Political Studies Association of the 50TH ANNIVERSARY Welcome

In 1951, its first complete year, the PSA had 100 members. Today we have 800 full members and 300 graduate members and numbers continue to rise. The first annual conference was held at the LSE in 1950 and 50 members attended. The 50th Anniversary Conference was also held at the LSE but this time 720 members attended.

By all conventional indicators, the Association has arrived at Patrick Dunleavy, Paul Kelly and Mick Moran. Finally, we introduced its 50th Birthday in good condition. Indeed, at the other side a major addition to the services for members; the new, expanded of an era in which the Social Science Research Council became interactive PSA web site. Members can find information about all the Economic and Social Research Council on ministerial Association’s events; update their personal information on the whim, we should be grateful we survived. Association’s member database; access electronic versions of PSA News and Political Studies. The PSA exists to represent and promote the study of politics throughout higher education. To celebrate our healthy survival It is my pleasant duty to thank the Awards jury, made up of in pursuing these aims, the PSA’s Executive Committee mounted past Presidents of the Association and past editors of Political ‘Project 2000’. It has four objectives. Studies, who decided on their list with a startling lack of discord – a tribute to the winners. Also, I thank members of the Project 2000 Committee – Jack Arthurs, John Benyon, Charlie Jeffery and ■ To raise the profile and standing of the PSA Jon Tonge – for their hard work.

■ To promote the study of politics With great pleasure, I welcome everyone to this Awards Dinner. It may well be true that ‘experience of being disastrously wrong is ■ To increase membership of the Association salutary; no political scientist should be denied it, and not many are’ (with apologies to J. K. Galbraith). Tonight, however, we abandon ■ To improve the income and services of the Association our normal, morbid interest in the inevitability of failure, don the gown of self-congratulation, and recognise the successes of our colleagues, whether academics, practitioners and commentators. This Awards Dinner seeks to raise the profile of the profession, If there are ‘very few facts, at least ascertainable facts, in politics’ not just the PSA. So, we honour not only members of the (), then one of the few facts is the quality and enduring profession but also politicians and journalists who have made contribution of the PSA’s Laski award winners. an outstanding contribution to the study and practice of politics over the past fifty years. It is ever the way of these events that everyone thanks everyone for everything. As chair of the PSA, I can suffer from appalling I must mention, if only briefly, the other events which are part tunnel vision. World events come and go but I ponder whether of ‘Project 2000’. We have already held a successful annual we are doing what members want. As the late, great Duke conference at the LSE, which attracted distinguished scholars Ellington would have said, ‘I love you madly’ for coming and from around the world. To great controversy, we launched the making this event a success. Association’s mug, which now adorns the nooks and crannies known as departmental kitchens throughout the land. There are two new publications, the brochure which you hold in your hand Professor R.A.W. Rhodes and a ‘best of’ collection of articles in Political Studies, edited by Chair, Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom A message from the Prime Minister

I am delighted to congratulate the Political Studies Association on its 50th anniversary. The PSA is recognised throughout the world as being a leader in its field, and its members can take pride in its achievements.

The Government values highly the contribution of the academic community to serving the wider needs of society. British political scientists have contributed much in the last few years to key areas of policy such as citizenship education, and in carrying out research which feeds into evidence-based policy making.

As the PSA enters its second half-century, many challenges remain. Devolution and constitutional reform, and policy challenges as diverse as social exclusion, sustainable development and the new economy, can all benefit from research by political scientists. The same is true in international politics – the future of the EU, globalisation, and new, collective challenges in securing peace and stability in Europe and beyond.

The new global economy requires an increasingly skilled and educated society. Political studies at UK universities have a vitally important role in making sure we ally traditional critical skills in argument, evaluation and analysis with the power of new technologies.

Building on its record over the last fifty years, these are challenges I am confident the PSA and its members throughout the UK’s universities can meet.

Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary 1 A Guide to the Political Studies Association

The Political Studies Association exists to develop and promote the study of politics.

s it moves into its second fifty ■ The British Journal of Politics and years, the PSA is the leading International Relations is a new journal A association in its field in the aimed at influencing international debates in UK, with an international membership . It encourages contributions including academics in political science from scholars in all parts of the discipline and current affairs, theorists and and from all parts of the globe, and is fast practitioners, policy-makers, researchers attaining a reputation for innovative and students in higher education. interdisciplinary research.

The PSA has a well-deserved reputation Other publications for serious scholarship. It is regularly consulted by higher education policy- The PSA also provides information about makers and funding councils for its politics and expertise through: advice and expertise, and its research is used by the media, government, ■ PSA News, a regular newsletter business and the voluntary sector in containing short articles and commentaries, the UK and beyond. news from departments, information on research grants and projects, plus details Journals of conferences, specialist groups and other activities The PSA provides a forum for scholarship through three quality journals, published ■ PSA Directory, produced jointly with in association with Blackwell Publishers: the British International Studies Association, an invaluable reference work listing all ■ Political Studies is one of the most cited political scientists in the UK and Ireland by journals in the field and attracts contributions university and department. An online version from academics of international standing. of the directory is also available to members Through articles, reviews, debates and at the PSA website: www.psa.ac.uk research notes, it reflects the vigour and importance of the discipline of politics and ■ Media Register of Experts, compiled by contributes significantly to the development the PSA from the latest research information, of political science internationally the register lists experts on politics and political science in the UK ■ Politics is a key teaching resource, identifying the topics that students really need ■ Studying Politics, a highly successful to know about. It has established a reputation booklet promoting the study of politics in for lively writing, and contains debates and higher education, distributed to all UK sixth- analyses by both established and new forms and colleges. members of the political science community

2 Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary Activities Awards Contents The PSA offers a unique arena for the The PSA promotes the study of politics exchange of ideas and expertise through its: through a number of annual awards and prizes including: A Guide to the Political ■ Annual Conference, attracting leading politicians, civil servants and academics, ■ The W.J.M. MacKenzie Prize for the Best Studies Association and comprising more than 100 specialist Book published in political science ...... 2 discussion panels across the whole range of the discipline: from government and ■ Four prizes for Best Dissertation in any 50 Years of the Political institutions, through to policy studies, field of political studies international relations, gender studies Studies Association and political theory ■ The Bernard Crick Prize for Teaching in ...... 4 any field of political studies ■ Network of more than 40 Specialist Groups, covering all major fields of research ■ The Isaiah Berlin Prize for Lifetime Political Studies in political science. Each provides a forum Contribution to Political Studies. Association Hall of Fame in which individuals with specialised research ...... 12 and teaching interests can develop their own Graduate Network seminars and conferences to supplement the Annual Conference The PSA is committed to supporting the next Political Studies generation of political scientists through its Association 50th Anniversary ■ Heads of Department Conferences, Graduate Network, which exists to promote Award Winners held to assist UK politics and political science links between postgraduate students in ...... departments with planning and training Politics throughout the UK. The Graduate 16 for research and teaching. Network holds its own Annual Conference, regional group events and short conferences Teaching and PSA online for members. All postgraduates are entitled Learning Politics to join the PSA at a reduced rate, including www.psa.ac.uk free Graduate Network membership...... 24 ‘Best Political Science Site in the World’ Lycos Membership The Disciplines of Politics ...... 26 The PSA’s award-winning website features a PSA membership is open to teachers and range of services exclusive to PSA members, researchers in the field of political science, including access to electronic versions of all both in the UK and overseas, to research Political Studies PSA journals, Annual Conference papers, students, university departments and to and User Relevance and the PSA Directory, as well as offering everyone interested in the study and practice ...... many resources in political science to the of politics. There are separate categories of 31 wider community. membership for people who are retired and for corporate institutions.

Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary 3 50 Years of the Political Studies Association Professor Charlie Jeffery

The Founding Conference

he PSA, oddly, owes its creation to UNESCO. In a flush of post-war Dear Sir T enthusiasm about the possibilities of social science, UNESCO had initiated November 1949 discussions on establishing international associations of scholars in economics, Proposed formation of a Universities Political Studies Association sociology, law and politics. The discussions on politics, in which the LSE professors It has been proposed that a Political Studies Association should be formed for University G.D.H. Cole and William Robson were teachers in the United Kingdom. involved, led to the establishment of the International Political Science Association Teachers in many other branches of academic studies already have an Association. In recent in September 1949. This was to be constituted on the basis of national years a considerable development has taken place in political studies in the Universities. bodies. The PSA, whose founding The time would now appear opportune for the formation of an Association covering conference was held on 23-24 March teachers in this field. The formation in September of an International Political Science 1950 in , was the British response. Association supported in the first instance by a grant from UNESCO adds point to the need for the establishment of an Association in this country. The committee that produced the international association had a clear and The precise scope of the Association would require full consideration. At the moment it is optimistic vision of what political studies were suggested that membership should be open to all University teachers in Political Theory and for: ‘Students of politics combine fact-finding Institutions, Government and Public Administration, Constitutional and Administrative with value judgement and, from objective Law, International Relations, International Law and similar subjects. study, derive practical conclusions for the improved working of political institutions’. The fledgling PSA was less sure of itself. It is not suggested that the Association should immediately embark on any ambitious The letter drafted by Oxford’s Norman functions or projects. An annual meeting for the discussion of papers and the exchange of Chester and the LSE’s Charles Wilson in ideas ought to be possible. The arranging of other meetings, the publication of some kind of November 1949 to canvas support for the research and information bulletin, perhaps even of a journal, would also come up for founding of the PSA was a masterpiece of consideration. limited ambition. There was no statement of rationale save for the fact that other If this letter meets with a favourable reception it is proposed to convene a first meeting disciplines already had an association in the early next year at which, in addition to the discussion of one or two papers, an Association UK and that the international association could be formally constituted. We invite the cooperation of all University teachers in had been formed. Beyond that, the ‘precise political studies. scope of the Association would require full consideration’, and it was not suggested ‘that the Association should immediately embark Yours sincerely on any ambitious functions or projects’. Ernest Barker, D.W. Brogan, G.D.H. Cole, D.N. Chester, Hector The modesty of the founders’ ambition was Hetherington, H.J. Laski, Lindsay of Birker, W.J.M. Mackenzie, perhaps understandable. Political studies M. Oakeshott, W.A. Robson, K.B. Smellie, E.C.S. Wade, K.C. Wheare, was a fledgling discipline in UK universities C.H. Wilson with only Oxford, the LSE, and Manchester having Chairs in subjects at least

4 Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary “Mixture of ‘Egelianism and ooliganism‘”

broadly definable as politics. Otherwise The Committee provided an organisational lectureships in political studies were focus which established the PSA Conference scattered around departments of economics, as an annual event with, as Frank Bealey Chronology philosophy and history. There was also an recalls, a series of memorable programmes underlying directional dispute to negotiate. including Ernest Barker’s 1954 description Fifty Years of UK Political This broadly ranged an Oxford group of Nazism, delivered in an unreconstructed History –– and the Story of the struggling to legitimise a new subject in an Lancashire accent, as a ‘mixture of Political Studies Association ancient university (‘always looking under the ‘egelianism and ‘ooliganism’ and Edward bed for historians’, as the PSA veteran Frank Heath’s speech in 1955 on ‘The Art of Bealey once put it) against a London group Whipping’. lent more autonomy and self-confidence by the LSE’s Fabian origins. 1950 Labour holds on to power at The PSA’s Founding Committee the General Election, but with a narrow For these reasons the founders trod (1950) overall majority of 5. The Political Studies cautiously, rejecting the international Association of the United Kingdom is association’s (and the LSE’s) notion of a Norman Chester (Chairman) formed, to popular acclaim. Its first political science for the more neutral Reg Bassett (Secretary) conference is held in March. political studies – and then even watering A.H. Hanson that down further with ‘and allied subjects’! J.A. Mack Tellingly, Jack Hayward described these early W.J.M. Mackenzie 1951 returns as moves to institutionalise political studies as R.S. Milne Prime Minister as the Conservatives win the ‘dawn of a self-deprecating discipline’. K.B. Smellie the General Election with an overall H. Street The inaugural conference also proceeded in David Thomson majority of 17. Labour polls 227,067 difficult circumstances, with the country’s Sir Charles Webster more votes than the Conservatives. highest profile politics professor and the conference’s keynote speaker, , falling terminally ill on the eve of the 1952 Elizabeth II becomes Queen conference. The PSA’s response as David Political Studies: on 6 February. Butler recalls was both gallant and, as befits a the PSA’s First Journal fledgling organisation lacking secure reserves, financially cautious: ‘My main memory is of The Committee also moved quickly beyond 1953 Political Studies, the PSA’s Willie Robson getting us to vote a lifetime the caution of the PSA’s founding letter house journal, makes its first appearance. membership to the dying Harold Laski’. to establish a PSA journal, Political Studies, which appeared for the first time in February Butler, now the doyen of British electoral 1953. In uncanny anticipation of the later studies, then a graduate student working with practice of soliciting competitive tenders 1954 Crichel Down case occurs, Norman Chester, has good cause to recall this for the publication of Political Studies, the revisited in every British politics/civil having been ‘asked’ by Chester to organise the Committee flirted first with Blackwells, service textbook ever since. inaugural conference – even to the extent of then with Kegan Paul before finally striking running all of its financial transactions through an agreement with Oxford University Press. his personal, student bank account! Butler The deal was for three numbers of 96 pages evidently did a good job, with around 50 each per year to sell for 27s. 6d. or 25s. for lecturers from twelve universities attending, members (the main part of an overall passing a constitution and electing a Committee membership package of 30s.!). (with Chester as the inaugural PSA Chairman).

Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary 5 50 Years of the Political Studies Association

The founding Editor was Wilfrid Harrison founder member Douglas Verney does recall education institutions with 14,000 student from Oxford who took on the job – in his a 1951 PSA Conference paper by the Belgian places on politics courses by the year 2000. own words – ‘in a fit of absence of mind’ John Goormaghtigh on the new European The subject matter of political studies in without prior experience and, indeed, without Coal and Steel Community. This provoked the the UK has also broadened immensely. much experience at all in the PSA to be able comment from William Robson that ‘he was Early, rather anxious, debates about what to draw on. He nonetheless did an admirable expressing the sentiment of all present that the intellectual ‘core’ of political studies (or job, laying the foundations from which there was little interest in this development’!) science) was, or should be, dissipated rapidly Political Studies has developed into one of into a pragmatic and open-minded the world’s leading politics journals. A review Growth of a Discipline exploration of the boundaries of political commissioned by the International Political analysis which has drawn heavily on US Science Association in 1961 both captured The PSA was launched just at the point when political science, but has largely avoided Harrison’s own contribution but also some of politics expanded rapidly in British universities. its periodic lapses into theoretical rigidity. the enduring qualities of Political Studies By the mid-1950s most universities had An early emphasis was, naturally enough, which still apply today: ‘Aided by his friends established at least a couple of lectureships on British politics. Richard Rose’s recollection and colleagues Harrison has succeeded in in political studies, with these typically then that there were simply ‘very few books to making it informative in many ways. It does building the core of new departments of read’ when he began studying British politics not cling to any special school of thought but politics. The expansion of the university sector in 1953 was quickly remedied (now one of is rather eclectic in what it prints. Political in the 1960s and the growing presence of the eminences grises of the profession, a theory and foreign governmental systems are courses on politics in the emerging glance at the list of over 400 books and other usual subjects, but others are not neglected. polytechnic sector added further impetus. publications on his CV might suggest Rose It is British in tone and sometimes in outlook, Despite a rather bleaker period of stagnation had taken it entirely on himself to remedy but fortunately signs of insularity are rare’. in the later 1970s and 1980s, the trajectory the deficit!). (On the matter of insularity, though, PSA of growth has resumed with over 90 higher While teaching and research were typically organised around the classic triumvirate of political theory, government and international GREETINGS TO THE PSA FROM IRELAND relations, new specialisms emerged through growing contacts with political scientists Dear Colleagues elsewhere and as new theories and issues became prominent. Over time , area studies, gender studies, public t is with great pleasure that the Political Studies Association of Ireland greets its sister policy research, environmentalism, European association the Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom on this the occasion of integration, development studies, political I its 50th Anniversary. While the PSAI is a much younger organisation than the PSA it has economy and public opinion research have taken inspiration from your success. The promotion of the development of political studies and the all become established fields of enquiry. advancement of learning in the art and science of government and in other branches of political sciences has been an aim long associated with the PSA and is one that is shared by the PSAI. Perhaps the clearest indicator of the growth In these days of voter decline in the participation of politics it is more important than ever that and differentiation of UK political studies is national political studies associations foster the advancement of the study of politics and its related in the number of politics journals available areas. It is through such education that national associations can make a difference. Throughout to the discipline. When Political Studies was its 50-year history the PSA has made such a difference and long may it continue to do so. launched there were just four other British politics journals: International Affairs, Public Administration, Political Quarterly and Gary Murphy, Parliamentary Affairs. By the PSA’s 25th Political Studies Association of Ireland anniversary in 1975, Norman Chester counted ‘half a dozen more’. By the year 2000 even

6 Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary “Canal trouble, Mr Eisenhower? Don’t hesitate to ask my advice…”

MICHAEL CUMMINGS, , 27.4.59

individual publishers like Blackwells, Anniversary in 2000, the number had reached Routledge and Oxford University Press – the 1,100, spread across 95 institutions in the UK Chronology current incarnations of the three publishers and ranging from graduate students to retired PSA had negotiated with in 1951-52 – were members. The spirit of inclusiveness was not producing over 20 politics journals each. always a generous one, with polytechnic Churchill resigns as Prime lecturers only admitted in 1969, and no 1955 Growth of the PSA provision for postgraduate membership until Minister. The Conservatives under the late 1970s. Nor did the growth of the Anthony Eden win a majority of 54 over The challenge for the PSA has been to keep Association mesh well with the rather clubbish Labour and win almost half the total vote pace with the growth of the politics discipline, atmosphere fostered by the founding fathers, (49.7%). Attlee retires as Labour leader its changing nature and growing diversity. which provoked a ‘coup’ in 1975 led by Brian and is succeeded by Hugh Gaitskell. It has certainly done so in terms of Barry, now Professor at Columbia University in membership. One year after its foundation New York, and supported by Jack Hayward conference in 1950 it had 100 members, and Rod Rhodes, the latter becoming Secretary 1956 Suez crisis leads to futile Anglo- by 1960 179 and by 1975 600. On its 50th of the Association, and was in the saddle again French military action against Colonel Nasser of Egypt (who had nationalised the Suez Canal Company). Eden explains GREETINGS TO THE PSA FROM THE NETHERLANDS Britain’s position in a speech to the Commons on 4 November, declaring Dear Colleagues ‘We are not at war with Egypt. We are in an armed conflict’. incere congratulations with your Association’s fiftieth anniversary. The Dutch Political Science Association was created in 1950 as ‘Nederlandse Kring voor Wetenschap der Eden resigns as PM, replaced Politiek’ (Dutch Circle for Political Science). Indeed, it was a small circle and only part 1957 S by Macmillan. of its early members were political science teachers. Its creation had been encouraged by the UNESCO and the International Political Science Association, set up in 1949 to bring together political scientists from various countries and to sharpen the outlines of political European Economic Community science, separate from such disciplines as law, history, and sociology. Jan Barents, since 1948 1958 is born – without Britain. the holder of the chair of political science at the University of Amsterdam, was a member of the IPSA Executive Committee between 1949 and 1955 and in line with the IPSA program he initiated the foundation of the Dutch Association. 1959 The Conservatives have never had it so good as they sweep to their We appreciate the work done by your association, and are well aware of your performance as third consecutive election victory with a national association, in particular the number of specialist groups. Congratulations. an overall majority of 100. The Liberals We send you our best wishes for the years to come and hope to meet at international also achieve a hat-trick. They again win a conferences to discuss our common interests in the various branches of the political sciences. mere 6 seats, although their vote more than doubles from the nadir of 722,405 votes Sincerely yours, four years earlier. Robert H Lieshout, President and Bob Reinalda, Secretary DPSA (Nederlandse Kring voor Wetenschap der Politiek)

Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary 7 50 Years of the Political Studies Association

25 years later as PSA Chair. In 1975, though, GREETINGS TO THE PSA FROM Rhodes’ role was ‘to shut up and be the Secretary and do as I was told’! Later Mike Goldsmith and John Benyon set about the 50 Years Old: Time to Start Crossing the Channel! transformation of PSA finances.

olleagues who turn 50 are sometimes already starting to feel old and grey and to feel like they are going to be slowly but surely pushed aside by those arrogant The PSA Executive Committee C youngsters… The (methodologically dubious) comparison stops here. A 50-year old (January 1975) political science association is not necessarily an ageing one! It all depends on the extent to A.H. Birch (Chairman) which it manages to inject enough fresh blood from time to time. Geoffrey Marshall Graeme Moodie Our own association is both quite old and very young. It is old because its roots can be traced Fred Ridley back to the Belgian national political association which existed between 1951 and 1979. It is Peter Self young because it is only in 1996 that a mix of experienced academics and enthusiastic junior Peter Woodward (Secretary) scholars created a brand new association on the French-speaking side, now bringing together the vast majority of active French-speaking Belgian political scientists. Naturally, the PSA Annual Conference has changed much since the inaugural event in What can we hope for the future development of the PSA? If I were to speak for myself, 1950. Long-time PSA members like Frank I would make two parallel wishes. Bealey, Nevil Johnson and Peter Pulzer all recall a cosy, club-like atmosphere in the early On the one hand, I wish that the PSA will open itself more to the rest of Europe (or to Europe years, with everyone attending each tout court… I often feel like I am 2000 miles away from the continent when I stay in the presentation (with around 7-8 in total) and UK…). It is surely a fact that political science in the UK – however excellent and established knowing each other. As the Association has it may be – has this tendency to remain too “insular”. grown, so the conference has grown and become more complex. A latter day David Butler’s personal bank account would On the other hand, I wish that our colleagues from “the Isles” will open up more to other certainly not be up to the task of running European languages (that includes French), and hence gain access to a whole “Latin” today’s conference. At the 50th Anniversary political science literature which is not a mere reproduction of the predominant English- Conference held at the LSE in April 2000, language writings. There is clearly a lot to be gained in a “cross-fertilisation” of different there were some 154 panels, with at least 12 research traditions, and national political associations should be able to help support running in parallel at any one time, with well initiatives in this respect. over 400 papers presented, and over 700 political scientists in attendance. This being said, I wish all the best to the PSA for the next 50 years, and hope to make it Key themes at the 2000 Conference included to the centennial ceremony in 2050 in London, by then the capital city of one of the 84 constitutional reform, the role of new media European federated region-states, the Republic of Southern … in elections, the British intelligence services, the performance of the Labour government, Prof. Benóit Rihoux, European Economic and Monetary Union, Secretary (1997-2000) of the Association Belge de Science Politique – Communauté Russia ‘Ten Years After’, multiculturalism, française de Belgique (ABSP-CF). and round tables led respectively by and Jack Hayward on Culture and Democracy and the British Study of Politics

8 Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary “After 12 years I think the people will be very wise to say: Thankyou, carry on.”

VICKY, EVENING STANDARD, 14.8.63

in the Twentieth Century. Keynote speakers of an extremely successful publishing included Kenneth Clarke, MP and Robert Dahl partnership with Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Chronology and , both leading world figures The PSA now produces three journals with in the discipline from the USA. Blackwells: Political Studies, now in its 48th volume, with a circulation of 2,400, and one Gaitskell promises to ‘fight, fight Much of the diversity of the contemporary of the leading politics journals worldwide; 1960 conference can be attributed to the forty Politics, focused on surveys and debates for and fight again’ for the Labour Party or so Specialist Groups the PSA runs to use in teaching politics at university; and against unilateralists and the Left. support research and debate on particular the new British Journal of Politics and areas of study. These range from Alternative International Relations, now in its second Electoral Systems to Women in Politics, from volume, which is quickly establishing itself as 1962 Macmillan ‘loses’ one third of the Politics of Health to Diplomacy, from a showcase for the work of the UK political his cabinet in the ‘Night of the Long American Politics to Greek Political Thought. studies community. Knives’. The diversity of conference also reflects the new ideas brought forward by a strong PSA The PSA journals are supplemented by a Graduate Network which has developed into range of publications and services designed Macmillan resigns. Alec the major recruiting ground for the next to support the profession, including an award- 1963 Douglas-Hume later ‘emerges’ as leader. generation of politics academics. winning website at http://www.psa.ac.uk, PSA News, and regular conferences of Heads becomes new leader of the The wider portfolio of PSA activities has also of Department of Politics designed to discuss Labour Party following the death of expanded radically, supported by the proceeds developments in higher education policy. Gaitskell. Britain applies unsuccessfully to join the European Economic Community. GREETINGS TO THE PSA FROM SWITZERLAND 1964 Labour wins an overall majority Dear Colleagues of 5 (as in 1950) at the General Election.

n the behalf of the Swiss Political Science Association (Association Suisse de Science Politique/Schweizerische Vereinigung for Politische Wissenschaft) I send fraternal 1965 Douglas-Hume resigns and O greetings to the Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom commemorating is elected under new rules as its foundation 50 years ago. Conservative leader.

The integration of European nation states, the emergence of a European political system and the persistence of national political systems pose challenges to political actors but also to political 1966 Labour wins a substantial scientists. As scientists we have to analyse political structures and processes. For that we need majority of 96 under its manifesto slogan infrastructure. Out national professional associations, like the Political Studies Association, are ‘Time for Decision’. of particular importance in that regard. In future we will need much closer co-operation between the European national scientific communities. I am sure the Political Studies Association will cope successfully and efficiently with that challenge, as it has done with the challenge of creating 1967 Jeremy Thorpe replaces Jo a British scientific community in political science in the past 50 years. Grimond as Liberal leader.

Prof. Dr Klaus Armingeon Chair Swiss Political Science Association

Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary 9 50 Years of the Political Studies Association

The PSA also maintains a dialogue with GREETINGS TO THE PSA FROM THE ECPR ‘sister’ associations worldwide and has a strong presence at meetings of the American Dear Colleagues Political Science Association, the European Consortium for Political Research and its once parental body, the International Political he PSA is fifty years old. In contrast the European Consortium for Political Science Association. All this is – and needs Research is a mere stripling of barely thirty, so this is a fraternal message of to be – run by a much larger Executive T appreciation and congratulations from the younger generation to its revered and Committee. respected elders. The PSA Executive Committee (2000) The PSA is not among the very oldest political science associations in the world. Prof Rod Rhodes (Chair) The American and Canadian associations predate it by many decades, the Finnish Prof John Benyon (Treasurer) Association was founded in 1935, and the French association was set up a year before the Dr Paul Carmichael (Secretary) PSA, but it stands out for two admirable features. Dr Lynn Bennie Prof Terrell Carver Mr Philip Cowley The PSA is one of the larger and certainly one of the most active and impressively organised Prof David Denver professional associations in political science, not just in Western Europe, but across the globe. Prof Patrick Dunleavy In this sense it is something of a model of what can and should be done, even when resources Dr David Dunn have been drastically reduced, when numbers have fallen, and pressures to reduce activity and Dr Justin Fisher Dr Lucy James enthusiasm are building up all around. Prof Jeremy Jennings Dr Paul Kelly Second, the members of the PSA show an admirable quality. They are international and Dr Charles Lees Dr Jennifer Lees-Marshment outward looking. Various studies have shown that Political Studies, like the British economy, Mr Sean McGough is more open to the world than many other national journals. As IPSA and the ECPR know Dr Eric Shaw from long experience, the British political scientists are more likely to get involved in Prof David Marsh international organisations, and to attend international conferences than most other national Dr Paul Taggart Dr Jonathan Tonge groups in the profession. In this respect, the internationalist record of British political scientists Prof Richard Topf stands in curious contrast to the UK’s reputation as isolated from Europe and as the Dr Ursula Vogel ‘Awkward Partner’ of the EU. Increasingly important is the growing engagement of the PSA and politics The ECPR sends its warmest congratulations to the PSA and wishes it well in its next academics with policy-makers. On the one fifty years. hand the PSA is an established intermediary for feeding advice, ideas and knowledge to agencies involved in teaching quality and Ken Newton research assessment, and in research funding. Executive Director, European Consortium for Political Research On the other, politics research is increasingly addressed to a dialogue with ‘users’, practitioners and opinion-formers in politics,

10 Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary “The Upper Clyde is a special lame duck.”

NICHOLAS GARLAND, DAILY TELEGRAPH

the civil service, the media and the private The current assessment could hardly be and voluntary sectors. Much of this has to more different. The insights and findings of Chronology do with a fuller openness of government to political studies research are now strongly social science research throughout the 1990s, ‘in demand’ by policy-makers and opinion- although the effort that the PSA has made in formers, and the discipline and the PSA are British troops are sent to reshaping understandings of politics research at ease with the diversity and pluralism of 1969 in co-operation with key bodies like the political studies, with few seeing the need . Street fighting also Economic and Social Research Council has to search for the Holy Grail of a general breaks out within the PSA as Polytechnic also been of great importance. disciplinary ‘core’. And the PSA now has the lecturers are admitted to the Association. capacity, based on effective partnerships and The Outlook good financial management, not just simply The voting age is lowered to 18. to continue but to go on developing and On its 25th Anniversary in 1975 – to which diversifying its portfolio of activities. The PSA two editions of Political Studies were is certainly no longer representative of a ‘self- 1970 All change as the Conservatives dedicated – the assessments of the PSA’s deprecating’ discipline, but is rather entering score a surprise election victory with a future prospects given by the Chairman its second fifty years with confidence and majority of 30 seats. Britain again applies Norman Chester and Secretary Peter unusual vigour. to join the EEC. Woodward were surprisingly downbeat. Chester was concerned both about the This piece has drawn from the contributions by: prestige of political studies (‘our professional Norman Chester, Wilfrid Harrison and Peter services are not greatly in demand’) and by Woodward to Political Studies, Vol. 23, Nos. 2-3 1971 Industrial Relations Act the ‘failure of any central core of accepted (1975); Frank Bealey, Jack Hayward and Richard introduced in an attempt to curb Rose to PSA News, Vol. 2, No. 2 (1990); Jack learning or theory to emerge’ in the study of union power. Hayward, ‘British Approaches to Politics’, in Jack politics. Woodward’s concerns, befitting the Hayward, Brian Barry, Archie Brown (eds), The position of Secretary, were more down to British Study of Politics in the Twentieth Century, earth, pointing out ‘the financial difficulties Oxford University Press, 2000; and information 1972 Widespread violence in Northern that a body like the PSA could face simply supplied by Hugh Berrington, David Butler, Ireland leads to the suspension of its continuing with current activities’ in the then George Jones, Nevil Johnson, Geraint Parry, Peter parliament. Direct rule is introduced. prevailing ‘mood of austerity’. Pulzer, Rod Rhodes and Douglas Verney.

