A Discourse on Political Culture in the United Kingdom, Essay Example

Arguably, the British political structure, its building blocks and other related factors have had an enduring impact on the conduct of political organizations the world over. This is said taking cognizance of the fact that British colonial imperialism during its heydays in the nineteenth and middle parts of the twentieth centuries successfully left models upon which successive nation states have adopted as guiding frameworks in the construction of contemporary political dispensations. Beyond this fact, the real and immediate questions remain the extent to which these if you like, outsourced political legacies are fairing within the territorial corridors of the Britain of our day and age. It is on this motivation that this essay will essentially conduct a critique on the contemporary contending dynamics of British political culture.

In the most absolute sense, political culture makes direct reference to the prevailing phenomenon that dictates the summing up of individual responses the object of polity. Within this framework the polity is seen as a mechanism that is regulated by both input and out devices that seeks to keep the political organization running. The input devices consist of the parliamentary system, registered political parties that have representations in the parliament; this is followed by the output component that is made up of the adjudicating court systems and the general public administration system that is in place within a nation state. With these basic theoretical foundations laid with regards to the imperative dynamism inherent in a political culture of a nation state, this essay will proceed to discuss how these features relate to the United Kingdom within the paradigms of our day and age.

The British people like their fellows in other civilized societies do exhibit peculiar responses that define their cognition political, social and civil rights; in any case much of what the British political culture displays is not isolated to recent events but can credibly be traced to deep rooted historical and traditional trends. The British political culture unlike most conventional practices still owes a great deal of allegiance to historical ties that have contributed in the evolution of the British political system (Black, 2003). In other words, taking away tradition from the British body politic amounts to striping it of its glory, value and above all its foundational structures.

Clearly, the British people are proud of the influence of their traditional elements wrought in the practice of the politics of today. For this reason the constitutional monarchy remains a binding enigma of the convergence of culture and political antecedents into a non-contradictory unitary force. Buckingham palace and the crown continue to serve as the pivot upon which British parliamentary democracy revolves. Indeed, monarchical rule by itself is an indispensable source of power and culture that is exclusively potent in its contribution to the crafting of the British experience (Annis et al 1996).

Today, parliament in Britain, which is composed of the House of Lords and the House of Commons are crafted along contemporary democratic tenets. Both legislative houses are similar by the fact that their membership is composed of the major political parties in Britain. They however differ on the grounds that whilst the House of Lords is primarily made up of nominated members, the House of Commons have members whose legitimacy is derived from election through universal adult suffrage from their respective constituents (Black 2003).

Public participation in British governance is at an all time high judging from the fact that public opinion and civil society in recent times have emerged as a vociferous entity that sets the direction for policy agenda through the United Kingdom (Kirk 2008). There is no better way to make these contentions without bringing to mind how the entire political atmosphere in Britain is engaged on collective issues of national security, domestic economic policy, foreign policy and a host of others. It will be prudent to cite a few illustrations to further explain the foregoing assertions. The Labor Party under the leadership of former Prime Minister Tony Blair sanctioned and led Britain into two wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq as part of fulfillments of national security and foreign policy interests of Britain and her allies. Come to the think of the fact that domestic discontent with these moves worked to against Tony Blair eventually making his reign crumble under the weight of public opinion. His current Gordon Brown and the Labor party are not doing too well on the polls and the buildup to the forthcoming general elections largely due to the economic crisis that characterized Mr. Gordon Brown’s premiership.

Finally, by and large, it is clearly known that Britain’s influence on global political atmosphere is very profound especially within the last century. The same force exerted abroad is being actively brought to bare on British domestic political culture in many dimensions.

Reference

Annis M.; Timpson William L. & Miller Michael Lessnoff. Political Culture Of Contemporary Britain: People And Politicians, Principles And Practice. Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Kirk S. Kidwell. Politics, Performativity, Autopoiesis: Toward a Discourse Systems Theory of Political Culture. Michigan State University. 2008.

Lawrence Black. The Political Culture of the Left in Affluent Britain, 1951-1964: Old Labour, New Britain? New York: Palgrave. 2003.