POLI20532 Course Outline 1112 - School of Social Sciences

POLI20532: Course Guide 2011-12
within the context of a broader discussion. A degree of selectivity is not only indispensable
but the key to a well-focused argument. However, the focus should be explained and the
broader context and debates clearly indicated: a strong, clear introductory paragraph, as
always, is the key to a really effective answer.
WEEK 5
To what extent was modernisation the central political issue of the
1960s and 1970s, and why should this have been so?
5.1 Questions
1. Why did the need for modernisation loom so large in British politics by the 1960s?
How important wasLabour’s modernising agenda in securing its return to power in 1964?
2. Did the Wilson governments of 1964-70 betray the promise of modernisation? Did
they, as critics alleged, betray their own supporters? If so, was this due to constraints, events,
expediency or just a lack of vision? Is it time to make the case again for the government’s
achievements?
3. What was Heath’s variation on the theme of modernisation? Was this only a ‘bogus
alternative’ (Samuel Brittan) to Wilson? Or was the ‘Heath experiment’ a dry run for
Thatcher’s neo-liberalism, and if so why was it so rapidly abandoned? Was Heath the last of
the One Nation Tories or the first of the Thatcherites?
4. By 1974 the vote for both main parties was declining. Why did the promise of
modernisation not fulfilled? Was it a failure of leadership? Or did it go deeper than this?
5.2 Essential readings
Contemporary British History
Gregory Elliott
21, 3, 2007: special issue on Wilson governments
including articles on economic policy, industrial
relations, the machinery of government and the
creative industries. For an overview see especially
Glenn O’Hara and Helen Parr, ‘Introduction: the Fall
and Rise of a Reputation’, pp. 295-302, and the same
authors’ concluding feature.
Labourism and the English Genius, 1993, ch. 3 (HD
and Blackboard). An acerbic statement of the critical
view.
5.3 General texts and alternative readings
Kenneth Morgan Britain Since 1945, chs 7-9
David Childs Britain Since 1945, chs 7-9
Richard Coopey et al, eds. The Wilson Governments 1964-1970, 1993. (Copies
of David Horner’s chapter ‘The road to Scarborough:
Wilson, Labour and the scientific revolution’ also in
HD).
Andrew Gamble
Britain in Decline, 1994 edn, ch. 4 (copies in HD).
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