4th Period 2/2/09

Tony Blair's government would revitalize the Democratic process in the United Kingdom. The government began to transfer political power from central government to regional governments in Ireland, England, Scotland, etc. around Britian's Constitution to carry out goals. He used the Constitution to set up regional assemblies (legislation) in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. In addition, London gained authority to directly elect mayor. In the Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland got their own parliment but shared power with Britain and Ireland. Chosen/Elected by Representative proportion. Blair also takes seats in House of Lords from most heridatry members (those who inherited seats) (about 400) and the remaining 92 had their vote stripped from them. On June 17, 2007, Tony Blair steps down as leader of Labor Party because of strong opposition in Britian against participation Iraq War. His successor is Gordon Brown, who is the current Prime Minister. Brown is in favor of changing law to get rid of power of royal declaration of war (royalty declaring war without approval of anyone) and should have Parliment have to approve of war first. Brown thought Parliment should have more power. Britian should institute a US confirmation style hearnings for posts. In a few months, Conservative Party steps up attacks on Labor Pary. English law dictates that once a week, the Prime Minister must be questioned by the House of Commons. Electorates soon began to agree with the Conservative's view. In 2008 local and city elections, Conservatives won 44% of the offices, Liberal Democrats won 25%, and Labor got 24%. In October of 2008, 10's of billions of pounds were planned to be injected into banks to get parts of bank and shares in banks. Brown also created a new cabinet, the National Economic Counsel to have responsibility for markets and fix rising costs of feed and fuel. In November, Britian announced 30,000,000,000 dollar stimulus package to jumpastart economy. Calls for Financial relief by cutting sales tax from 17% to 15% increase tax rate from 40% to 45% for the top 1% rich people, 1.5 billion for highways, schools, and roads. Brown offered help for people's mortgages. They can dely mortgage payments for 2 years. England maintains close friendship with United States, membership in NATO, UN, an is capable of nuclear power. It has a "special relationship" with US. Great Britian in often a quick ally with US. Permanent member of UN Security Counsel but outsider of EU & often plays "second fiddle" to US. Joining in EU has caused a prolonged debate but still helped create the Maastricht treaty (set up EU). Britian ratifes treaty but does not have Euro yet still in European Union.

Direct Socialization Agents
1. Families: Political party identification as well as religious affiliation. Followers of Church of England tend to vote Conservative and other Protestants tend to vote Labor (very weak trend).
2. Schools and Education: Strongly related to level of participation, with increase in education, increase in participation.
3. Until early 70's, social class was most important with the middle and upper class being Conservatives and Labor was lower, working class. Since then, it has lost historical value but is still largest ceavage of political socialization. In October '07, a poll stated 89% of respondants said that they were still judged by class. In '06, 55% considered themselves workers, which continued to slip to 53%. 41% thought of themselves as middle class, which stayed the same during the next poll. In the '80's, substantial number of workers and voters joined the Conservative party. Labor has worked to get manual labor votes but a number of those workers are decreasing so they have to get lots of different groups from the socioeconomic spectrum.
4. Women tend to vote for the Labor Pary.
5. Peers and Media play small role in political socialization. In political culture, legitimacy of British government is super high. Citizens actively participate in competitive elections. Everywhere in Great Britian is like this, except Northern Ireland. British tend to place themselves in middle of political spectrum and agree on problems. We would call their government Democracy, with elements such as the House of Commons, but the Prime Minister and House of Lords do not gain their positions through democratic ways.