academy and the Learned Society of Wales. In 2001 he received the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize for a lifetime contribution to Political Studies.  PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS BOOKS  'David Marquand is a unique, perhaps irreplaceable, figure in British life. He has in his time played many parts: leader writer, Labour MP, Eurocrat, Oxford don. But his starring role has been as public intellectual, a civilising rhetorician of a type more common in France or the US ... Our outstanding centre-left theorist'  Kenneth O. Morgan, Independent  'An engaging and stylish political thinker, who moves adventurously across academic frontiers and straddles the worlds of scholarship and politics'  Prospect  'An extremely pithy and witty writer'  Dominic Sandbrook, Telegraph

Mammon's Kingdom: An Essay On Britain Now

Penguin Uk

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