GREETINGS TO THE PSA FROM SWEDEN 1973 Britain joins the EEC. Three day week introduced amid fuel crisis. Dear Colleagues Heath Government floats the pound and dashes for growth, attempting to rescue ailing industries. or human beings, the age of 50 is usually described as the meridian altitude of life. For the British Political Studies Association (PSA), however, 50 surely is just a beginning. The Swedish Political Science Association (SWEPSA) – which has still not celebrated F The Conservatives poll 226,000 its 30th anniversary – hereby convey its most sincere congratulations to the PSA. 1974 votes more than Labour, but gain 4 fewer Political science is still a growing subject and the national associations have an important role seats and leave office. Labour achieve an to play, as gardeners in the garden of political science. overall majority of 3 at a second election later that year. Swedish Political Science Association

Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary 11 Political Studies Association Hall of Fame

Although the Political Studies Association has been in existence for a ‘mere’ fifty years, scholarly work in the area of political studies has a much longer life. Here the PSA pays tribute to several deceased influential thinkers and writers within the discipline.

Harold J. Laski (1893-1950) Laski was also a scholar. After his death his for eleven years until his retirement. reputation declined sharply, but since the He came to the Chair comparatively late Harold J. Laski was one of the founders of 1980s and 1990s it has risen steadily. in his professional life: born in 1874, he the PSA. And the fiftieth anniversary Two major biographies were published in was an established scholar and able awards have affectionately been named 1993. His early work was devoted to political administrator, having served prior to his ‘The Laskis’. He is pluralism, to the critique of state sovereignty appointment at Cambridge as Principal of an ideal figure after and to the idea that all authority is by nature King’s College since 1920. Some of his best which to name an federative. His magisterial A Grammar of work was to follow, both during his tenure award since he was Politics (1925) attempted to combine this of the Chair, and in the long and productive interesting, pluralism with a hard headed analysis of the retirement which he enjoyed afterwards. influential and modern state. His Introduction to Politics dangerous. Laski (1931) and The Rise of European Liberalism Barker was the eldest of seven children born knew many major leaders intimately, such (1936) are still excellent introductions to their to a miner turned farm labourer. At his village as Churchill, Nehru and F. D. Roosevelt. subjects and brilliantly written. school he was fortunate to serve as a ‘pace- He was chair of the Labour Party’s National maker’ for the son of a local businessman who Executive Committee during the 1945 Laski’s political writings are interventions in was working for a scholarship and began election. He was a thorn in the side of the conditions now long past. The price of such ascending one of few educational ladders then leadership, but half the Cabinet turned contemporary relevance is often to become available to an Oxford scholarship, fellowship out for his funeral in 1950. Laski wrote no more than an historical document to and lectureship. endlessly and on a wide range of subjects. later readers. But many of his later works He was a successful journalist and public are still worth reading. Anyone interested Barker brought to the discipline of Politics a lecturer, who earned large sums for tours in constitutional reform in modern Britain wealth of learning, a lively and lucid expression, of America. He was a radical, in later life a can benefit from and be cautioned by his and an exemplary even-handedness. His forte quasi-Marxist, and the author of many Reflections on the Constitution (1951). lay in the history of political thought, a overtly political tracts. The American Presidency (1938) remains a specialism which had useful starting point. Many of his essays, grown out of his early As such he sounds like a cross between a such as those collected in The Danger of works on Greek modern academic superstar and a leftist Being a Gentleman (1939), are gems. political thought and activist. If he had been no more than this he The Holmes-Laski letters are fascinating. twenty-one years’ would now be entirely forgotten, and perhaps membership of the justly so. However, he was also a brilliant and Laski was a worthy, if complex, founder. Oxford History dedicated university teacher. Generations of He is also still relevant. As we try to cope Faculty preceding his time at King’s College students at the LSE found him an inspirational with understanding the increasing complexity London. But – inspired by such Victorian teacher, and numerous PhD students a diligent of government both nationally and supra- polymaths as Lord Bryce – Barker straddled the supervisor. Laski was revered by the students nationally his views on the plural nature of ideas/institutions boundary in political studies from the colonies who came to the LSE whilst politics and the necessity of a federal division with considerable ease. His studies of the the British Empire remained intact. Born into of labour in governance remain a starting political systems of the emergent totalitarian a wealthy and cultured Jewish family in point for new thinking. regimes of continental Europe in the inter-war Manchester, Laski rebelled early and made period are particularly illuminating, focused, as his own way. He was unstuffy and in no Paul Hirst they were, by the relevant doctrines. way racist or patronising. No wonder then that there is still a Laski Centre in India, Ernest Barker (1874-1960) Like his Victorian mentors, too, Barker was no committed to promoting his works and his narrow academic political scientist. He cared memory. Laski was also committed to the Ernest Barker was the first occupant of the deeply for the well-being of a wider public, both cause of workers’ education in Britain and Cambridge Chair in Political Science which national and international, and devoted himself tirelessly lectured to working class audiences was founded in 1928 with the aid of the to numerous cultural and educational causes up and down the country. Rockefeller Foundation. He held the chair throughout his career. He was knighted in 1944

12 Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary “I’m a bit worried about those polls.”

NICHOLAS GARLAND, DAILY TELEGRAPH, 1.10.74

for his contribution to the Books Commission of G. D. H. Cole (1889-1959) the Allied Ministers of Education. He admired Chronology the character and achievements of George Douglas Howard Cole, usually England/Britain, perceptions of which informed known by his initials, joins this pantheon his abiding liberalism and his scholarship. because in 1944 he became the first The Liberal revival continues, with the Chichele Professor of party gaining over 6 million votes in Julia Stapleton Social and Political each election. Theory at Oxford, a post he held until Sammy Finer The Sunningdale Agreement introduces retirement in 1957. devolved power sharing to Northern Sammy Finer began and ended his career Yet in other respects in Oxford but his most creative years were his life and work is a Ireland, but collapses after 5 months. spent at the University of Keele (where challenge to today’s academic political he was the first Professor of Political science (a term he always resisted, which is Institutions, from 1951-1966) and in one reason why this association ‘studies’ 1975 Heath quits as Conservative retirement. He published A Primer of Public politics). Instead of a narrow discipline, leader after being outpolled by Thatcher. Administration and his biography of Edwin talking to itself in an obscure language, The Political Studies Association launches Chadwick. He went on to write innovative Cole wanted relevance, engagement, a 25th Anniversary edition of Political books on pressure groups (Anonymous accessibility and breadth. Studies. Rod Rhodes becomes PSA Empire) and The Man on Horseback a wide Secretary. ranging comparative study of political His own work exemplified these characteristics. intervention by the military. His popular A polymath who ignored academic boundary textbook on Comparative Government was lines, he held academic posts in three different based on his Keele undergraduate lectures. disciplines (philosophy, economics, and social 1976 Wilson resigns and is replaced by In the 1970s, Finer turned his attention to and political theory) and could well have held Jim Callaghan as Labour leader. David the British party system and its adversarial posts in at least two others (history and Steel is elected Liberal leader. Lord features. He devoted his retirement to a literature). His output was prodigious, Hailsham complains of ‘elective monumental three volume comparative including over a hundred books and an endless dictatorship’. study of The History of Government from stream of articles and pamphlets. ‘Mr. Cole’s the Earliest Times. This reflected his whole life would appear to be a protest intellectual boldness and grasp of against the doctrine of restriction of output,’ 1977 Labour relies upon a pact with essentials, combining empirical reference declared one reviewer in 1920, when this the Liberals to remain in office as its points with conceptual comprehensiveness. output had scarcely started. He was a one- majority disappears. Finer offered sureness of touch and felicity person research assessment exercise. of phrase. Along with figures such as Harold Laski and R. In a profession where prudent specialisation H. Tawney, Cole was a leading intellectual of 1978-79 Winter of Discontent with tended to dominate, Finer stood out for his the left in Britain during the first half of the large number of strikes. imaginative range of conception and panache twentieth century. He came to prominence in execution. Innovation was couched in a early in the century as the exponent of guild swashbuckiling style, stimulating to read. socialism, a doctrine of industrial and social 1979 The Conservatives sweep to He was Chair of the PSA Executive from 1965- self-government, in opposition to the Webbian power with an overall majority of 43 in a 68. Advocates of the new institutionalism version of state socialism; and he retained an landmark election. have much to learn from a protagonist of the enduring commitment to these ideas. This is becomes the first woman PM. The Labour best of old institutionalism. the link between his first book The World of manifesto ‘The Labour Way is the Better Labour (1913) and his final multi-volume Way’ (it attacked tax cuts, by the way) Jack Hayward History of Socialist Thought (1953-60).

Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary 13 Political Studies Association Hall of Fame

Between these books was a lifetime of instrumental and moral in nature, all reform of the Upper House) were to intellectual (and political) activity on behalf associations were enterprise or moral become unfashionable in the 1950s of the labour movement and its various associations. For him political community and 1960s, but now, once again, are institutions, from a perspective he liked to belonged to the latter category. To highlight mainstream concerns of the academic describe as ‘sensible extremism’, and a this fact he called it civil association, an and public agenda. commitment to politics as an enterprise of association of equals united in terms of their public philosophy – including the academic subscription to common principles of civility. He was also an educationist, helping to practitioners of the discipline. Although Oakeshott’s conception of civil promote Liverpool to full university status and association bears a considerable resemblance being a member of the Calcutta Commission Tony Wright to those of Hobbes and Kant, it is distinctive in on the reform of Indian universities. As a crucial respects and represents a highly original journalist, he became editor of The Saturday Michael Oakeshott (1901-1990) contribution to political philosophy. Westminster for a while, and he contributed to public policy and political debate as an Michael Oakeshott was a Fellow of Oakeshott was one of the finest, though not influential co-author of Britain’s Industrial Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge the most influential, of political philosophers of Future – the famous Yellow Book (1928) – from 1925 to 1951 and Professor of the twentieth century. He developed a distinct and as a stalwart of the Liberal Summer School. Political Science at the London School of style of philosophising and an almost entirely Economics from 1951 until his retirement new language, the hallmark of a truly creative As his exact contemporary, Sir Ernest in 1968. Four major philosophical concerns mind. He challenged the positivist view of Barker, said of him: “He was a professor in run through his writings. He was deeply rationality, the collectivist and individualist politics and a politician among professors. interested in the nature of philosophy, conceptions of human beings, the functional The mixture made his essence, as he, by the which he systematically explored in view of legitimacy, the recurrent confusion fire of his conviction, made it a living unity… Experience and its Modes (1933), the between power and authority and between a scholar prophet”. nature of rationality, which he explored individuality and individualism, and offered a in Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays persuasive political theory base on the ideas of Lord Smith of Clifton (1962) the nature of human conduct, individuality, civility and conversational politics. most systematically analysed in On Human John P. Mackintosh (1926-1978) Conduct (1975), and the nature of historical Lord Parekh inquiry, articulated in a number of essays John Mackintosh belonged to the classic collected in his On History and Other Ramsay Muir (1872-1941) tradition of British political studies in the Essays (1983). tradition of Bagehot, Bryce, Graham Wallas Ramsay Muir deservedly may be regarded and Harold Laski. He was, at one and the For Oakeshott philosophy was uniquely as one of the forerunners of British social same time, a scholar, a prolific journalist, concerned to undertake a relentless critique science. Like Laski and Cole, he inhabited and a political activist and Member of of assumptions with a view to offering a both the world of letters (he produced Parliament. Above all, he was an educator. comprehensive and presuppositionless account some 29 publications) and the world of To all these activities he brought the same of human experience. Rationality was not a affairs (he was briefly MP for Rochdale, mixture of originality, lucidity, intellectual natural or transcendental faculty or power but and President of the Liberal Party). He was breadth and rhetorical force. Not for him a form of behaviour, and was embedded in and a lecturer and professor of modern history the dead hand of academic jargon or structured by traditions governing an activity. at both Manchester and Liverpool the hermetic exclusiveness of the self- As for human conduct, it consisted in pursuit universities. His publications were proclaimed professional. He had no of wished-for satisfaction within a given social extensive, ranging from international and patience with the imitative faddism of context in consonance with established commonwealth affairs to municipal American-style 1960s behaviourism or, practices. History was a disinterested attempt to government in Liverpool; most significant, for that matter, with the ponderous construct a coherent account of the past in its perhaps, was his How Britain is Governed scholasticism of 1970s neo-Marxism. He did own terms. (1930), arguably the first textbook on the not live to see the rise of public choice subject and which W. J. M. Mackenzie, S. E. theory in the 1980s and 1990s or the For Oakeshott all human associations were Finer and other founders of British political proliferating Rawls industry of the same structured in terms of practices. Since the latter science read as undergraduates. Some of its period, but it is a safe bet that he would were instrumental and pragmatic or non- themes (e.g. regional devolution and have been equally impatient with them.

