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Politics of media circulation: tracing the distribution of digital photographs of and from kashmir , stop the killer robots war humanisers future-proofing the war machine , sex, gender and constitutional attitudes: voting behaviour in the scottish independence referendum , ideas in international trade: the role of programmatic beliefs in the eu and china's approaches to the wto dsm , young farmers regeneration policy in indonesia: a capability approach , 'aquí se ve la fuerza del sme': a political economy analysis of the mexican electrical workers union's path towards self-management , dethroning the sovereign individual: a confucian reconstruction of the theory of right holding , rentier state revisited: the politics of sovereign wealth funds in saudi arabia , knowing better, doing better international development ngos, faith and wellbeing , freedom in and out of work: platforms, precarity, and the democratization of work , personality and us presidential choices: a study of the protracted afghanistan war , reproduction of ignorance in normative political theory: an intersectional methodological critique , speculative leadership: using a radical hegel to reinterpret practice in local government , politics of budget decision-making in south africa , typology of statelessness , lithium overdose: market practices and symptomatology of lithium trade in latin america , taking a ‘leap of faith’ to migrate: exploring uk approaches to anti-human trafficking , inclusion de-moderation hypothesis: egyptian secularists in democratization , bound to lead china's role in climate change governance between perception, conception, and behaviour , pro deo et patria: unfolding the hybrid governance and political participation of religious institutions in the democratic republic of congo (drc) .

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Browse by phd thesis by university of warwick department.

Abdou, Mahmoud M. A. (2022) International law and the territorial controls of non-state armed groups in Yemen and Libya (2011-2015). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Aiolfi, Théo (2021) Charting the populist style: Trump, Le Pen and the populist repertoire of exclusionary nationalism. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Al-Marri, Fahad (2021) GCC sovereign wealth funds and their utility in foreign and security policy : comparative cases of Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar in periods of crisis. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Achilleos-Sarll, Columba-Isabella (2020) Women, peace and security advocacy in the UK: resisting and (re)producing hierarchies of gender, race, and coloniality. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Abdelgawad, Doha Samir Mostafa (2020) Unheard voices: the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Youth Between Apathy and Radicalisation (2011–2016). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Amoateng, Elvis N. K. (2020) Containing political violence to what end? : the political economy of amnesty in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Andreu, Marco (2019) Impact bonds and the ambiguous politics of market ethics. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Akhter, Shahnaz (2019) The other within : securitising Muslim group identity in Britain. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Alnasser, Bidrea (2018) Iraqi women’s narratives of identity and security: challenging dominant knowledge. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Alfasi, Kawther Nuri (2017) Political agency and the symbolic legacy of authoritarian regimes : the case of Libya. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Awesti, Anil (2012) EU transport infrastructure policy, new institutionalism and types of multi-level governance : the cases of Vienna and London. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Adhikari, Ratnakar (2011) Political economy of aid for trade : an inquiry into supply-side constraints facing South Asian least developed countries. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Assaf, Noura (2004) Consociational theory and democratic stability: a re-examination ; case study: Lebanon. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Al-Said, G. F. T., Ph.D. (1994) American and Egyptian media coverage of the Camp David Peace Accords. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Apperley, Alan Robert (1991) Personal autonomy and health policy : some considerations in political theory. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Ashford, Nigel (1983) The Conservative Party and European integration, 1945-1975. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Bywaters-Collado, Cristóbal Benjamín (2023) The domestic politics of international status management: narratives, legitimacy, and the struggle for external recognition in Chile (1973 – 2010). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Baek, Chung-Ah (2022) Lived experiences of cyclone nargis : an analysis of the gendered displacement of Burmese women and men. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Baik, Seukhoon (2022) A positivist theory of international politics : the cause of war. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Basu, Sumedha (2022) Orchestrating the urban : politics of multilevel sustainable energy governance in urban India. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Beaumier, Guillaume (2020) The evolution of privacy regulation: convergence and divergence in the transatlantic space. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Bertrand, Eloïse Madeline Anaëlle (2020) The role of opposition parties in African hybrid regimes. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Bayındır, Didem (2019) Autonomy minded education : the Turkish case. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Bantock, Luke (2018) Cashless welfare payments and everyday life: a study of South Africa and Australia. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Boutefeu-Moraitis, Alexis S. (2018) The politics of deindustrialisation in France (1974-1984): the case of the textiles & clothing, steel and automobile industries. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Besada, Hany Gamil (2018) Governance, conflict and natural resources in Africa: understanding the role of foreign investment actors. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Beardsworth, Nicole Anne (2018) Electoral coalition-building among opposition parties in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Uganda from 2000 to 2017. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Baharuddin, Bashillah (2018) Nurturing participation of developing countries in the multilateral approach to the nuclear fuel cycle : a case study : Malaysia. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Bennett, Christopher D. (2017) For the sake of future generations : intergenerational justice and climate change mitigation. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Bapir, Mohammed Ali (2016) How the political elite view democracy in deeply divided countries : the case of Iraq. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Baillie, Robbie W. (2016) The utility of Jakobsen's ideal policy as a strategy of coercive diplomacy to prevent states attaining nuclear weapons. