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Prof Torun Dewan

This course is available on the BA in Social Anthropology, BSc in History and Politics, BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (with a Year Abroad), BSc in Politics, BSc in Politics and Data Science, BSc in Politics and Economics, BSc in Politics and History, BSc in Politics and International Relations, BSc in Politics and Philosophy and BSc in Social Anthropology. This course is not available as an outside option nor to General Course students.

Students must have completed Public Choice and Politics (GV225).

The course is designed primarily for students on the BSc Politics and Economics programme. Students from other BSc Politics programmes who have taken GV225 may also apply.

Strøm (2000) argues that the conceptual essence of Parliamentary government is a “historical evolution” – an accident of 19th century Britain that spread to other parts of the world. Recent analytical political science has shed light on Britain’s political development and how its institutions function, using game theoretic modelling, rational choice narratives, and quantitative data. The course covers this literature and takes an analytical approach to topics such as: the historical development of British institutions and Imperial governance; the emergence and impact of Government-vs-Opposition; the historical development of the British party system; the causes and consequence of franchise extension; the Cabinet and its conventions; and the composition of the Executive and Parliament over time.

This course is delivered through seminars totalling a minimum of 35 hours in the Winter Term. This course includes a reading week in Week 6 of WT.

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the WT.

1500 word essay to be completed by the end of reading week.

• Cox, G. (1987) The Efficient Secret, Cambridge University Press
• Berlinski, S., Dewan, T, and Dowding K. (2012) Accounting for Ministers: Scandal and Survival in British Government 1945-2007, Cambridge University Press
• Mclean, I (2002) Rational Choice and British Politics: An Analysis of Rhetoric from and Manipulation from Peel to Blair, Oxford University Press
• Schonhardt-Bailey, C (2006)  From the Corn Laws to Free Trade: Interests, Ideas and Institutions in Historical Perspective, MIT Press

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours) in the spring exam period.