14 Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary MEL CALMAN, , 6.9.81

The notion that academics should write war he was a temporary civil servant. only for other academics was, for him, the When asked what he did during the war, Chronology negation of what the study of politics he answered: “I was jobbed into the should be about. In his eyes, political Ministry of Aircraft Production by Tizard action, political study, political education to help hold down Bomber Harris, who became one of the most redundant and political comment were a seamless was mad”. There he learned that science documents in British political history as web. The John Mackintosh who filled the is politics, quoting Mr. Dooley, that the party was removed from power for a Chamber of the House of Commons when “politics ain’t bean bag”. generation. Earlier, a majority is not a he got up to speak was the same John majority in Scotland, as electors vote for Mackintosh whose lectures enthralled the In 1949 MacKenzie went to the Victoria devolution in a referendum, but not in first-year Politics students at Edinburgh and to establish a whose studies of the British Cabinet and Government Department. With a nominal sufficient numbers. The Welsh decisively what he called the ‘Westminster Model’ staff of ten, he hired more than two dozen reject the idea. achieved classic status. people who ended up professors, including Tony Birch, Jean Blondel, David Donnison, Running through all his activities were a John Erickson and Roger Williams. Scholarship 1980 replaces passionate concern for parliamentary was the reason for being at Manchester. Callaghan as Labour leader, defeating democracy and a deep anxiety about its future. Until the expansion of the university, Denis Healey as Labour swings leftwards. The first edition of his study of the Cabinet Manchester had a faculty seminar of world class ended with the haunting question: ‘Is the social scientists. Whoever spoke was treated to The PSA launches its second journal decline of Parliament to be regretted?’ His own straight questions in plain language drawing Poilitics answer was an emphatic ‘yes’; and the key on vast knowledge and experience of life. both to his politics and to his academic work Everyone shared the civic pride embodied in lies in his search for solutions to the theoretical the saying ‘Manchester made me’, and WJMM and practical problems which that answer made Manchester. In 1966 he moved to 1981 The Social Democratic Party is implied. His tragic death at 49 left the search University. There he hired his last bright formed. Ten republican prisoners die on unfinished. Nothing has happened since to young men, Chris Hood and Stephen White. hunger strike in Northern Ireland. Tony invalidate the concerns which led him to Benn loses narrowly to Dennis Healey in embark on it. Intellectually, Bill MacKenzie was a radical, the Labour Party deputy leadership contest. going to the root of things. The starting point David Marquand was usually an intellectual puzzle. The next Rioting occurs in several British cities step was a big leap, often from an unexpected during the summer. W. J. M. MacKenzie (1909-1996) angle. His way of explaining what he found was novel as evident in his ‘translation’ of Bill MacKenzie was a big man in every the Plowden Report from the Mandarin. sense, intellectually, physically and morally. MacKenzie was never a ‘true believer’ in 1982 Britain wins the . Scotland was where he was born and political science as science. Half a lifetime of raised, and his outlook on life reflected talking philosophy with people as different as his roots. At Oxford he took a double Scottish moralists, Ludwig Wittgenstein, John 1983 The Conservatives win the first in Greats, and was appointed to one Austin and Freddie Ayer had left their mark. General Election with a crushing 144 seat of the earliest politics fellowships in Nor was he an apologist for the powers that majority. Labour’s New Hope for Britain Oxford at Magdalen College. As a Scot, Bill be. When asked him how Her Majesty’s manifesto is described as the longest suicide MacKenzie assumed that universities were Government could do something that seemed note in history. about scholarship. On becoming a politics palpably wrong, his answer was, “I can explain don, he sought the critical apparatus; it it, but I can’t justify it”. His epitaph was was not in German, as was the case for written in early Roman times: Humani nil a me The Provisional IRA bombs the classics, but in the American Political alienum puto (Nothing that concerns man is 1984 Science Review to which he began a alien to me). Grand Hotel in Brighton, nearly killing subscription in 1932, virtually the only many of the Cabinet. person in England who did so. During the Richard Rose

Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary 15 The Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom

Fiftieth Anniversary Award Winners

Award Sponsors: British Academy; Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust; Chelgate Ltd

The Rt Hon Lord Jenkins realignment of Britain’s two-party system. to serve in the House of Commons, he of Hillhead OM FBA Although the SDP did not itself make the introduced a personal bill to permit him to breakthrough, the refashioning of the centre renounce the title. The bill was defeated; but, Lifetime Achievement in Politics ground of British politics which followed after his father’s death in 1960, he continued the SDP’s foundation enabled the Liberal the struggle, and in 1963 the Peerage Act Born November 11, 1920, in Abersychan, Democrats to become a potent third force enabled peers to renounce their titles for their Monmouthshire, Wales. Educated at Balliol in British politics. lifetimes. Benn renounced his viscountcy (July College, Oxford, from which he graduated in 31, 1963) to 1941, he served in the in World In 1987 Jenkins accepted a life peerage become simply War II and first entered Parliament in 1948. and moved from the House of Commons to . He could claim family roots in the Labour the , where he was a leader movement: his father had been a miners’ of Liberal Democrats. Most recently, the When Labour union official, a member of Parliament, and Labour Government invited him to Chair formed a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Labour the Commission on Electoral Reform which government under Prime Minister Clement Attlee. Jenkins at one reported in 1999, recommending the adoption Harold Wilson in time considered giving up politics for writing, of a system of proportional representation for 1964, Benn became Postmaster General and but in the formation of the 1964 government the House of Commons. was Minister of Technology from 1966 to of Harold Wilson he 1970. He also served as Secretary of State for joined the Cabinet Lord Jenkins is a prolific and acclaimed author. Industry, Minister for Posts and as Air Minister His most famous works include: Mr. Balfour’s Telecommunications (1974-75) and Secretary (1964-65); he then Poodle (1954), The Labour Case (1959), of State for Energy (1975-79). Benn lost his became Home Asquith (1964), Baldwin (1987), A Life at parliamentary seat in the elections of 1983 Secretary (1965-67) the Centre (autobiog.) (1991), Gladstone but returned to the Commons in a by- and Chancellor of (Whitbread Biography Award) (1995), election in 1984. the Exchequer The Chancellors (1998). (1967-70). In 1972 he resigned as from the During the 1970s and 1980s, Benn often Labour Shadow Cabinet in protest at its decision found himself at odds with the leaders of to support a referendum on whether Britain The Rt Hon Tony Benn MP the party. should remain in the Common Market. He re- entered the Shadow Cabinet in 1973 as Outstanding Parliamentarian He set out his ideas in the seminal Shadow Home Secretary and became Home Arguments for Socialism, published in 1979. Secretary after Labour’s victory in 1974. Born April 3, 1925, London. Though a fierce Benn remains to this day a passionate critic of the British class system, Tony Benn defender of the sovereignty of Parliament, In 1976 he resigned from the Cabinet and came from a moneyed and privileged family. particularly in the face of increasing Parliament to become president of the Both of his grandfathers had been members Europeanisation of policy making and the European Commission and remained in that of Parliament, and his father, William overbearing power of the Executive branch post until 1981. The issue of Europe remained Wedgwood Benn (1877-1960), had been a of Government. He has long stressed that close to Jenkins’s heart right through his political Liberal and then a Labour MP who in 1942 British parliamentary democracy needs to career and he had an extremely successful entered the House of Lords as the 1st be reinvigorated and that the powers of tenure as Commission President. In 1981 he Viscount Stansgate. The younger Benn joined Parliament need to be reasserted. made an explosive return to national politics as the Labour Party in 1943, attended New he and a number of other dissidents from College, Oxford and was first elected to Benn’s publications include: Arguments for within the Labour Party formed the Social Parliament in 1950. Anticipating that Socialism (1979): Arguments for Democracy Democratic Party (SDP), of which he was inheritance of his father’s title would (1981): Out of the Wilderness, Diaries 1963- briefly leader, in the attempt at provoking a immediately disqualify him from continuing 1967 (1987): Office Without Power: Diaries

16 Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary 1968-72 (1988): Conflicts of Interest: Diaries partly to have resulted from her denunciation ranks over her policy regarding European 1977-80 (1990): A Future for Socialism of trade-union-induced chaos in the previous integration led to her resignation from party (1991): The End of an Era, Diaries 1980-1990 winter’s strikes and led to her becoming the leadership late in 1990, as her leadership was (1992): Years of Hope: Diaries, Letters and first (and so far only) female Prime Minister of challenged. In 1990 Thatcher received the Papers 1940-1962 (1994): The Benn Diaries the UK. Order of Merit, and in 1992 she was made 1940-1990 (1995). a Baroness. Abroad, Britain successfully recaptured He is soon to retire from the House of the Falkland Islands following a 10-week Commons ‘to spend more time in politics’. Argentinian occupation in 1982. Fawcett Society The electorate’s memories of Thatcher’s decisive leadership during the Falklands Setting the Political Agenda The Rt Hon Baroness Thatcher conflict helped give her a landslide victory of Finchley LG OM FRS in the general election of June 1983. The Fawcett Society has been in existence This was foolowed by a further landslide for over 130 years and is the UK’s leading Breaking The Mould success in 1987. organisation campaigning for Born October 13, 1925, in Grantham. Thatcher personified the newly energetic equality between Margaret Thatcher was educated at right wing of the Conservative Party. women and men Somerville College, Oxford (B.A., 1946; B.Sc., She advocated greater independence of in Britain today. 1949; M.A., 1950), where she became the the individual from the state, a radical Their vision is of a first female President of the Oxford University reduction of government intervention in the society where women and men are equal Conservative Association. She subsequently economy, reductions in public expenditure partners at home, at work and in public life. worked as a research chemist. Her marriage (enabling personal taxes to be cut) and a The Fawcett Society takes its name from to Denis Thatcher, a prosperous businessman, tough monetary policy. Thatcher represented Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1847-1929), who was also enabled her to read for the bar, and she a clear and decisive break with what had the first prominent, non-violent, campaigner on specialised in tax law. She first stood for come before her, changing the terrain of behalf of British women. The roots of the Parliament in 1950 but was unsuccessful, British politics so profoundly that the effects present day organisation are therefore to be despite increasing the local Conservative vote of her 11 years in power remain evident in the found in the suffrage movements of the late by 50 percent. She finally entered Parliament nature of British politics to this day. This can be nineteenth and early twentieth century and their in 1959, as member for Finchley. She was seen in a range of issues, such as ’s campaign to grant women the right to vote. joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry emphasis on personal enterprise and the Euro- of Pensions and National Insurance (1961-64) scepticism of the Conservative Party. Today the Fawcett Society is a growing and Secretary of State for Education and organisation with over 3000 members – Science, becoming Throughout her terms, Thatcher pursued men and women, 23 local groups around only the second the policies that earned her the appellation the country and over 800 individual activists. woman ever to of ’Iron Lady’. As she herself once famously The Fawcett Society has always been a pro- become a commented, “standing in the middle of active organisation, looking to push equal rights Conservative the road is very dangerous: you get onto the political agenda by drawing popular cabinet minister. knocked down by traffic from both sides”! attention by vocally articulating salient issues of She affirmed Britain’s strong commitment to the time. It aims principally to do this by running Thatcher succeeded NATO and Britain’s independent nuclear campaigns, raising issues in the media and Edward Heath as Conservative leader in 1975 deterrent, a stance that proved popular working directly with politicians to achieve after the party’s loss of two general elections with the electorate, given the Labour Party’s positive change for women. Principally this work in 1974. The Conservatives’ decisive victory in repudiation of Britain’s traditional nuclear focuses on employment, including issues of low the general elections of 1979 was thought and defence policies. A split in Conservative and equal pay as well as the need for family

Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary 17 The Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom

Fiftieth Anniversary Award Winners

friendly working practices for women and and dramatic actions brought Greenpeace wide The Rt Hon Lord Healey of men, poverty and financial fecurity. True to its media exposure and helped mobilise public Riddlesden CH MBE roots, the Fawcett Society also attempts to opinion against environmentally destructive place greater emphasis on the importance of practices. Lifetime Achievement in Politics more female participation (as voters and as representatives) in democracy. Possibly the most famous incident involving Born August 30, 1917, Eltham, . Greenpeace came on July 10, 1985, as the Denis Healey grew up in Bradford, Yorkshire, After the 1997 General Election Clare Short MP, Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, which was and had a brilliant academic career at writing in The Times, credited Fawcett with due to sail to Moruroa Atoll to protest French the University sparking increased interest in women voters atmospheric nuclear-weapons tests, was sunk of Oxford. and Fawcett’s reports on women’s priorities by two bomb explosions while berthed in Immediately after (“Winning Women’s Votes; It’s not like picking Auckland Harbour, N.Z. Subsequent revelations World War II he a football team”) and (“Winning Women’s that French intelligence agents had planted the moved into Labour Votes in Europe”) received extremely wide bombs caused a major international scandal and Party politics with media coverage. led not only to resignations within the French a job in the party government, but also to the rise of Greenpeace secretariat. He was into a globally recognisable movement. head of its international department for seven years before becoming a Member of Parliament in 1952. From the early 1950s Healey established his firmly pro-European Setting the Political Agenda credentials, serving as the British delegate to the Consultative Assembly for the Council Greenpeace was originally founded in 1971 of Europe (1952-54). He became Secretary in Canadian British Columbia to oppose U.S. Setting the Political Agenda of State for Defence (1964-70) and later nuclear testing on Amchitka Island in Alaska, Chancellor of the Exchequer when Labour but has since developed into a high profile Charter 88 was formed, as the name returned to power in 1974. He remained global organisation campaigning to preserve suggests, in 1988 in order to try and prompt at the Treasury after James Callaghan endangered species, to prevent environmental reform of the British political system. succeeded Harold Wilson as Prime Minister degradation and the general misuse of Charter 88 has no affiliation to a political in April 1976. Earth’s resources. Greenpeace has successfully party. The original charter was published in championed the effective use of direct action, 1988 with 348 signatures, whereas by 2000 As Chancellor (1974-79), he presented a on occasions with no more than a handful of over 80,000 people had added their names. record number of budgets in very trying activists being present, and standing up in economic times, as the IMF dictated that the face of large corporations or government Charter 88 have vociferously campaigned for British economic policy take a more authorities. Greenpeace remains, as it the creation of a fair and modern democracy, monetarist turn. From 1980 to 1983 he has always been, a loose-knit organisation. with the principal aims being fundamental was deputy leader of the Labour Party It has actively supported campaigns from reform of the structures of government. serving in the Shadow Cabinet as spokesman ecologically minded individuals as well as Their principal goals include the creation of on Treasury matters (1979-81) and foreign undertaking campaigns seeking, among open and accountable political institutions, affairs (1981-87). He was consistent in his other things, to protect endangered whales a culture which respects and protects the opposition to the party’s endorsement of and seals from hunting, to aim to halt individual rights and liberties of citizens as unilateral British nuclear disarmament and the dumping of toxic chemical and well as increased citizen participation in the vehement in his opposition to the party’s drift radioactive wastes at sea, and to end democratic process. In policy terms, these leftwards. He retired from the party’s nuclear-weapons testing. demands have been shaped by calls for a leadership circles in 1987. In 1992 he was more proportional voting system, the creation created a . His writing career included The primary tactic of Greenpeace has been such of a Bill of Rights, a Freedom of Information a number of works on his two great interests “direct, nonviolent actions” as steering small Act and a decentralisation of power. While (defence and foreign affairs) and his inflatable craft between the harpoon guns of it is clear that Charter 88 have not seen all autobiography (published in 1989) also whalers and their prey and the plugging of of their demands met, their demands are received widespread popular acclaim. His industrial pipes discharging toxic wastes into the much nearer to reality now than they were published works include: The Curtain Falls oceans and the atmosphere. Such dangerous back in 1988. (1951), NATO and American Security (1959),

