Monday 2.2.....late though

II. Blar promised to revitatlize the democracy and devolve power to sub nat'l governments
A. Amended constitution and created regional legislative assemblies in Scotland, Wales
B. Good Friday- N. Ireland gets the Power Sharing Assembly
1. Members are chosen with proportional representation
C. Seats are take from 400+ hereditary Lords
1. 92 are left but their right to vote is stripped
D. June 17, 2007 - Blair steps down as PM
1. because of strog opposition to the Iraq War
2. Replaced by Gordon Brown
III. Brown at first = cautious and slow but he diffused conservative criticism of Blair by taking over
A. Supported taking Royal perogative to declare war away from the Quee
1. wanted to give parliament the power to declare war but with royal approval
B. Wanted to give members of Parliament more powers
1. such as the power to call Parliament back into session
C. Waned to have confirmation hearings for appointees
D. However, Brown loses appeal by mid-2008
1. conservatives are very outspoken against him
E. May 2008- Local elections in Britain- Conservatives win a 44% of popular vote, and Couuld win Parliament later on
F. With financial crisis though, Brown gains crediility for strong words and fast actions
1. Oct 2008 - Britain injects 10s of billions of pounds for shares if government would put that same amount of pouds to secure banks and their loans
a. this is a step ahead of the U.S.A
2. Createed a cabinet level economic council
a look at problems in both the housing markets and the problems with the rising costs of living
3. November 2008 - 30 Billion pound economic stiumulus package
a. financial relief - cut nat'l sales tax from 17.5 to 15%
b. increased tax rate from 40 to 45% on richest 1% of population
c. 4.5 billion pounds injected into highways, schools, etc
d. relief to people sufffering from mortgage problems
G. Britain Maintained security with friendship of USA, membership in NATO, and a nuclear capable military
H. Permanent members on the UN security council
I. Outsider in the EU
J. Economic security in European market, and trading ties with U.S.
1.Joining an integrated Europe is difficult, and set of long debate in Britain
2. Masstrich treaty passed a divided house of congress in '93 (became members of EU but didn't subscribe to the euro)
IV. Direct Socialization
A. Mostly the same in all countries
B. Family plant the seeds of party and religious identification
1. follower of the church of england SLIGHTLY lean conservative
2. all others lean SLIGHTLY labor
3. used to be an obvious demgraphic split, recently gone away
4.Schools are strongly related to participation in politics
5 until the early '70s social clas was the most important determiner of political attitueds and choices
a. conservatives= middle class, business people
b. labor= working class
c. this is still the greatest social cleavage today, yet it has diminished
I. cleavage- division in society with respect to political and social ideologies
d. In a poll taken, people still judged by class
e. in '98, 55% of Brits were in the working class, in 2007 53% were
f. in '98, 41% were regarded as middle class, it was the same percentage in 2007
C. during the '80s a number of workers and lower class citizens became conservative voters
1. labor regained some support from manual laborers
a. they also started attracitng women voters
D. Peer groups, etc, play a small role in socialization
E. Legitimacy of Brit govt is very high
1. citizens participate in regional elections, and take pride in their country
a. except northern Ireland
2. even with fall of the collective Concensus, noone really questioned political institutions
3. Democracy, citizens elect commons directly, PM and lords are appointed