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Brkovic, Filip (2015) An assessment of possibilities for stronger inclusion of upper-middle-income economies in the fairtrade system : case study Serbia. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Braun, B. (Benjamin) (2014) Central bank agency and monetary governability in the euro area : governing through money, trust, and expectations. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Bergström, Johanna (2014) Gender equality and sustainable development for export? : a critical study of EU association agreements in Latin America. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Bamford, Douglas D. (2013) Egalitarian taxation : equality of resources, market luck and leisure. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Balasubramaniam, Bairavee (2013) The dramaturgy of ritual performances in Indian parliamentary debates. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Bouris, Dimitris (2011) State-building without a state : the European Union's role in the occupied Palestinian territories after the Oslo Accords. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Balducci, Giuseppe (2010) The EU's promotion of human rights in China : a consistent and coordinated constructive engagement? PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Barnutz, Sebastian (2009) What do they mean by saying ESDP? Exploring the social construction of European security. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Brassett, James (2006) Cosmopolitan ethics in global finance? : a pragmatic approach to the Tobin Tax. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Bulley, Daniel (2006) Ethics and foreign policy : negotiation and invention. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Bieler, Andreas (1998) Austria's and Sweden's accession to the European Community : a comparative neo-Gramscian case study of European integration. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Burnell, Peter J. (1972) The political and social thought of Thomas Paine 1737-1809. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Cheve, Gwendolene Sithokozile (2023) What happened after we put our guns down : the reintegration experiences of former female combatants in post-conflict Sierra Leone. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Chan, William (2021) Towards a democratic-sortitional meritocracy : reflections on the democracy-meritocracy debate. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Cheng, Kai-Li (2021) Why exploitation is unjust : an egalitarian account. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Christensen, Bo Tandrup (2020) The limits of destruction : a critical analysis of the collateral damage dispositif. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Carpan, Catalina (2019) Why care about reactions? : the case for a sensitive state. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Cho, Kyounghee (2019) The contribution of the digital revolution to Korea's democracy, with a focus on political communications, from 1993 to 2018. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Copley, Jack (2018) Financialisation and the State: Global Crisis and British Financial Regulatory Change. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Clement, Andrew A. (2017) An integration of discord : how national identity conceptions activate resistance to EU integration in the popular press discourses of Poland, Spain and Great Britain. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Chang, Hung (2017) Cross-strait relations in the process of economic integration : same game, but different logic. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Celiktemur, Bahadir (2016) Participation of people with disabilities in deliberative democracy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Choi, Yong Sub (2016) Historical blocs, organic crises, and inter-Korean relations. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Chiengkul, Prapimphan (2015) Hegemony and counter-hegemony in the agri-food system in Thailand (1990-2014). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Clarke, Jonathan R. L. (2015) Learning from practice : enhancing the resilience of cities through urban design and planning. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Cho, Eunjeong (2012) EURATOM : nuclear norm competition between allies, 1955-1957. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Clarke, Chris (2012) The ethics of liberal market governance : Adam Smith and the constitution of financial market agency. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Caballero, José (2009) Revisiting regional integration theory: the state and normative elites in Central American regionalisation. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Corbett, Colin (2003) The 'politics of metropolitan power', Local Government and the 'politics of support' in Scotland, 1979-1997. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Cha, Chang Hoon (2002) Beyond anti-hegemonism to security regime : China's perspectives, institutions and engagement in the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Chin, Si-wŏn (2000) Learning, institutions and Korea's FDI policy compared with Japan. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Cheung, Arthur K. C. (Arthur Kam-chuen) (2000) A cultural study of administrative litigation in the People's Republic of China. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Chen, Wei-Hwa (1999) An analysis of western international relations theory and international co-operation in the Asia-Pacific, with special reference to ASEAN and Taiwan. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Cram, Laura (1996) The political dynamics of policymaking in the European Union : social policy and information and communications technology policy compared. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Calleya, Stephen C. (1995) Navigating regional dynamics in the post-cold war patterns of relations in the Mediterranean area. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Dingley, Katie (2020) Emotional attachment : emotions and gender in Japanese conservatives’ pursuit of ontological security. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Dimmelmeier, Andreas (2020) The role of economic ideas in sustainable finance : from paradigms to policy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Dymydiuk, Jason (2019) Filling the information void : GCHQ, NSA, and investigative journalism, 1971-2012. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Dobson, Melina J. (2019) Unauthorised disclosures: US national security whistleblowers and leakers, 1970-2017. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Durham, Conor Michael (2018) Keyboard warriors : messaging, mobilisation and the UK radical right in the social media age. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Dutta, Deepankar (2018) Countdown to catastrophe: President Clinton, the CIA, and the spectre of terrorism, 1993- 2001. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Denuit, François (2018) Fighting poverty in the European Union: an assessment of the prospects for a European universal basic income (EUBI). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Dobra-Kiel, Alexandra (2017) Emotions and behavioural ethics : the case of asset management and investment banking. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Duer, Mara (2017) The right to belong to the land : coloniality and resistance in the Araucanía. PhD thesis, University of Warwick .