18 Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary The Race Against The H Bomb (1960), Analysis famous debate with Mick Jagger about drugs. Beyond Nuclear Deterrence (1986) and The thrived on unveiling corruption Time of My Life (Autobiog.) (1986). Outstanding Broadcast Journalism and highlighting underhand dealings. World in Action came to be seen as hard-hitting investigative journalism at its best. Neal Ascherson World in Action also displayed an eye for a Outstanding Political Journalist BBC Radio 4’s Analysis is a documentary series softer style of analysis. It created, for example, a which was first broadcast on April 10, 1970. piece of television which, perhaps unknowingly, Born on October 5, 1932 and educated at Analysis asks experts to present programmes provided the basis for the development of easily Eton and Kings College, Cambridge. Before in their particular field, seeking to explain the the most ambitious, significant and influential beginning his illustrious career in journalism, implications of policy issues and political, television documentary project ever. In 1963 he served in the Royal Marines (1950-52). economic and social trends in Britain and Seven Up was intended to afford the viewer a However, he quickly left the Armed Forces, abroad. Today the programmes are half an hour unique insight into joining the Manchester Guardian as Reporter in length and there are up to 30 each year how the significant and Leader Writer (1956-58). He then moved covering political, economic and social issues question of nurture to the Scotsman, where he became reaching as many as 500,000 listeners weekly. and upbringing Commonwealth Correspondent (1959-60), impacted on the before he joined in 1960. ‘Analysis’ is remarkable because of the shape of a seven He held a number of positions in his 24 significance and importance of participants and year old child’s years there, including Central European the depth of its coverage. The documentary destiny. This original Correspondent, Eastern European form is described by the present Editor, Nicola programme spawned follow-up programmes Correspondent and Foreign Writer. In 1985 Meyrick as the ‘the journalism of ideas’ and the (the most recent of which was Forty Two Up, he became Associate Editor, before leaving exploration of key political and social issues, shown in July 1998) which provided a for on Sunday in 1990. including those which underpin policy decisions, fascinating insight into the development of He remained with the IOS for eight years as is Analysis’ major contribution to broadening ‘normal people’. a columnist, before returning to the Observer the scope of broadcast journalism. in 1998. The programme also spawned some of the It has received plaudits from such varied finest documentary producers and directors of He has received three honorary doctorates sources as the Daily Mail (‘the most incisive the post-war period. These included, amongst (Strathclyde, 1988; Edinburgh, 1990; Open and challenging current affairs strand on others, Tim Hewat, David Plowright, Brian University, 1991) and he has been the radio or television’) and the Financial Times Lapping, Ray Fitzwalter, Gus MacDonald, David recipient of numerous awards and accolades (“ever excellent”). Boulton, Michael Apted, Claudia Milne, Steve for his journalistic Morrison and Dorothy Byrne. work. These include Reporter of the World in Action Year in 1982, The Rt Hon Sir Edward Heath Journalist of the Outstanding Broadcast Journalism KG MBE MP Year in 1987, Granada Awards World in Action began in January 1963 and Lifetime Achievement in Politics James Cameron quickly introduced a style of journalism hitherto Award in 1989 and the Golden Insignia Order unknown on British television. World in Action Born 9 July 1916 in Broadstairs, Kent. of Merit Award of Poland (1992). He has also set out to investigate controversial topics and Of modest origins, Heath was educated at published a number of books, including The issues that had previously received scant Oxford, where he was elected President of the King Incorporated (1963), The Polish August coverage on national television. Some of its University Conservative Association in 1937. (1981) and The Struggles for Poland (1987). most controversial investigations looked at the In 1938, as chairman of the Federation of treatment of the elderly in hospitals, the effects University Conservative Associations and of smoking, the spread of venereal disease, the President of the Oxford Union, he actively question of Royal taxes, the issue of the opposed the policy of appeasement toward Birmingham Six, the Vietnam War, John pursued by the Conservative Poulson, Jonathan Aitken and there was even a Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. He served

Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary 19 The Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom

Fiftieth Anniversary Award Winners

in the army during World War II, worked in the Mary Robinson Rights Monitors. She was also the first Ministry of Civil Aviation in 1946-47 and was Head of State to visit the International editor of the Church Times from January 1948 Outstanding Contribution to Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, to October 1949. International Politics and Civil Society as well as the first Head of State to visit Somalia following the crisis there in 1992. Heath was elected to Parliament as a Born on 21 May, 1944, in Ballina, County Mrs Robinson also received the Special CARE Conservative in the election of February 1950 Mayo. Mary Robinson is a barrister by Humanitarian Award in recognition of her he was Chief Whip (1955-59) and Minister of profession and was appointed Reid Professor efforts for Somalia. Labour in the of Criminal Law in Trinity College Dublin government of when she was 25 years of age. With her husband, Nicholas (married 1970) she Professor Bernard Crick from October 1959 founded the Irish Centre for European Law to July 1960, when in 1988. Elected as a representative of the Lifetime Achievement in he became Lord University of Dublin, she was a member of Political Studies Privy Seal with Seanad Eireann (Upper House of Parliament) Foreign Office from 1969-89. Bernard Crick was born on 16 December responsibilities. In this capacity he represented 1929. Bernard Crick was educated at Whitgift Britain in negotiations for entry into the Mary Robinson served as President of Ireland School and University College, London and European Economic Community. Fittingly, from 1990 until September 12 1997, acting the LSE. His first Heath eventually took the UK into the as a potent symbol of the modernisation of academic post was European Community in 1973. Irish society. She resigned eleven weeks short at Harvard, where of her full term in office in order to accept he was a Teaching In October 1963 he became Secretary of State the position of United Nations High Fellow from 1952- for Industry, Trade, and Regional Development Commissioner for Human Rights. In 1990 1954. He went on and President of the Board of Trade. After the she became the first woman to become to be a Visiting Conservative defeat in October 1964, Heath President of Ireland, and, at that time, was Fellow at Berkeley, was elected leader in July 1965. His party one of only three female Heads of State in before returning to England to take up a suffered a decisive defeat in the March 1966 the world. Mrs Robinson served as a member position as Assistant Lecturer then Lecturer General Election but won an unexpected of the International Commission of Jurists and Senior Lecturer (1957-65) at the LSE and victory in the election of June 1970. As Prime (1987-1990) and of the Advisory Commission then becoming Professor of Political Theory Minister, Heath had to face the crisis of violent of Inter-Rights (1984-1990). and Institutions at Sheffield, a post he held conflict in Northern Ireland, over which he for 6 years between 1965 and 1971. He imposed direct British rule in 1972. Hoping to Among the numerous international activities moved back south to become Professor of win a new mandate, Heath called for a General relating to human rights in which she Politics at Birkbeck College, London – where Election on February 28, 1974, but was participated, Mrs Robinson served as Special he remained until 1984, later becoming narrowly defeated by Wilson’s Labour party. Rapporteur to the Emeritus Professor. After a further election defeat in 1974, Heath Interregional lost the party leadership to Margaret Thatcher Meeting organised His academic achievements have been in 1975. in 1993 by the complemented by his activities in the wider Council of Europe world of political studies. He has been literary Edward Heath has remained active within on the theme editor of The Political Quarterly since 1993, the Conservative Party and has, particularly “Human rights at following a 14 year period as joint editor. during the 1990s, grown to be seen as the the Dawn of the He was Chairman of the Political Quarterly party’s elder statesman. He remains a 21st Century”, as part of its preparation for Publishing Company between 1980 and passionate advocate of closer European the 1993 Vienna World Conference on 1993, as well as Joint Chairman of the British integration, largely in opposition to his party’s Human Rights. South Africa Commission (1991-1995). official line. His publications include: One He was Honorary President of the Politics Nation – A Tory Approach to Social Problems Mrs Robinson was the first Head of State to Association (1970-76) and is currently a Vice (1950), Old World, New Horizons (1970), Our visit Rwanda in the aftermath of the genocide President of the PSA (1995-). He has also Community (1977), The Course of My Life there. While in Rwanda she was briefed by made important contributions in the fields of (autobiog.) (1999). agencies and the United Nations Human political education and citizenship, recognised

20 Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary in 1997 when he became Chair of the democracy, power and justice and his work of Governments (1982), Government Committee on Teaching Citizenship in English on social justice remains of primary Ministers in the Contemporary World Schools (1997-98). His other distinctions importance in the field. His publications (1985), Political Leadership (1987), include being a Honorary Member of the include Political Argument (1965), Comparative Government (revised editions, Hansard Society (1993) and a Visiting Fellow Sociologists, Economist and Democracy 1990, 1995), The Profession of Government of the Woodrow Wilson Centre (1995-96). (1970), The Liberal Theory of Justice (1973), Minister in Western Europe, (with J.L. Democracy, Power and Justice (1989), Thiebault) (1991), Governing Together His publications include: The American Democracy and Power (1991), A Treatise on (with F. Muller-Rommel) (1993). Science of Politics (1958), The Reform of Social Justice (Volumes 1 and 2) (1989 and Parliament (1964 & 1968), Essays on Reform 1995) and The British Study of Politics in the (jointly, 1967), Political Theory and Practice Twentieth Century (with Jack Hayward and Dr David Butler CBE FBA (1972), George Orwell: A Life (1978 & 1992 Archie Brown, eds.) (1999). (Third Edition)), In Defence of Politics (1982), Lifetime Achievement in Socialism (1987), Essays on Politics and Political Studies Literature (1989), Political Thoughts and Professor Jean Blondel Polemics (1990), National Identity (1991), Born in 1924, David Butler was educated at St Essays on Citizenship (2000). Lifetime Achievement in Paul’s School and New College Oxford, after Political Studies which he spent two years as J. E. Procter Visiting Fellow at Professor Brian Barry FBA Born in Toulon (France) in 1929. Jean Princeton (1947- Blondel graduated from the Institute d’Etudes 48). He returned to Lifetime Achievement in Politiques of Paris in 1953 and from St Oxford, to Nuffield Political Studies Antony’s College (Oxford) where he stayed College, where he from 1953 to 1955. He was a lecturer at organised the Born in London on 7 August, 1936. Brian from 1958 to 1963, went inaugural PSA Barry was educated at Taunton’s School, to Yale as an ACLS fellow in 1963-64 and conference in 1950 Southampton University and Queen’s College became Professor of Government at the and became Research Fellow (1951-54), Fellow Oxford. He was a University of in 1964. He played a (1954-) and then Dean and Senior Tutor (1956- Fellow at Nuffield major role in founding the European 64). His career took a short diversion away College, Oxford, Consortium for Political Research in 1969 from academia, as he took up the post of from 1966-69, and and directed it for ten years. Having left Essex Personal Assistant to the British Ambassador in from 1972-1975. in 1984, he was appointed scholar of the Washington (1955-56). However, it was to His time there was Russell Sage Foundation in New York in Nuffield College that he returned, where he broken by a three 1984 before becoming Professor of Political continues to serve as Emeritus Fellow. He has year period (1969- Science at the European University Institute received three honorary doctorates (Paris, 72) as Professor of Government at the in Florence from 1985 to 1994. He is now 1978; Queens, Belfast, 1985; Essex, 1993) as . He moved to Chicago in external Professor at the European University well as many accolades for his published 1977 in order to take up the post of Professor Institute in Florence and visiting Professor at works. He has been co-author (mostly with of Political Science and Philosophy at the the . Dennis Kavanagh) of possibly the most famous University of Chicago before moving series of books published on contemporary westwards to California, taking the post of Professor Blondel is a member of the Royal politics over the last 40 years, as, with a Professor of Philosophy at the California Swedish Academy of Sciences and of the selection of different authors, Butler Institute of Technology (1982-86). Having Academia Europaea. His key contributions catalogued 13 British elections in his “British spent nine years in the USA, Professor Barry to the study of politics have undoubtedly General Election series”. Butler’s other major returned to Europe in 1986 in order to take been his lucid and enlightening work on publications include: The British Electoral up positions in the European University the mechanics of Government and his System since 1918 (1963), The Study of Institute in Florence (1986-87), and publications in this field include: Voters, Political Behaviour (1958), Political Change in subsequently the LSE. Presently he is Affiliate Parties, and Leaders (first edition, 1963), Britain (1969), Coalitions in British Politics Professor at the University of Columbia, New Comparative Legislatures (1973), Political (1978), Referendums Around the World (ed., York. He has published widely on both British Parties (1978), World Leaders (1980), The jointly) (1995), British Politics and European politics and the relationship between Discipline of Politics (1981), The Organization Elections (with Martin Westlake) (1995).

Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary 21 The Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom

Fiftieth Anniversary Award Winners

Professor Stanley Hoffmann Professor Richard Rose FBA Yes Minister

Lifetime Achievement in Lifetime Achievement in Outstanding Political Satire Political Studies Political Studies Yes Minister was a hugely popular 1980s Stanley Hoffmann is the Paul and Catherine Born in 1933 in St Louis, Missouri, Richard British comedy series illustrating the, at Buttenwieser University Professor at Harvard, Rose was educated at Johns Hopkins times hilarious, relationship between the where he has taught since 1955. He was the University, the LSE and Oxford. His first incompetent Jim Hacker MP (Minister for Chairman of academic appointment was to the University the Department of Administrative Affairs), Harvard’s Center of Manchester in 1966, where he lectured in his Parliamentary Private Secretary (Bernard for European Government. After five years he moved to Woolley) and a scheming Permanent Private Studies from its Scotland where he became Professor of Secretary (Sir Humphrey Appleby). The Yes creation in 1969 to Politics at Strathclyde – a position he has Minister series started airing on BBC2 in 1995. Professor retained to this day. In 1976 he became 1980 and consisted of 3 series, each with Hoffmann was Professor of Public Policy at Strathclyde, as 7 episodes. born in Vienna in well as Director of the Centre of Public Policy. 1928. He lived and studied in France from Although he has remained loyal to In 1984, almost two years after the last series 1929 to 1955; he has taught at the Institut Strathclyde for over 30 years, Professor Rose of Yes Minister, the BBC aired the final episode d’Etudes Politiques of Paris, from which he has also been associated with many other of Yes Minister. Sir Humphrey moved up the graduated, and at the Ecole des Hautes institutions. These include the Johns Hopkins civil service Etudes en Sciences Sociales. He bases his University, Baltimore, where he was Hinkley hierarchy to become approach to international relations on a Distinguished Professor (1987), the Cabinet Secretary number of key convictions. He stresses solid Wissenschaftszentrum in Berlin (1988-1990) while Jim Hacker historical foundations and the importance of and the Central European University in Prague became what he structural factors that limit the leeway of (1992-1995). always dreamt of: states in their manoeuvrings. In all his work Prime Minister of he emphasises that the study of international He has supplemented his academic work with Great Britain. relations and of foreign policy are therefore numerous other professional activities. He has inseparable. He has also illustrated that acted as a consultant for the OECD (1980) This started (in 1986) Yes Prime Minister. It ran domestic factors play important roles in and the World over 2 series, each with 8 episodes. The Yes explaining state actions and that, because of Bank (1991), as Minister and Yes Prime Minister series were the continuing twin dangers of violence and well as acting as admired for showing what many perceived to chaos, IR is the domain where the greatest Chair and be uncanny realities of political life combined ethical dilemmas exist. Among Hoffmann’s consultant on a with a very British sense of ironic humour. publications are Decline or Renewal? France large number of Former British Prime Minister Margaret Since the 30’s (1974), Primacy or World other committees Thatcher was impressed with the series and Order: American Foreign Policy since the Cold and steering groups once stated: “Its closely observed portrayal of War (1978), Duties Beyond Borders (1981), across the world. He has been a prolific what goes on in the corridors of power has Janus and Minerva (1986), The Ethics and producer of books and articles, at the last given me hours of pure joy”! Politics of Humanitarian Intervention (1997) count well over 400, on a wide and varied and World Disorder (1998) and he is co- range of subjects. Some of his most well author of The Mitterrand Experiment (1987); known are: Politics in England (1965), Can Beyond the Fringe The New European Community (1991); and Government go Bankrupt? (with Guy Peters) After the (1993). His Tanner lectures (1979), Do Parties make a Difference? (1980), Outstanding Political Satire of 1993, on the French nation and The Loyalties of Voters: A Lifetime-Learning nationalism, were published in 1994. Model (with Ian McAllister) (1990), How Beyond the Fringe was written and performed Russia Votes (with Stephen White and Ian by four young graduates, two from Cambridge McAllister, 1997), Democracy and Its (Jonathan Miller and Peter Cook) and two Alternatives: Understanding Post-Communist from Oxford (Alan Bennett and Dudley Moore) Societies (with William Mishler and Christian as a satirical revue at the Edinburgh Festival in Haerpfer, 1998). 1961. It went on to sell-out in London’s West

