Brexit dilemmas: new opportunities and tough choices in unsettled times

Concluding the British Journal of Politics and International Relations’ (BJPIR) Brexit Special Issue, this article seeks to set the unsettled times and unexpected events associated with the Brexit in historic context and tease out the prospects for a ‘bespoke’ UK exit agreement. Drawing on classics of social science history—by Barrington Moore, Gourevitch and Davis—it reflects on ‘suppressed historic choices’ and historical periodisations. Three key dilemmas are interrogated: the Brexit dilemma (control of immigration/regaining of sovereignty vs European Union (EU) market access), the Brexiteers’ dilemma (sustaining economic prosperity while restricting immigration) and the Remainers/soft Brexit dilemma (of weakening Parliamentary democracy by staying in the Single Market)

The Dog that Finally Barked:England as an Emerging Political Community

This report presents evidence which suggests the emergence of a new kind of Anglo-British identity in which the English component is increasingly the primary source of attachment for English people. It also suggests that English identity is becoming more politicised: that is, the more English a person feels, the more likely they are to believe that the current structure of the UK is unfair and to support a particularly English dimension to the governance of England

Symposium introduction: the paradox of structure: the UK state, society and ‘Brexit’

Ostensibly motivated by ‘taking back control’, is Brexit an opportunity to enhance the UK's capacity for self‐government? If driven by an aspiration to maximise the central state's governing autonomy, it confronts a paradox: governance structures at once enable action and constrain it. Exploring this paradox of structure, this article sets Brexit in long‐term perspective. As well as reshaping its external relations, Brexit inevitably unsettles the UK's internal structures, not least in (partly) disentangling he UK state and organised civil society from EU institutions and processes. Equally, those internal structures were themselves rarely static. Brexit has complicated the processes of their flux. The article introduces a symposium which addresses issues of this kind in three important domains: feminist civil society organisations (Minto), Westminster's role and scrutiny of European affairs (Cygan, Lynch and Whitaker) and the legal rights and access to justice of EU migrants under English law (Barnard and Fraser Burton)

Brexit is re-making the UK's constitution under our noses

New Brexit-based rules are likely to impact on devolution. There is serious danger that is re-making the UK's constitution under our noses, writes Daniel Wincott (Cardiff University)

The policy configurations of 'welfare statee' and women's role in the workforce in advanced industrial societies.

Comparative political economy studies of welfare states have focused on either general processes of modernization or the evolution of different welfare state 'regimes' - such as the social democratic, liberal and conservative types identified by Esping-Andersen. Variations in women's role in the workforce tend to be seen as closely allied with 'welfare regime' types or associated with welfare state modernization. But there are relatively few empirical studies in the political economy field of how, within the overall policy configuration of the state, welfare policies influence women's labour force participation. First, using a quantitative analysis of country-level data for 17 OECD countries from 1960 to 1987, this study identifies clusters of countries consistent with the Esping-Andersen classification, which share distinct patterns of women's role in the workforce and have different paths of development over time. However, the analysis shows that important anomalies exist and key questions remain unresolved. Second, case studies are used to analyse policy configurations and developments in women's employment over time. 'Core' examples are drawn from each main welfare regime - the USA (liberal), Sweden (social democratic) and Germany (conservative). The Netherlands is examined as a key anomalous case. Third, the lessons from the empirical analyses are used to reconsider aspects of the 'social democratic' and 'modernization' models of welfare state development. Across the period as a whole female labour force participation has grown in most countries. The most rapid growth of women's involvement has taken place in core countries with either liberal or social democratic welfare configurations (the USA and Sweden). There has been less change in 'conservative' countries (such as Germany) and in the Netherlands despite its 'social democratic' classification. Yet apparent linkages between labour market trends and welfare policies do not necessarily stand up to close over-time or comparative analysis. In the USA there are only weak connections between welfare policies and women's changing role in the labour market, whereas the two factors are closely and directly linked in Sweden. Particular policies contributed to expanding women's employment in Germany, but the overall policy configuration has bolstered broader patterns of social stratification inimical to women playing a larger role. In the Netherlands, welfare policies have clearly restrictive effects on women's participation in job markets, although some growth has occurred since the 'welfare explosion' of the 1960s. These findings show that welfare states' impacts on women's employment do not fit neatly into the 'modernization' or 'social democratic' models. 'One path fits all' models perform particularly poorly, but even differentiated analyses of 'welfare state regimes' pay insufficient attention to the location of social welfare within the state's overall policy configuration. A clearer distinction between the 'welfare state' construed as form of state and as a particular sector of state activity can help comparative analysis eliminate the residual influence of 'one-path' models, and provide more compelling analyses of variations in women's employment trajectories

