The British State and European Integration • • The Politics of Modernisation Dr. Christopher G. Gifford Department of Sociology London School of Economics and Political Science UMI Number: U188014 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U188014 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 nfisqoTo'J bns 9ifii0 ifehiiS 9-' i fioilfeeimsboM lo^?ii!ocl sriT ^78700 A bstract.......................................................................................................................................................6 Introduction..............................................................................................................................................7 Chapter outline..............................................................................................................................................8 CHAPTER ONE The British State and European Integration: A Structural Analysis............................12 1.1 The problem of Britain and European integration: the limits of rational action ....................... 12 1.2 Moving beyond domestic politics ................................................................................... 17 1.3 The research agenda: structural analysis and historical research ...................................................23 1.4 Conclusion............................................................................................................................................ 31 CHAPTER TWO The Global Dynamics of Modernisation and British Exceptionalism....................... 32 2.1 Economic and political modernisation: contrasting forms of political rule ................................32 2.2 Analysing changes in the global order ...............................................................................................34 2.3 Global Fordism and European integration ......................................................................................37 2.4 Flexible accumulation and European integration ............................................................................39 2.5 European integration, globalisation and political modernisation .................................................42 2. 6 British exceptionalism in perspective .............................................................................................. 46 2.7 Britain and European integration ....................................................................................................52 CHAPTER THREE The British State and European Integration 1950-1963: Imperial Opposition and Flawed Europeanism......................................................................................................................... 55 3. 1 European integration, Fordism and the rise of regional governance ..........................................56 3. 2 The missing European rescue o f the British state...........................................................................59 3.3 The British post-war consensus: the imperial state and the problem o f political modernisation.................................................................................................................................................62 3.4 The Labour government and the Schuman Plan 1950: an imperial approach to European integration....................................................................................................................................................... 69 3.5 The failure o f the European Defence Community 1951-1954: a British victory........................78 3.6 Sabotaging Messina and the free trade proposals..............................................................................81 3.6 Establishing a European civil society.................................................................................................. 85 3.7 The post-imperial context: towards nation-statehood......................................................................88 3.8 Modernisation without modernising................................................................................................... 93 3.9 Conclusion..............................................................................................................................................104 CHAPTER FOUR The British State and European Integration 1964-1979: The Post-Imperial Crisis and the Exclusion of Europe ........................................................................................106 4.1 The crisis of Fordism and sustaining the project of European integration...............................107 4.3 Failed modernisation and the European remedy: the second application to join the EC 122 4.4 Entry into the Community: the Heath government and flawed Europeamsm..........................132 4. 5 Contexts and constraints: evaluating the British accession to the EC under Heath................139 4.6 The exclusion of Europe and the ascendancy o f pragmatic nationalism...............................142 4. 7 The shifting balance o f domestic forces and the further decline o f Europeanism.............148 4.8 Towards the strong state and the global economy.......................................................................153 4.10 Conclusion............................................................................................................................................154 CHAPTER FIVE The Second Wave of European Integration: A Process of Political Modernisation? ................................................................................................................................... 156 5.1 The second wave of European integration......................................................................................157 5.2 Europeanisation: an effective response to globalisation?............................................................. 164 CHAPTER SIX Thatcherism, European Integration and the Politics of Modernisation .............. 173 6.1 Thatcherism and British exceptionalism...........................................................................................174 6.2 Thatcherism and the financialisation of the global order............................................................. 178 6.3 A struggle for hegemony.....................................................................................................................181 6.4 Thatcherism, the crisis in the Conservative party and European integration........................... 182 6. 5 A Thatcherite European policy: the budget dispute and the Westland affair......................... 185 6.6 The Single Market: Thatcherism in Europe?...................................................................................188 6.7 *You can’t buck the markets’: Conservative conflicts over the ERM.........................................194 6.8 The ERM and the leadership crisis....................................................................................................199 6.9 Anti-Europeanism and renewing Thatcherism............................................................................... 202 6.10 The end of Thatcher..........................................................................................................................207 6.11 What kind o f a victory?.....................................................................................................................209 CHAPTER SEVEN The European Crisis of the British State 1990-1994..................................................213 7.1 Majorism: the missing political strategy............................................................................................213 7.2 ‘At the heart o f Europe’......................................................................................................................218 7. 3 The Maastricht negotiations: a Roman triumph?.......................................................................... 220 7.4 ‘Black’ or ‘white’ Wednesday, according to taste............................................................................ 225 7.5 Eurosceptic mobilisation and the Danish no-vote........................................................................ 232 7.6 The Maastricht ratification and the European crisis o f the British State.................................. 237 7. 8 Euroscepticism: a national movement for British exceptionalism.............................................241 7.9 Eurosceptics: the guardians o f British exceptionalism............................................................... 247 4 7.10 Major’s Euroscepticism and the aftermath of the European crisis........................................249 Conclusion British Exceptionalism, European Integration and Political Modernisation 253 N otes..............................................................................................................................................................263 5 Abstract My research develops a sociological framework for exploring the structural