22 Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary End and successfully transferred to Broadway. was created by Roger Law and presenters such as Jeremy Paxman and It kick-started the sixties satire boom and led to Peter Fluck, two satirists who met at Anglia John Humphreys. numerous imitations including one, Behind the Polytechnic, and who went on to create the Fridge, from two of the original cast Luck and Flaw Educated at Bembridge School and Oxford, themselves! Prior to Beyond the Fringe, model-making team he was President of the Oxford Union in with the exception of radio’s Goon Show which produced 3D 1950. After being called to the Bar in 1952, (featuring Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and caricatures for he chose to change direction and move into Peter Sellers), British comedy rarely courted newspapers and journalism. He first appeared on television in the outrageous. Beyond the Fringe broke magazines around 1955, becoming an ITN newscaster and this mould and paved the way for the likes the world. political correspondent. He was named of Monty Python to take this humour into Eventually they personality of the year by the Guild of the mainstream. moved into puppetry and animatronics, Television Producers in 1957. He achieved satirising public figures throughout the great scoops including an interview with Even though Beyond the Fringe was made over nineties. The world famous Spitting Image President Nasser of Egypt, becoming the first thirty-five years ago, the anarchic brilliance of puppets were of personalities drawn from real- British reporter to talk to him after Suez. the late Peter Cook ensured that the Fringe’s life who dominated the media, arts, sports and scripts remain politics during the 1980s and early 90s and Robin Day presented BBC Radio’s World at One characterised by an many were auctioned off at handsome prices from 1979 to 1987 and Panorama from 1967- intellectual in the summer of 2000. Some of the most 72. He also chaired Question Time, a show exuberance that is famous included Arnold Schwarzenegger, that was originally not out of date Sylvester Stallone, OJ Simpson, Mick Jagger, scheduled to run today. Alongside Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and Roy only for a few Cook, Dudley Hattersley, who came with a spitting months, from 1979 Moore in particular mechanism. In the 18 series running over 14 until 1989, winning became famed for his piano playing, mixing years few public figures avoided a scathing the Broadcasting humour and music in a way previously appraisal of their public personae. Reaction Press Guild award unheard of. Cook disarmingly admitted that from the victims ranged from pride to pure in 1980 for his for him “there is only one depressing side outrage and, for some, to be caricatured in contribution to its success. Active until his effect of thinking about Beyond the Fringe latex by a Spitting Image puppet was an death in 2000, Sir Robin hosted a lively series again – “I may have done some other things indication that you had finally made it. As of ’elder statesman’ debates during the 1997 as good but I am sure none better!” Conservative MP Kenneth Baker famously once General Election campaign on breakfast told the House of Commons: ‘the important television. thing is to be on Spitting Image – even if it is Spitting Image as a slug!’ Alongside his journalistic skills he also sat on a number of high profile committees. These Outstanding Political Satire included the Phillimore Committee on the Law Sir Robin Day of Contempt (1971-74). He also chaired the Spitting Image remains one of the most Hansard Society for Parliamentary Government memorable political satire programmes of the Outstanding Political Interviewer (1981-83). He received a number of awards for post-war era, mixing as it did contemporary his contribution to political journalism including news, the truth as it was perceived by Britons Sir Robin Day was born in London on the 24 the Richard Dimbleby Award from the Society of up and down the land, and the antics of a October 1923 and grew to become one of Film and TV Arts (1974) and the RTS Judges number of rubber puppets to create an Britain’s most famous television and radio Award for 30 years outstanding TV journalism enduring cocktail of humour and biting journalists. His long career first took off in the (1985). His publications reflect his major cynicism. Spitting Image created niche for 1950s, and he will be remembered for contributions to political journalism and include itself, ensuring that where the news and shaking up the journalistic status quo and Television: A Personal Report (1961), The Case political commentators attempted to be bringing in a new and less deferential for Televising Parliament (1963), Day by Day diplomatic about sensitive situations, Spitting approach to quizzing the nation’s leaders. (1975), Grand Inquisitor (memoirs) (1989), But Image displayed a forthrightness the likes of He had a profound effect on the nature of With Respect: Memorable Interviews (1993). which had never been seen in a TV political interviewing in the UK, opening the programme before. door for the more combative styles of Citations: Dan Hough and Charlie Jeffery

Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary 23 Teaching and Learning Politics

The study of politics has been popular in schools, colleges and universities for several decades. In this section, Professor Bernard Crick outlines the thinking behind the introduction of citizenship classes in schools and university.

Citizenship But in the late 1960s I became aware of a balanced and cross-bench was both glaring gap in studies or proposals relating to methodology and sponsorship; but after he study of politics has every right political theory and practice. Like many he left office, the movement lost impetus to be as academic as any other discoveries it was simple and obvious, once as the build-up towards a national curriculum T subject or discipline, whether in one thought of it. There was virtually no began. When it came, Citizenship was not philosophical, historical or scientific study of what effect upon different kinds of included, although one of the six excellent mode. We can say as sincerely as natural school education might have political cross-curricular advisory papers was on scientists that one never knows when participation or knowledge of what went on Citizenship; fine on paper but in practice theory can lead to useful practical results, in schools in respect of anything one might lacking teeth, ear-marked resources or or to a more rational understanding of call political or citizenship education. The first space in a very crowded timetable, so the world we inhabit. But since the time is, only now, beginning to be studied and the generally ignored. of Aristotle it is clear that the study can second only assumed importance if one be, I think should be and must be, thought that something should be done. Citizenship in Schools something more as well. It can be a I wrote one essay in 1968 called “On the In the summer of 1997 David Blunkett temperate critic of political arrangements Teaching of Politics” which soon caught the called me out of retirement to chair an – temperate not merely out of intellectual attention of a scattered group of teachers advisory group on the teaching of citizenship integrity but also in order to be taken who, in those far off days before the national in schools. He had been an early member of seriously. It should analyse the mechanics curriculum, were able to give the occasional the Politics Association but held a broader of undemocratic regimes objectively, but citizenship lesson. They wanted to come view than political education alone, which it is fundamentally committed to freedom together somehow, even if only for mutual I by then found wholly sensible, that – if only for the preservation of free comfort and support. Professor Harry Hanham citizenship meant active participation of all learning and its publicity. And it can, of of , Derek Heater of the then Brighton kinds at all levels. The three strands to the course, offer some advice on the Polytechnic, and I got together to found a report were: social and moral responsibility; practicality of policies, or more subtly on Politics Association. By one vote, as I community involvement and political literacy. what questions to ask and how in surveys remember, at a well-attended inaugural We were unanimous that it should be a core and opinion studies. meeting, they voted for that name rather subject for secondary schools. This the than “Citizenship Association”. The wrong Government accepted. It has been legislated I have always been interested in the relations choice, I thought, but it did not worry me at for. My own Hobbesean and Burkean realism between theory and practice, illustrated by my the time. Ten years later came the Hansard led me to steer my group away from book of essays with the title of Political Theory Society’s report the working party of which recommending that participation in school and Practice in the 1970s and before that in the I chaired, Political Education and Political and community should be part of an order, 1960s the first edition of my In Defence of Literacy. The latter term was invented by but should remain simply advisory. I didn’t Politics (aimed at a general, not a professional Professor Graeme Moodie but stolen or think the Government would take that. readership and still in print) and my The Reform developed by Ian Lister and myself to mean Blunkett did, however, and it became part of Parliament. Although working on an the skills, knowledge and values needed to of the order. Perhaps a wider life-long historical volume on the interrelations of the have a responsible effect in public affairs, learning agenda is emerging. “We aim at four historical nations of these islands, I took whether national, local or international, no less than a change in the political culture time out (as now for nearly twenty years an whether in public or voluntary bodies. of this country both nationally and locally: incomer in Scotland) to write in collaboration Kenneth Baker, MP was chairman of the for people to think of themselves as active the first draft of rules of procedure for the Hansard Society then and he and I waited on citizens, willing, able and equipped to have Scottish Parliament. And I have given evidence , then Minister of Education, an influence in public life and with the to Select Committees on Procedure in and extracted a cautious blessing from her critical capacities to weigh evidence before Westminster several times, to the old Houghton (“unfair to commit my successor too far so speaking and acting!”, said the Citizenship Committee on the public funding of parties and close an election”). There was a rapidly Post-16 report. to the recent Wakeham commission on the growing movement in schools, actually House of Lords. encouraged by Keith Joseph, so carefully Bernard Crick

24 Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary Heseltine challenges Thatcher.

Why study politics? A degree in Politics provides you with a deeper understanding of both current affairs Chronology o find out what it is like to study and historical processes. Skills of research politics a number of university and formulating and defending arguments T students described their are the key to studying politics and will be of experiences to the PSA. great use in any career. For me, politics has 1985 The Miners’ Strike ends in paved the way for a career in law where I am failure. The House of Lords is televised live Tarig Halil, a third year undergraduate at sure my skills of argument will really be put for the first time. the University of Nottingham: to the test.”

“Politics interested me before I came to Justin Crump, second year single honours University. I actually started out on a joint politics undergraduate University of 1987 Election victory number three for honours course but transferred to politics Durham: Margaret Thatcher. A rogue BBC exit poll single honours in my second year because early on election night leads to talk of the I wanted to study so many of the politics “I originally started my University career as an end of . Conservative overall modules on offer. It is one of those subjects engineer but soon saw the light! My majority? A mere 102. that combine theory and practice. Political specialised interest in politics lies in the field theory and political philosophy involve of international relations because I enjoy speculation and ideas, but politics is also finding out out how the world ticks. My study 1988 PSA News is launched under practical in that it provides insight into in this field helped me to gain a summer job editor John Benyon. current political events and life in general. working for the Conflict Studies Research Centre at Sandhurst, which was a very good All the politics modules I’ve studied so far experience. As for the other parts of my have been interesting but I’ve particularly course, I have been studying topics as diverse 1989 The is introduced in enjoyed the History of Political Thought, as the American Constitution and the Utopian Scotland. The House of Commons is Feminism, and Hammer and Sickle (a module influences on Swift’s famous novel, Gulliver’s televised. Nigel Lawson resigns as on Soviet politics). Travels. Currently, I am working on a project Chancellor, after clashes with the PM’s comparing George Orwell’s superb book special adviser over monetary policy, As to my career prospects? Well I’ve already 1984 to Stalinist Russia. notably regarding the ERM. made some inquiries about entering the diplomatic side or journalism. I hope to be The best part of studying politics is the able to utilise my Sudanese family debate – everyone likes a good argument and 1990 The introduction of the poll tax background, my knowledge of politics and the experience can be quite eye opening, in England and Wales produces a the analytical, research and presentation skills especially when the subject is close to home. community charge — in the Trafalgar I’ve developed while doing my degree.” Politics is all about the conflict of ideas and this makes for a fascinating course. There is Square riots. Geoffrey Howe’s resignation Elaine Ibbotson, a third year no such thing as a right answer – it all leads to Heseltine’s challenge to Thatcher for undergraduate at Birmingham University depends upon your point of view. I have had the Conservative leadership. After two studying for degree in political science. a great time with this course so far. I hope it ballots, emerges as the new all continues for my last year.” party leader. All this is of course “In studying politics I have covered a wide overshadowed by the publication of a 40th range of topics, such as how political Anniversary edition of PSA News. systems operate, theories of power and contemporary issues such as European integration and terrorism.

Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary 25 The Disciplines of Politics

The study of politics involves examination of a number of sub-disciplines. Fashions and priorities may change, but all scholars of politics, whether undergraduate students or distinguished professors, will draw upon several of these disciplines. Here, a number of eminent scholars outline the contribution that their favoured sub-discipline makes to the overall study of politics.

Political Theory reality of ethical and religious diversity in The change of political Britain demands further response from oes political theory still exist?’. political theorists. Feminist calls for what This was the famous question agenda has given these Anne Phillips has termed ‘a politics of ‘D posed by Sir Isaiah Berlin in presence’ have to be placed by the side of 1961. The grounds for doing so were that philosophical concerns even other attempts to accommodate difference ‘no commanding work of political clearer relevance to issues of and recognition into the design of a concept philosophy has appeared in the twentieth of citizenship appropriate to a pluralist and century’ and that political theory ran the contemporary politics multicultural society. risk of being ‘converted into an applied science’, the ‘business of experts’ whose Here then is sufficient proof to indicate that sole task was to decide the best means to political theory in Britain has not been attain agreed and easily identified ends. to the proper undertaking of politics as a reduced, as Sir Isaiah Berlin feared, to an practical activity. ‘applied science’. It is still with us and Berlin, however, always believed that there continues to flourish in a world that remains could not be an age without political In short, the justification for political divided over issues of substantive philosophical philosophy, such was the irreducible plurality philosophy is that politics cannot be divorced significance. Britain, as elsewhere, finds itself of human values and ends. As there was not from the normative questions that inform (or facing not only the more traditional political (and never had been) universal consent about should inform) the very goals that we, as issues associated with redistribution, public the purposes and goals of human action, the citizens and political actors, seek to realize. ownership and individual rights, but also study of politics could not be reduced to To ask, for example, if a particular policy new and pressing concerns relating to empirical questions alone. which seeks to redistribute wealth from the constitutional and welfare reform, national richer to the poorer sections of society is a sovereignty and globalisation, gender and It took the publication of John Rawls’ A just (as opposed to a purely efficient) one is sexuality, the position of disadvantaged ethnic Theory of Justice in 1971 to provide decisive immediately to confront a philosophical minorities and those that arise from mounting proof that Berlin was correct and that political question that is not capable of empirical environmental damage. On all of these philosophy in the grand manner was not resolution and which will remain resolutely important issues not only does political theory extinct. Recognizing that what is thought just philosophical in character. have something to say and contribute but or unjust in a society is usually the subject of without it their discussion will be prolonged dispute and disagreement, Rawls The change of political agenda has given immeasurably impoverished. not only set out what he took to be the these philosophical concerns even clearer principles of justice but also set out an relevance to issues of contemporary politics, Prof Jeremy Jennings agenda that has arguably dominated political both at a domestic and international level. theory ever since. Jolted by the challenge of Thatcherism, political theory now displays an astonishing Here was the irony. At the very moment that vibrancy and diversity within the British our politicians were prepared to abandon talk academic community. Take, for example, of social justice, political philosophers took up Brian Barry’s Justice as Impartiality (1996), a this theme with a vengeance and did so work whose ambition is nothing less than to believing that questions of political substantiate ‘a universally valid case in favour philosophy not only impacted upon the wider of liberal egalitarian principles’. To this has study of politics in general but were also vital been added the awareness that the daily

26 Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary “I see no sleaze my dearest Hamilton.”