European integration and the social science of EU studies: the disciplinary politics of a subfield

This article takes the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome as an opportunity to reflect upon half a century of academic discourse about the EU and its antecedents. In particular, it illuminates the theoretical analysis of European integration that has developed within political science and international studies broadly defined. It asks whether it is appropriate to map, as might be tempting, the intellectual 'progress' of the field of study against the empirical evolution of its object (European integration/the EU). The argument to be presented here is that while we can, to some extent, comprehend the evolution of academic thinking about the EU as a reflex to critical shifts in the 'real world' of European integration ('externalist' drivers), it is also necessary to understand 'internalist' drivers of theoretical discourse on European integration/the EU. The article contemplates two such 'internalist' components that have shaped and continue to shape the course of EU studies: scholarly contingency (the fact that scholarship does not proceed with free agency, but is bound by various conditions) and disciplinary politics (the idea that the course of academic work is governed by power games and that there are likely significant disagreements about best practice and progress in a field). In terms of EU studies, the thrust of disciplinary politics tends towards an opposition between 'mainstreaming' and 'pluralist versions' of the political science of EU studies. The final section explores how, in the face of emerging monistic claims about propriety in the field, an effective pluralist political science of the EU might be enhanced

Envisioning the third sector's welfare role: critical discourse analysis of 'post-devolution' public policy in the UK 1998-2012

Welfare state theory has struggled to come to terms with the role of the third sector. It has often categorized welfare states in terms of the pattern of interplay between state social policies and the structure of the labour market. Moreover, it has frequently offered an exclusive focus on state policy – thereby failing to substantially recognize the role of the formally organized third sector. This study offers a corrective view. Against the backdrop of the international shift to multi-level governance, it analyses the policy discourse of third sector involvement in welfare governance following devolution in the UK. It reveals the changing and contrasting ways in which post-devolution territorial politics envisions the sector's role as a welfare provider. The mixed methods analysis compares policy framing and the structural narratives associated with the development of the third sector across the four constituent polities of the UK since 1998. The findings reveal how devolution has introduced a new spatial policy dynamic. Whilst there are elements of continuity between polities – such as the increasing salience of the third sector in welfare provision – policy narratives also provide evidence of the territorialization of third sector policy. From a methodological standpoint, this underlines the distinctive and complementary role discourse-based analysis can play in understanding contemporary patterns and processes shaping welfare governance

Unionism in the courts? A critique of the Act of Union Bill

The ‘Act of Union’ Bill stands out among proposals designed to reform and, ultimately, save the UK’s Union of nations and jurisdictions. Taking the form of draft framework legislation, it offers a blueprint for how UK-wide constitutional change might be instigated. In doing so, the Bill provides a useful thought experiment in constitutional design: it allows us to consider how a distinct set of reforms to the Union might interact with recent legal and political developments. This paper offers a critique of clause 2 of the Bill, which envisions new roles for the courts in respect of a constitutionally novel set of ‘core purposes’ of the UK state. While analogous legislation and case law suggest that a limited role is intended for the courts, we argue that clause 2 would pose significant constitutional dilemmas. Involving the courts in a contested vision of the Union and its aims could risk jeopardising the political confidence in judicial independence which is required for the effective resolution of intergovernmental disputes. Further, the ambiguous constitutional character of the Bill, which seeks to reflect traditions of both popular and parliamentary sovereignties, could facilitate a more assertive constitutional role for the courts in their approach to a clause 2-type provision. This would risk further politicisation of the judicial role

Voluntary action, territory and timing: the Council of Social Service for Wales, periodisation and the new historiography of the 'British Welfare State', 1919-1980

This article analyses the development of the Council of Social Service for Wales during what is often called the Golden Age of the Welfare State. Recovering the neglected history of the peak organisation for voluntary social service in Wales adds to our understanding of the histories of social policy and postwar Wales. The article addresses social policy from a doubly peripheral perspective – it attends to a territorial periphery of the UK State while voluntary action can be left at the margins of Welfare State analysis. From this perspective we hope to cast new light on the historiography of the ‘British Welfare State