Quotes from Philip Norton

departments headed by ministers and staffed by civil servants.

twentieth century. In the nineteenth century, it was an important influence in the politics of the nation: Tories were more likely to be Anglicans and Nonconformists, such as the Methodists, more likely to be Liberals. In significance,

In terms of the structure of the

feature of British society, yet it is difficult to define. In the United Kingdom, the term is employed in different senses. As the historian David Cannadine has argued, it can be used to denote social attitudes ("us" versus "them"), groupings in society based on occupation (upper, middle, and working), and hierarchy (in effect, status but not necessarily inherited, but rather earned or acquired, status).10 These distinctions are useful in making sense of how

values. To know the media through which values and beliefs that coalesce to form the political culture are transmitte

he theme of previous editions of The British Polity has been that of continuity

debate" thus takes place among very few members. Most speeches are delivered from prepared notes and often have little

assumed a new role as a consequence of British membership in the European Union—changing fundamentally the traditional constitution—

Since 1992, a number of colleges (including some highly specialized colleges) have been awarded

Giovanni Sartori has distinguished two approaches to problem solving: the empirical and the rational. 15 The empirical approach is concerned with what is and what can be seen and touched, proceeding on the basis of testing and retesting and largely rejecting dogma and abstract or coherent grand designs for change. The rationalist approach, by contrast, is concerned with abstraction rather than facts, stressing the need for deductive consistency and tending to be dogmatic and definitive.

Labour winning 30 of the 60 seats in the assembly

parliamentary majority; the Conservative opposition appeared to be destined for a lengthy stay in the political wilderness; the country was enjoying continued, indeed unparalleled, economic growth; and the constitutional reforms introduced by the Government—not least devolution of power to elected assemblies in Scotland and Wales—appeared to be bedding

The third criticism of the electoral system is that it encourages adversarial politics in Britain, with consequent negative

he theme of previous editions of The British Polity has been that of continuity and change in British politics. The theme is one that applies to the content of this edition. I have maintained

destroy. Change had to take place without doing violence to the existing

themselves were deemed inadequate to meet Britain's fundamental

turmoil and the legacy of an unpopular war with Iraq; the Conservative opposition looked likely to form the next government; and many of the constitutional reforms were not