PETER BROOKES, THE TIMES, 3.10.96

The (changing) Place of Significant challenges remain. There is still Women and Research About resistance from much of the profession to the Chronology Women in the Political Studies notion that the mainstream should be Profession. gendered both in terms of research and the curriculum. The majority of work published in The Political Studies hanges have undoubtedly occurred the mainstream political studies journals often 1991 in the position of women in the makes no reference to the gendered political Association launches its Graduate C political studies profession and in studies literature even where it is directly Network, attracting the brightest wannabes research about women – but there is still relevant. In terms of the curriculum, while in the profession. a long way to go. Gender politics research many departments offer some kind of women in the 1990s continued its excavations of and politics course, many staff are unwilling to women’s political history; its analyses of accept the idea that the compulsory building 1992 The Conservatives win a fourth contemporary women’s movements; the blocks of a politics degree should have term with a majority of 21. Neil Kinnock collection of data on political behaviour gendered analyses at their core. quits as Labour leader and is replaced by and the re-theorising of politics. John Smith. Britain is forced to leave the Trenchant critiques have now been made This situation may change now that more ERM. of both the approach and subject matter women are being appointed to senior of much of discipline. In the 1990s positions in universities. But there are still not feminist political scientists, perhaps in enough younger women coming in at the keeping with the renewed emphasis on bottom and progressing upwards. The United 1993 Elizabeth Meehan becomes the institutions in the discipline more Kingdom figures are low in comparison to the first woman Chair of the Political Studies generally, also turned their attention to United States where about a third of ‘new Association. the analysis of institutions (widely hires’ in political science are women. Too few defined) as gendered structures with women in the UK are making the transition gendered norms and rules. New studies from undergraduate to postgraduate and then 1994 becomes Labour have looked at political parties, on to become an academic. First is it the leader after the death of John Smith. Nolan nature of the discipline in terms of its subject legislatures and the state in general. Commission on standards in public life is matter and approach? Second is it due to a established. The discipline itself has become more lack of encouragement given to female receptive to research on women as a students by predominantly male academics legitimate part of its enterprise. Recently new journals such as the International Feminist 1995 Blair introduces a new, Journal of Politics have been launched and a improved Clause 4 to Labour’s large number of publishers now have lively The discipline itself has constitution. women and politics lists. Political theory and International Relations (IR) have both been become more receptive to particularly open to feminist critiques. research on women as a 1997 A landslide as ‘New’ Labour Feminist political theorists are beginning to wins an overall majority of 197, after a fashion a feminist political theory and, in IR, legitimate part of its carefully managed campaign. feminist ideas have taken their place within the critical approaches that are seen as enterprise. legitimate challengers to realist models.

Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary 27 The Disciplines of Politics

who, without thinking, mentor those was a beautiful way of making money. It grew ICM, MORI, NOP and Harris – are now fashioned in their own image? Or third is it a and soon had its own omnibus survey: today household names. All produce regular polls rational decision about low salaries and poor it’s one of the things that researchers live off. commissioned by and published in the media. career prospects? Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, too, Even in the early days the questions covered a have become used to more or less regular Therefore while there have been significant wide-ranging subject matter, but the directly polling for their own media, both by the advances, women in politics have not yet political questions quickly won their place. London-based pollsters and by smaller local reached the ‘critical mass’ needed to achieve By October 1938, they had begun testing the companies equally well-known within their the kinds of changes seen in other disciplines public’s satisfaction with the Prime Minister own markets. such as English Literature or even Sociology. (57% were satisfied with Neville Chamberlain, The task ahead of women and politics, having 43% dissatisfied), and the first national voting Meanwhile, the political parties finally woke established itself as a legitimate area of study intention question was introduced in February up to the potential of polling for their own at the end of the first 50 years of the PSA, is 1939 (when 64% answered that they would purposes (finding out in private what they to put gender in the mainstream. Let’s hope vote for the Government “if there were a could do to win the next election instead of that it doesn’t take the next 50 years. general election tomorrow”). Meanwhile, reading in the newspaper how certain it was just as George Gallup and his rivals had they were going to lose it). Both main parties Dr Georgina Waylen established their position in the USA by were commissioning research by the end of successful prediction of the 1936 Presidential the fifties, and all the main polling firms have election, so Durant’s British Gallup polls moved worked for one or other at some period since Electorial Behaviour into election polling, at the behest of the News then – or, indeed, for both, though not of Political Polling in Britain Chronicle, and secured a firm foothold by course at the same time! Academia, too, correctly challenging the received wisdom. began to use polling techniques to generate r Henry Durant, the man who An early triumph was to forecast Edith data for political research, especially the British introduced opinion polling to Summerskill’s victory at the West Fulham by- Election Study under Butler and Stokes and D Britain, once described it as “the election in 1938. Even more unexpected, of their successors. stupidest of professions” – for who else is course, was Churchill’s defeat at the 1945 stupid enough to publish a prediction on General Election. Focus Groups Thursday morning that may be proved One technique which has remained mainly wrong on Thursday evening? Gallup showed us that Attlee was going to win confined to private polling, but which over the with the Labour Party. Nobody believed us, last few years has come to the fore, is the use Political opinion polling in Britain pre-dates the including all the News Chronicle people. of focus groups. This is not because they mark birth of the Political Studies Association – but a sea change with the methods of the past: only just. Durant ran the first polls for British But in the event Gallup was right, in fact focus groups have a long history in social and Gallup (originally the British Institute of Public slightly underestimating Labour’s lead. market research. What has moved them into Opinion) in 1937, just two years after its Despite the occasional hiccup, the polls the headlines is the use of focus groups by Tony American forefather was founded. Gallup generally since then have a good record of Blair to explore voter attitudes and test key began in both the USA and in Britain as a election ‘prediction’: only twice in 15 elections messages in the period leading up to the 1997 means of journalism, but it quickly expanded has the average error of the “poll of polls” in election – something which has continued in its horizons. Durant explained: measuring the parties’ vote shares exceeded Government. In The Unfinished Revolution, 2%, or the error on the Conservative-Labour Blair’s polling advisor, Philip Gould, talks about People constantly asked us to put questions on lead exceeded 6%. the use of focus groups: our regular surveys, and at the beginning I was stupid enough to regard these as a In 1945, Gallup was the only player in the field, I nearly always learn something new and nuisance: then I suddenly realised that this but rivals soon began to move in, and many – surprising. People do not think in traditional

28 Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary Dozens of hostages held.

PETER BROOKES, THE TIMES, 24.4.97

ways or conform to conventional prejudice. Swindon is ideally representative of Britain as a In a group it is possible to test out the strength whole, and have descended upon this almost Chronology and depth of feeling about an issue, which can blameless town in droves. The story is all too be more difficult, although not impossible, in a reminiscent of “Magic Town”, surely the only conventional poll. Hollywood feature film about political research Devolved parliament for methodology: James Stewart, the pollster-hero, 1998 On the other hand: discovers a town that is the perfect microcosm Scotland established (74% in favour in of the USA, bases all his polls there (with the 1997 referendum); devolved Not all groups work as they should. On one consequent savings in time and cost), and assembly created for Wales (50.3% occasion, two strangers seduced each other as eventually learns a harsh lesson about panel- of voters in favour). the group was going on. Everyone pretended conditioning effects. not to notice. But in the end, it is a simple business, really – 1999 A devolved assembly is Most published polling, though, remains based all we have to do is ask the right questions, to established in Northern Ireland following on the quantitative survey. Gallup’s first polls the right people, and add up the figures yes votes north and south of the border in were postal surveys, but these were quickly correctly; and if we can get all the figures the 1998 referendum on the Good Friday supplanted by the familiar pen and clipboard within 1%, as Henry Durant did in that first poll Agreement. for face-to-face interviews. Telephone polling at West Fulham, we may even get some credit came later – indeed, it was not until 1997 that for it. But even Dr Durant called that the majority of the main monthly newspaper “beginner’s luck”. Professor Rod Rhodes is elected Chair of polling series switched to telephone interviews the Political Studies Association, to – and the nineties also saw the increasing Roger Mortimore and Simon Atkinson, MORI popular acclaim. replacement of the clipboard with Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) for face- PSA launches its third journal The British to-face interviews. At the same time, International Relations in Journal of Politics and International unfortunately, has come the explosion of the Britain – after the ‘fall’. Relations. The PSA’s website meaningless but ubiquitous self-selecting polls, (www.psa.ac.uk) is voted the Best in the at first by mail-in coupons, then newspaper o subject in the social sciences exists World by the Lycos search engine. phone-in polls (far too easily and too frequently separately from the real world and misreported as “a telephone poll”), and now N the academic study of international increasingly similar polls on the Internet, often relations in Britain is no exception to this given spurious credibility by association with particular rule. Born as a liberal project in 2000 The PSA celebrates its fiftieth otherwise reputable sites or publications. the aftermath of World War One, with the anniversary. onset of the Cold War its pre-occupations Misreporting changed dramatically as the search for Politics Departments savour Quality But the misreporting or simplification of our peace after the carnage of the trenches Assurance inspections. data is a cross we always have to bear. Some gave way after 1947 to an almost rigid simplifications seem to catch the imagination of obsession with the East-West conflict and the press, and stick – for example, as ideotypes deterrence under conditions of bipolarity. of the key swing voters, “Essex Man”, Ralph Miliband once observed that ‘IR’ was “Mondeo Man” or “”. a conservative subject whose high-priests Press reports this year have brought us provided little more than a gloss on the “Swindon Man” – apparently some market Cold War. There was some truth to this. researchers have come to the conclusion that However, it was not the whole truth and

Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary 29 The Disciplines of Politics

not all of the subject’s practitioners were of anarchy. In this way, old definitions of what because the rebirth of American power is the hand-maidens of the powerful. Nor defined security tended to be superseded, a challenge in its own right, but because were they all hard-nosed realists with no accompanied by a surge of interest in those the majority of voices in the field of interest in change (as some have later sources of insecurity – poverty, environmental international relations still happen to speak charged) or naive positivists with little degradation, migration, refugee movement and with American accents. understanding of their own normative the like – that had very little to do with what biases. In fact, there were many who states did in the international system. This is where British international relations has challenged the logic of containment, and a vital part to play, not as enemy, or even as in the heady days of the 1980s played a American Accents America’s interlocutor in some cosy ‘special vital part in that great debate about the But if there have been losers, there were relationship’, but as an alternative point of role of nuclear weapons and the position winners too. Theory and an interest in reference. In many ways it already plays that Europe could, or should, occupy in a world theory (feminism, post-modernism and role: first through its many journals like the still dominated by the superpowers. constructivism in particular) has undoubtedly Review of International Studies, Millennium, been one. Globalization as the new Survival and International Affairs, then through But even the critics got one thing wrong: the organizing idea of international relations its own publications including the massively Cold War itself whose passing in 1989 left has certainly been another. Cold War successful Cambridge Series in International many a self-confident analyst with theoretical international history has also experienced Relations, and finally through regular egg on his or her face. Nor could they have something of a renaissance. So too has appearances at key international conferences in anticipated the impact which the end of the European integration. For the first half of the both the US and western Europe. Significantly, Cold War would then have on the subject of 1990’s there was a great flood of interest in the largest overseas contingent attending the international relations. Certainly, someone the United Nations. This rapidly receded International Studies Association in the US on entering the profession in the 1980s would not however as events in the former Yugoslavia an annual basis, hails from the UK. recognize, and may be not even feel at home revealed the limits of the organization’s in, the ‘discipline’ (if discipline it can now be capabilities. Asia-Pacific has also had its ups So what is the current state of play? Anarchic? called) in 2000. and downs. The regional destination of To some extent. Lacking a central question? choice after the collapse of the USSR, since Almost certainly. Fragmented? Very much so. Big changes therefore have taken place over the great financial crisis of 1997 there Yet there is much more life to the subject now the last ten years making international relations appears to be rather less interest in the area than there was before, much less deference in Britain an intellectually more diverse and than there was in those intoxicating days to the great and good, and much more we less rigidly defined subject than it was before. when nearly everybody felt we were heading can legitimately call the subject then we could There have of course been casualties along the for a new Pacific Century – one that would back in 1989 or before. For some of us older way. Strategic studies, for instance, has gone challenge both European and American pre- hands at least the last few years have been into steep decline in the post-Cold War era. eminence. How strange that particular extraordinarily exciting, not to mention Interest in the history of war has waned too. forecast now sounds! unnerving. The subject has never been as open And there has been a marked turn away from or vibrant. British IR is at least one field that diplomacy and diplomatic history. The state as a This leads us, inevitably, to the United States. appears to have benefited from the collapse of specific point of academic interest has not done It too has suffered from certain misconceptions, old certainties, even if its practitioners back very well either, and one of the most repeated the most embarrassing one of all being the then were unaware that the old order was mantras of the 1990s was that we now needed once popular notion – touted with great skill about to go under. Whether the new to move beyond the state and the old by the English historian Paul Kennedy – that the generation prove to be any more prescient traditional way of thinking about international United States was in (relative) decline. In Britain remains to be seen. relations as a subject solely concerned with there are few students writing on US foreign what went on between states under conditions policy. It is an unfortunate lacuna, not just Professor Michael Cox

30 Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary User Relevance and Political Studies Professor Charlie Jeffery

The relationship between political studies research and the practice of politics in the UK is now a close and positive one. Indeed, a new language of ‘policy relevance’, ‘research users’ and ‘user engagement’ has grown up to describe the interactions which now exist between politics research and the policy practitioners who ‘use’ it.

