Prof Antony Travers

This course is available on the BA in Social Anthropology, BSc in History and Politics, BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (with a Year Abroad), BSc in Politics, BSc in Politics and Data Science, BSc in Politics and Economics, BSc in Politics and History, BSc in Politics and International Relations, BSc in Politics and Philosophy and BSc in Social Anthropology. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course is not available to General Course students.

This course is capped.

Students must have completed Introduction to Political Science (GV101).

The course will provide an introduction to contemporary British government, notably the institutions involved and processes of policy-making. The first part of the course will explain the evolution of British government from the earliest times, including the philosophical ideas that have come to underpin contemporary politics. The key institutions of British government will be described and analysed, focusing on factors that explain the functioning of a complex modern State. By the end of the course, students will have a practical understanding of the entire system of British government and the influences that affect it.

This course is delivered through a combination of classes and lectures totalling a minimum of 51 and a half hours across the Autumn, Winter and Spring Terms. There will be a reading week in Week 6 of both the AT and WT.

Students will be required to submit 2 unassessed essays in both the Autumn and Winter Terms.

R. Heffernan, P Cowley and C Hay, Developments in British Politics 9, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011

P. Norton, The British Polity, 5th Edition, London, Pearson Longman, 2010

M. Garnett and P. Lynch, Exploring British Politics, 2nd edition, London, Pearson Longman, 2009

R. A. W. Rhodes, Everyday Life in British Government, Oxford University Press, 2011

C. Hood, The blame game: spin, bureaucracy, and self-preservation in government, Princeton University Press, 2011

Exam (100%, duration: 3 hours) in the spring exam period.