The emotional consequences of novel political identities: Brexit and mental health in the United Kingdom

AbstractFollowing the 2016 EU referendum on Britain's membership in the European Union, many people described themselves as “Leavers” or “Remainers.” Here, we examine the emotional responses associated with Brexit identities using survey data collected from two nationally representative samples of the British public in 2019 (N = 638) and 2021 (N = 2,058). Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that many in both samples had coherent Leave or Remain identities. Remain and, to a lesser extent, Leave identities (regardless of how people actually voted in the referendum) predicted distress about Brexit‐related events and clinical symptoms of depression and anxiety at both time points. Structural equation models suggested that the effect of identities on symptoms was largely mediated by distress about Brexit‐related events. We demonstrate a lasting impact of Brexit on the mental health of UK citizens and show that the formation of novel political identities has been more important in this process than voting behavior.</jats:p

Between Commerce and Empire: David Hume, Colonial Slavery, and Commercial Incivility

Eighteenth-century Enlightenment thought has recently been reclaimed as a robust, albeit short-lived, cosmopolitan critique of European imperialism. This essay complicates this interpretation through a study of David Hume’s reflections on commerce, empire and slavery. I argue that while Hume condemned the colonial system of monopoly, war and conquest, his strictures against empire did not extend to colonial slavery in the Atlantic. This was because colonial slavery represented a manifestly uncivil institution when judged by enlightened metropolitan sensibilities, yet also a decisively commercial institution pivotal to the eighteenth-century global economy. Confronted by the paradoxical ‘commercial incivility’ of modern slavery, Hume opted for disavowing the link between slavery and commerce, and confined his criticism of slavery to its ancient, feudal and Asiatic incarnations. I contend that Hume’s disavowal of the commercial barbarism of the Atlantic economy is part of a broader ideological effort to separate the idea of commerce from its imperial origins and posit it as the liberal antithesis of empire. The implications of analysis, I conclude, go beyond the eighteenth-century debates over commerce and empire, and more generally pertain to the contradictory entwinement of liberalism and capitalism

Réflexions sur l'État en Angleterre (XVIe-XVIIe siècles)

[fre] Cet article avance que les apports de la micro-sociologie et de l'histoire culturelle sont indispensables pour comprendre les processus de la formation de l'État. Il part des préoccupations historiographiques à présent bien connues sur l'établissement de systèmes militaires et fiscaux efficaces puis il conteste l'idée d'une distinction trop nette entre les questions politiques et les questions administratives. Il attire l'attention sur l'importance dans toutes les aires de compétence de l'État d'un accord entre les élites locales et les gouvernements centraux. En imposant l'autorité de l'État dans les communautés locales, les élites renforçaient en même temps leurs positions sociales. Les processus qui ont conduit à la formation des élites et à la formation de l'Etat sont étroitement liés et les termes de l'accord étaient conditionnels c'est-à-dire qu'ils pouvaient être négociés et qu'ils étaient contestables et de nature politique. L'analyse de la légitimation de la position sociale et politique des élites locales conduit l'auteur à s'intéresser à la représentation des pouvoirs politique et sociaux et donc à l'histoire culturelle et à la micro-sociologie. L'établissement des « bureaucraties » doit également être replacé dans le contexte de la légitimation du pouvoir et donc dans le cadre d'une étude d'histoire culturelle. Cependant, les approches liées à l'histoire culturelle sont souvent considérées comme des outils plus puissants pour l'analyse des structures que pour l'étude des dynamiques. La dernière partie de cet article livre quelques réflexions sur la manière de réconcilier la tension entre l'analyse synchronique de la culture (politique) et l'analyse du changement à travers le temps communément associé aux histoires de l'État. Elle s'appuie alors sur les travaux en cours de l'auteur sur la Révolution anglaise. [eng] This article argues that the insights of cultural history and micro-sociology are essential to an understanding of the large-scale processes of state formation. Starting with the well-established historiographical concern in histories of the state with the establishment of effective fiscal and military systems, it argues against a strong distinction between administrative and political matters and draws attention to the importance for all areas of state activity of a compact between local elites and central governments. At the same time that local elites brokered state authority in the locality they were securing their own social position. Processes of elite formation and state formation were, in other words, inter-related and the terms of the compact conditional, that is to say they were negotiated, contestable and political in nature. Analysis of the legitimation of the social and political position of local elites leads the historian into consideration of the representation of social and political power and, hence, into the domain of cultural history and micro-sociology. Similarly, the establish ment of "bureaucracies" has to be located in the context of the legitimation of power and, hence, of a study of political culture. However, cultural history approaches are often seen to be more powerful as tools for the analysis of structures than of dynamic processes. The final part of the article therefore offers some thoughts about how to reconcile this tension between the synchronie analysis of (political) culture and the analysis of change over time commonly associated with histories of the state. It does so through a brief discussion of the author's work in progress on the English revolution.

Droit et autorité politique dans leur contexte social

Je commencerai par m’excuser de ne proposer ici que des réflexions personnelles à partir des passionnants articles qui précèdent. Depuis quelques années, le terrain privilégié de l’histoire politique ne me paraît plus tant être l’analyse des institutions, de leur fonctionnement et de leur développement, que l’histoire du pouvoir politique lui-même – ses formes, ses usages et les règles qui en gouvernent l’accès. Dans cette perspective, institutions, langues et cadres juridiques fournissent au..