Politics Research and of key figures like Bob Mackenzie, David Butler terms of ‘the needs of users and beneficiaries’ Policy Relevance and Anthony King made a genuine impact by showing how it contributes to by bringing scholarship to general election competitiveness, more effective public nteraction between researchers and nights. A close relationship also developed services and improved quality of life. practitioners had been one of the between major centres for research on local I aspirations of the founding generation government in Birmingham, Newcastle, Though this user focus has not been received of the PSA. Lord (Sandie) Lindsay for Strathclyde and, later, De Montfort and uncritically, with some seeing limits to example saw the creation of Nuffield practitioners in local government. Some academic freedom, it is now a central element College at Oxford in the 1930s as helping individual specialists in international relations of much politics research. Research projects, to deepen practitioner-researcher link. and European politics – e.g. Malcolm whether funded by ESRC or not, now routinely As Jack Hayward recalls, Lindsay hoped to Anderson, Lawrence Freedman, Willie Paterson have ‘user advisory groups’, are carried out in establish a ‘meeting of minds between and Helen Wallace – became important regular consultation with relevant bodies in social scientists and men of action – interlocutors in foreign policy-making. the public and private sectors, and take care central and local government officials, present their findings in ways attuned to a politicians and businessmen’ which ‘could Otherwise, though, enduring interaction practitioner environment. Rowntree’s Briefings revolutionise the study of contemporary between scholarship and practice was rare, are the market leaders in profiling results in society by the effect it would have in with Norman Chester gloomily complaining this way. making the theorist and practical man in 1975 that ‘our professional services are accustomed to helping and consulting not greatly in demand and generally speaking The move towards this kind of practitioner- one another’. are not recognised as giving us claims to oriented research has accelerated during the speak with special authority on the subjects 1990s and into the new century. In part The experience of many university lecturers we teach’. responding to ideas generated by politics during World War II in Whitehall and other academics, ESRC has launched a range of branches of public administration had also The 1980’s: a turning point research programmes centred on key areas laid strong foundations. As Norman Chester, The radical reforms in policy direction and of political studies. The ESRC’s Whitehall the inaugural PSA Chairman, put it: ‘wartime public administration launched by the Thatcher Programme ran, for example, from 1994-1999 experience had shown the importance of the governments opened up new political territory with the aim of describing, explaining and social sciences in public affairs’. Chester’s view for practitioners to chart and negotiate. creating a better understanding of changes in was reinforced by the findings of a Committee Demand for research on the practical British government. Like a number of similar under Sir John Clapham on the Provision for implications of policy change grew in turn, initiatives, its aim was to bridge scholarship Social and Economic Research, which found in though was not fully released during a and practice by – as its Director, Rod Rhodes, 1946 that: ‘Political science, the study of the Thatcher era notable for government put it – ‘appreciating one another’s problems institutions of government and public scepticism about social science. Since then, and learning one another’s languages’. administration, is a subject in which sufficient though, government has been rather more work has been done to demonstrate its utility open to cooperation and consultation with Other ESRC Programmes currently under way and importance’. social scientists. in the field of political studies include One Europe or Several? The Dynamics of Change That ‘utility and importance’ was, however One factor in this new relationship has been across Europe, led by Helen Wallace, only sporadically mobilised in subsequent the funding policies of the Economic and Democracy and Participation (Paul Whiteley), years. Only in a small number of fields did Social Research Council (ESRC). ESRC funds and the Future of Governance (Ed Page). political scientists develop regular and fruitful social science research to the value of over £45 One Europe or Several? explores parallel working relationships with practitioners. million annually. And it has increasingly processes of integration and fragmentation Election studies were one, where a succession required applicants to justify their research in in contemporary Europe; Democracy and

Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary 31 User Relevance

Participation the effectiveness of democratic The late Norman Chester might, in other management (NPM) are familiar stories about institutions in the UK and the ways they need to words, be surprised by how much ‘our British government. Governance or ‘steering change to meet the needs of a rapidly changing professional services’ are now ‘in demand’ by networks’, challenges both. It also captures society in the 21st century; and Future of and how much they are ‘recognised as giving the shift from line bureaucracies to networks Governance the ways governments adapt ideas us special claim to speak with special authority and fragmented service delivery. It has become and practices developed elsewhere to address on the subjects we teach’ and research about. one of the defining stories about British their domestic policy problems. Each runs over government at the turn of the century. 20 different research projects and an extensive Some current programmes are now briefly The Whitehall Programme provides a language programme of events and publications designed explored. for describing a world in which networks rival to ‘reach in’ to user communities. markets and bureaucracy as the apt way of delivering services. A final area in which politics academics have The ESRC’s Whitehall done much to bridge scholarship and practice Programme The phrase ‘interdisciplinary work’ often is in the field of constitutional reform. The Blair commands obeisance, but little else. government elected in 1997 came to power he ESRC’s Whitehall Programme ran The Whitehall Programme had 5 historians committed to the most radical constitutional from 1994 to 1999. It aimed to working on it and they showed an exemplary reform programme for centuries. This is of T describe, to explain and to create a willingness to debate with their political course a field which strikes right at the heart better understanding of both recent and science and put flesh on the bare bones that of the discipline of political studies: the long-term changes in British government. is the rhetoric of interdisciplinary work. institutional arrangements of government, It also compared these changes with The Programme had three comparative and the relationship of state to society. It has those in other EU member states and projects and wide-ranging international links opened up enormous opportunities for political other states with a ‘Westminster’ system with, for example, equivalent research projects studies to shape and influence public affairs. of government. It had six strands: in Denmark and Australia. Political scientists like Alice Brown in Scotland, developing theories about the new Kevin Morgan in Wales and Elizabeth Meehan governance; analysing the hollowing out The Whitehall Programme research was in Northern Ireland were central figures in of the state; providing an anthology of communicated via seminars at the LSE, shaping debates about the purpose and what is going on, especially up-to-date chaired by Ben Pimlott, Sir Robin Butler and structure of devolution. Patrick Dunleavy, Helen accounts of the impact of change on Sir Richard Wilson and via a large range of Margetts and others delivered much of the central departments and on the changing publications. thinking which lies behind new electoral roles and relationships of ministers and systems in Scotland and Wales and the civil servants; analysing changing patterns Professor Rod Rhodes ongoing debate about electoral reform for the of accountability and of regulation; and House of Commons. analysing new forms of service delivery. The Future Governance Countless others have fed into the work of key Although the Programme responded to the Programme think-tanks on constitutional matters like the ESRC’s call for policy relevant research and Constitution Unit, Democratic Dialogue and involved users in their work, it was also an overnments increasingly seek to the Institute for Public Policy Research. Parallel example of ‘curiosity research’ – that is, it adapt ideas and practices research programmes run by ESRC, the reflected academic interests and concerns. G developed outside their Leverhulme Trust and the Rowntree The ESRC and the agreed jurisdictions to address domestic public Foundation have ensured the momentum has that its primary objective was not to provide policy problems. This process of policy been maintained. The net result has been a policy relevant advice. In practice, it combined learning takes a variety of forms. In some dense and deepening engagement of politics basic research on the evolution of British cases it is voluntary, as politicians and research with a policy practitioner community government with policy relevant research on government officials look to the forced to negotiate virgin territory by the sheer present-day practice in Britain and Europe. experience of other countries for scope of the reform programme. The Westminster model and the new public alternative ways of dealing with problems;

32 Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary in other cases it results from outside process of transfer works and the political, It excludes participation linked to financial incentives, such as through international social, economic and cultural variables that rewards, such as labour force participation, aid packages. Policies may also be affect how lessons drawn from experiences since it is unpaid voluntary activity that adopted almost compulsorily, such as in one jurisdiction can be applied in another. underpins democracy. with international treaty obligations. The agents of transfer might be Professor Ed Page Traditional notions of democratic international organisations, think tanks, representation in Britain are under some firms, academics, politicians or government strain. Some of the current challenges officials. This programme examines how ESRC Democracy and facing British democracy are: the dominance lessons can be drawn, and have been Participation Programme of the executive over the legislature; the rise drawn, from cross-national experience. of global and regional sources of power; he ESRC’s Democracy and the marginalisation of elected local The central ambition of the progranmme is Participation Programme addresses government; and the decline in traditional to increase the contribution of comparative T a number of key concerns about institutions of democratic representation analysis to contemporary academic and political the current state of British democracy such as political parties. debates. This contribution will extend across and participation. The five core questions many disciplines (among the researchers on that the Programme seeks to explore A major theme of the Programme will the programme are economists, geographers, and answer are: Is there a crisis of be to examine the effectiveness of the accountants, political scientists, anthropologists, participation and democratic legitimacy in institutions that support democracy, and historians and health and social policy Britain? Why do some people participate to evaluate the forms of democratic specialists), policy areas, and contexts. when others do not? What are the effects representation appropriate for the rapidly Comparisons do not focus exclusively on Europe of a changing environment, particularly changing society of the 21st century. or the developed world, but also include less constitutional and political changes, on developed nations. participation? What are the links between The reasons for the timeliness of this participation, governance and democratic Programme are clear. The Government has The programme brings together academics accountability? What participation is embarked on a very ambitious Programme and practitioners to examine the potential taking place? of constitutional reforms. By the time the contribution of cross-national experience Programme is completed it should provide: to developing public policy initiatives. The central objective of the 21 projects New conceptual thinking about the nature Early meetings organised under this include under the programme is to examine of democracy and representation in a the use of social experiments in policy making, participation in Britain. Participation is often technologically advanced and rapidly how to improve the legal implementation seen rather narrowly in terms of citizens changing society; More powerful theoretical of EU legislation, financial regulation, voting in elections. Taking a broad view, explanations about why some people are social welfare reform, the care of mentally participation can be defined as unpaid involved in voluntary activity when others are disordered offenders, child care and the future voluntary activity undertaken by citizens that not; Evaluations of the effectiveness of some of cities. The Programme is also pursuing influences government, policy-making and of the key constitutional reforms such as the collaborative ventures with organisations such democratic accountability. This definition new assemblies and changes in local and as the National Audit Office, European Policy encompasses:participation in elections, parties regional government; Answers to the Forum and the European Consortium for and interest groups; unorthodox activities such question of whether there is a crisis of Political Research. as road protests and campaigns over planning democracy and participation in Britain; enquiries; voluntary activities such as Evaluations of the increasing role of the Overall the programme’s 30 projects will participation in parent-teacher associations, voluntary sector in policy-making; allow us to answer key questions about the community groups, works councils and Comprehensive information about the scope circumstances under which cross-national cultural organisations, which develop social and range of voluntary activities in Britain. lessons are sought, the conditions under capital and influence policy-making and the which policies can be transferred, how the delivery of services. Professor Paul Whiteley

Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversary 33 he Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Limited, founded in 1904, by the Liberal Quaker philanthropist, Joseph Rowntree, was deliberately set up as a company which pays tax T on its income and is therefore free to give grants for political purposes, to promote political reform and constitutional change. Joseph Rowntree was concerned inter alia with maintaining the purity of elections and the freedom of the press and consequently in the past two decades the main focus of the Trust’s grant making has been directed towards these areas. Over the past ten years the Trust has taken regular samplings of public opinion on constitutional reform and other related matters in its State of the Nation polls.

While the Trust does not normally give grants for research and other charitable purposes it necessarily has a close interest in the work of political scientists and extends its congratulations to the Political Studies Association for its Golden Jubilee.

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34 Votes and Violence

Cartoon from the London Daily Mirror, 2 July 1909, by William Kerridge Haselden (1872-1953)

The Centre for the Study of Cartoons and Caricature is cartoon cuttings, a photo library of 60,000 images for happy to join in the peaceful celebrations of the fiftieth publication and research, and a reference library of books anniversary of the Political Studies Association! and magazines. The Centre was established in 1973 to encourage the study In 1990 the Centre also began digitising the cartoons in its of cartoons of political and social comment from British collection, and its website at http://library.ukc.ac.uk/cartoons/ newspapers and magazines. The Centre’s collection now holds 38,000 fully-searchable images covering British includes 80,000 original cartoons and strips, 65,000 politics throughout the twentieth century.

For information on the Centre’s resources, publications, and exhibitions, contact: Dr Nicholas Hiley, Head of the Centre for the Study of Cartoons and Caricature, Templeman Library, University of Kent at Canterbury, Canterbury CT2 7NU, Kent, United Kingdom. Tel. +44 1227 827138, fax. +44 1227 823127, email [email protected]. http://library.ukc.ac.uk/cartoons/

35 A Tradition of Excellence in Political Studies

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For information about these, or any other Palgrave politics title, please contact Fiona Wyatt at Palgrave, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS tel +44 (0)1256 302864, fax +44 (0)1256 330688 or e-mail [email protected] A full catalogue and other resources for the politics student and lecturer can be found at www.palgrave.com/politics

36 The ESRC is the UK’s largest funding agency for research and postgraduate training relating to social and economic issues. We have a track record of providing high-quality, relevant research to business, the public sector and government.

The ESRC and the research we fund ESRC Democracy and economic and social research. It is have made a significant contribution Participation Programme directed by Professor Charlie Jeffery, to the understanding of electoral and University of Birmingham. political behaviour in the UK. Directed by Professor Paul Whitely, Sheffield University, the programme is Future Governance: Lessons from Major research investments include: investigating citizen participation and Comparative Public Policy voluntary activity, addressing a number ESRC Centre for Research into of key themes concerning the present This multi-disciplinary programme is Elections and Social Trends (CREST) state of British democracy and developing our understanding of how participation. policies devised in one jurisdiction CREST was set up to monitor trends in can be transferred and applied social and political attitudes at an Devolution and Constitutional Change elsewhere. Projects cover a wide individual, national and international Programme range of policy areas, including the level. environment, law and order, taxation, The programme explores the major health, social welfare, education, and The Centre Director is Professor Roger constitutional changes to the UK and business regulation. Professor Ed Jowell from The National Centre for provides a timely and unrepeatable Page, University of Hull, directs the Social Research. opportunity for political analysis and programme.

For further information about ESRC and the research it funds E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] or see http://www.esrc.ac.uk

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Awards Ceremony Organisers Cartoons courtesy of the Centre for the Study of Cartoons, University of Kent at Canterbury: PSA Co-ordinators: Professor Charlie Jeffery and Professor John Benyon Page 7: Michael Cummings, Daily Express, 27 April 1959, © Express Newspapers Event Management: Maxine Vlieland and Jenny Fowler, Specialist Conferences Ltd Page 9: Vicky, Evening Standard, 14 August 1963, © Atlantic Syndication Partners Stage design: Simon Coote, Simage Communications Page 11: Nicholas Garland, Daily Telegraph, not dated, © Ewan McNaughton Associates

50th Anniversary Brochure Page 13: Nicholas Garland, Daily Telegraph, 1 October 1974, © Ewan McNaughton Associates Editor: Dr Jon Tonge; Assisted by: Professor Charlie Jeffery, Professor John Benyon, Dr Dan Hough and Jack Arthurs Page 15: Mel Calman, Sunday Times, 6 September 1981, © S & C Calman

Cover illustration: Page 27: Peter Brookes, The Times, 3 October 1996, © Peter Brookes/The Times Design: Infinite Design

Printed by: Statex Print Page 29: Peter Brookes, The Times, 24 April 1997, © Peter Brookes/The Times

The PSA is a Registered Charity no. 1071825 and a Company Limited by guarantee in England and Wales no. 3628986. Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom

Chairs 1950-2000

Norman Chester (1950-57)

K.B. Smellie (1957-60)

W.J.M. MacKenzie (1960-63)

Wilfrid Harrison (1963-65)

S.E. Finer (1965-69)

Graeme Moodie (1969-72)

A.H. Birch (1972-75)

J.E.S. Hayward (1975-77)

Hugh Berrington (1977-80)

Geraint Parry (1980-83)

Maurice M. Goldsmith (1983-86)

Raymond Plant (1986-88)

Trevor Smith (1988-89)

M.J.F. Goldsmith (1989-93)

Elizabeth Meehan (1993-96)

Ian Forbes (1996-99)

Rod Rhodes (1999-)

Political Studies Association Department of Politics, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK

Tel: 0191 222 8021 Fax: 0191 222 5069 E-mail: [email protected] ? Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom | 50th Anniversarywww.psa.ac.uk