Great Britain 2/2/09

1997: Parliament held elections for the House of Commons
-Labor Party wins control and Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister
-more women and minority were elected into the House of Commons in this election than ever before.
-Blair called the Labor party the "New Labor Party" and tried to change the Labor Party's image of only being supported by labor workers.
-He broadened the various types of people that supported the Labor Party across the socioeconomic spectrum.
-One of Blair's big success' was the use of Devolution by constitutional reforms(amends).
1. created regional legislative assemblies in Whales, Scotland and Ireland
2. City of London was allowed to elect a Mayor
3. Northern Ireland was allowed a government of it's own that would still be apart of the British government.
-all legislative bodies created by the constitutional reforms are elected using proportional representation.
-another constitutional reform changed the House of Lords dramatically. 400 seats were taken away and the remaining 92 lost the right to vote.
...ten years later...
June 17 2007: Blair steps down as head of the majority party, therefore is no longer Prime Minister. He stepped down due to growing opposition to his support and invlovement in the Iraq war.
his replacement: Gordon Brown(Labor Party)
-slow policymaking, however seemed to have weakend the opposition to the invlovement in the war.
-thinks the head of state should not be solely responsible for deciding/declaring war; thinks Parliament must have to declare war regardless.
-by mid 2008 conservative party started attacking Brown.
-many Labor Party supporters started losing faith in Brown.
-May 2008 held local electons & conservatives held 44% Labor only 24% third party held the rest of the vote.

Global Financial Crisis
Oct 2008 Brown said money would be put in banks and invested.
-created a National Economic Council and gave it cabinet level standing. the council was created to coordinate Britain's response to credit market/housing market/rising fuel prices.
-Nov 2008: announced a 30 billion dollar economic stimulus package for economic relief
1. cutting sales tax from 17.5 to 15 percent
2. raised taxes on the 1% wealthiest people from 40 to 45 percent.
3. 4.5 billion was spent for highways, housing, and schools.
-Early Dec. Brown helped with people who were suffering on the mortages and made a plan to where they could defer their mortage interest payments for two years.

random blurbs:
-Britain and the U.S are close. Britain claims to have a 'special relationship' with United States.
-Britain is a member of NATO and has a permanent seat in United Nations security council.
-Considered an outsider to the European Union and does not have the standard currency (euro) of Europe.
-trades with U.S, markets in Europe and common markets.

Direct Socialization:
-social class is an agent of direct socialization.
-families are the main factor of party identification and religious identification
trends show that followers of the church of england tend to vote conservative and protestants tend to vote labor.
-School and education are a strong basis for political activism in later years.
up until the 1970s..
-occupation/social class was a strong factor that determined political party.
Laborers/factory workers would be seen as Labor Party supporters
White Collar/business workers would be seen as Conservative Party supporters.
-class distinction have lost some historical value but it still apparent (recognized) throughout Britain

political culture:
legitimacy of gov't is very high, British take pride in their governments and institutions (except for N. Ireland.)
most Brits place themselves in the center of the political spectrum, and is a democratic system.
-Citizens directly elect their leaders in the House of Commons but do not elect the Prime Minister or the members of the House of Lords.
-every average citizen participates in the government by paying taxes.
-minimun voting age is 18 and Brit has a voter turnout of 77%.