Dağlı, İlke (2016) Identities in limbo : securitisation of identities in conflict environments and its implications on ontological security : prospects of desecuritisation for reconciliation in Cyprus. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Dönmez, Pınar E. (2012) Politics of depoliticisation : a re-assessment of the post-2001 restructuring of the state and economic policy making in Turkey. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Dhirathiti, Nopraenue Sajjarax (2007) Identity transformation and Japan's UN security policy: from the Gulf Crisis to human security. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Davutoglu, Mustafa (1997) The privatisation of state economic enterprises : an economic and political analysis of the Turkish case. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Deans, Tom (1988) The relationship between charity and the state in Britain and Canada : with particular reference to the case of medical research. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Deakin, Stephen (1987) Liberal values and New Commonwealth immigration, 1961-1981. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

El-Shewy, Mohamed Hamed (2022) Dissensus and power : the aesthetics of politics in Egypt’s 2011 uprising. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Emmanuel, Kim (2019) The rise of economic pragmatism in Caribbean states’ relations with China (2005-2015). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Eggert, Jennifer Philippa (2017) When the war started, I was ready : organisational motivations for the inclusion of female fighters in non-state armed organisations during the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Eberle, Jakub (2016) Logics of foreign policy : discourse, fantasy and Germany's policies in the Iraq crisis. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Efstathopoulos, Charalampos (2012) Middle power diplomacy in the WTO : India, South Africa and the Doha development agenda. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Eun, Yong-Soo (2011) Foreign policy analysis : developing a theoretical scheme for fuller causal explanations of foreign policy behaviour and undertaking in-depth, comparative case study. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Elias, Juanita (2001) The MNC and the political economy of low wage female labour in Southeast Asian industrialisation : the case of Malaysia. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Edgington, Peter William (1974) The Deutsche Friedens-Union (DFU) : a study of a minor party of the left in Western Germany, 1960-68. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Fifi, Gianmarco (2021) The left and neoliberalism : making sense of the post-Eurozone crisis Italian political economy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Fry, Samuel Nathan (2019) The political economy of UK-China economic relations 1997-2015. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Foulon, Michiel (2019) US grand strategy towards China, 1991-2015: A neoclassical realist analysis. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Faisal, Mochammad (2018) Contested foreign policy: Understanding Indonesia’s regional and global roles. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Feltrin, Lorenzo (2018) Between the hammer and the anvil: the trade unions and the 2011 Arab uprisings in Morocco and Tunisia. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Ferraz de Oliveira, António (2018) The politics of territory in early anarchist thought. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Fung, Sai-fu (2016) Understanding and explaining deviant autocracies : the cases of Hong Kong and Singapore. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Fidan, Christina B. (2016) The presence of the Turkish private sector in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Ferrara, Domenico (2014) EU-Russia energy relations : a discursive approach. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Fini, Michael (2010) Financial ideas, political constraints : the IPE of sovereign wealth funds. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Fowle, Mark (2010) Practices of emancipation : an analysis of security, dialogue and change in post-war Vukovar. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Field, Antony (2010) The organisation of terrorist groups in the age of globalisation : hierarchies, networks and leaderless resistance movements. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Floyd, Rita (2007) Typologies of securitisation and desecuritisation: the case of U.S. environmental security (1993-2006). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Gellwitzki, Carlos Nicolai Lucas (2023) Public moods, emerging political subjectivities, and ontological security: the German response to the so-called migration crisis. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Gwinnett, Giselle (2021) The demise of the information research department in 1977: the end of political warfare in the UK? PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Gentile Fusillo, Clementina Giulia Maria (2020) On the virtues of truth : generativity and the demands of democracy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Gelhaus, Laura (2020) The external dimension of the common agricultural policy : shaping rural spaces in Georgia. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Gannon, Benjamin Mark William (2018) From “La lucha está aquí!” to “we’re natural diplomats”: Generational change and Hispanic elite engagement with US foreign policy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Genito, Lorenzo (2018) What markets fear: understanding the European sovereign debt crisis through the lens of repo market liquidity. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Goron, Coraline (2018) Climate Revolution or long march? The politics of low carbon transformation in China (1992-2015) : the power sector as case study. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Giraudo, Maria E. (2017) Uneven development and the governance of agricultural commodity booms : the case of soybean in South America. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Gotoh, Fumihito (2017) The political economy of the Japanese credit market : social norms versus financial globalisation. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Gómez Benavides, Juan Carlos (2017) Explaining democratic divergence : the impact of elite political culture and political institutions on the democratic performance of Colombia and Venezuela. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Gaspard, Jules (2016) The origins and expansion of counter-espionage in America : from the Revolutionary War to the Progressive Era. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Grinberg, Miriam B. (2016) The US-Japan alliance and the relocation of Futenma : sites of discursive exchange in the reproduction of security alliances. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Gehart, Sebastian Hubert (2014) The aid effectiveness agenda : OECD DAC and World Bank strategic agency in foreign aid politics. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Guttormsen, David Sapto Adi (2014) Constructing 'China' : culture and U.S. think tank narratives : a Bourdieusian investigation. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Gaffney, Eliza J. (2009) A critical interrogation of corporate social responsibility and global distributive justice. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Greaves, Justin (2005) The reform of business representation in Britain 1970-1997. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Gorry, Jonathan Linden (1998) The British Council of Churches and just war: 1945-59. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Gowon, Yakubu (1984) The Economic Community of West African States : a study in political and economic integration. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Hussain, Mohammad Mohsin (2022) Understanding political apologies or their lack thereof. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Hoffmann, Jonathan M. (2022) Democracy, justice, & the long term : designing institutions for the future. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Hilgers, Gert (2021) Germany’s contemporary relations with China : economic interest, ignorance, and trust. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Haigh, Joseph J. B. (2020) Vicarious militarism : ontological (in)security and the politics of vicarious subjectivity in British war commemoration. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Heine, Frederic (2019) The always lurking temptation of inflation : masculinities and the gender politics of the Eurozone crisis. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Hsieh, Chieh-chi (2019) A historical institutionalist approach to Asian financial regionalism: a case study of the making of Japan’s regional financial cooperation policies, 1997-2017. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Hasselbalch, Jacob (2017) The contentious politics of disruptive innovation : vaping and fracking in the European Union. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Hatton, Lucy (2016) Democratic legitimacy and the European Citizens' Initiative: a recipe for disappointment and disaffection? PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Hoggarth, Davinia (2016) Living on the edge : relocating Kazakhstan on the margins of power. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Heath, James Owen (2015) To face down Dixie : South Carolina's War on the Supreme Court, 1954-1970. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Herrington, Lewis (2015) Incubating extremist terrorism : the UK Islamic fundamentalist movement 1989-2014. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Hammond, Andrew (Researcher in politics) (2014) Struggles for freedom : Afghanistan and US foreign policy, 1979-2009. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Holmes, Christopher (2010) Economistic fallacies in contemporary capitalism : a Polanyian analysis of regimes of marketised social protection. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Holland, Jack (2010) Framing the 'war on terror' : American, British and Australian foreign policy discourse. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Hung, Chin-fu (2005) Politics and public opinion in China: the impact of the Internet, 1993-2003. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Hamilton, Arran Michael William (2005) Downhill from devaluation : the politics of currency management in 1960s Britain. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Hayashi, Shigeko (2002) Japan and East Asian monetary regionalism : towards a proactive leadership role? PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Harrold, Jane (2001) State building: the case of the European Union's common foreign and security policy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Hurt, Stephen R. (1999) Meeting the challenges of past and present : post-apartheid South Africa's reintegration into the global political economy, 1994-1997. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Hsueh, Chao-Yung (1996) An analysis of the security of the Republic of China on Taiwan. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Hsieh, Chiao Chiao (1983) Strategies for survival : a study of the post - 1949 foreign policy and external relations of the Republic of China. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Iliadou, Theologia (2017) The securitization of female migrant domestic labour in Greece since the 1990s. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Iordanou, George (2014) Exporting multicultural citizenship and the case of Cyprus. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Iratni, Belkacem (1986) Foreign policy and nation-state building in Algeria, 1962-1985. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Joldybayeva, Elmira (2021) Kazakhstan, nation branding and national identity : the cases of nuclear nonproliferation and Astana Expo-2017. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Jermanová, Tereza (2018) Constitution-making and democratization: a comparative analysis of Tunisia and Egypt after the 2010/11 uprisings. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Jacoby, Ben M. (2012) A constructivist account of varieties of capitalism : state interventions into naïve theories of British and German home ownership and mortgage markets. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Johal, Sanjiev (2002) The sport of lions: the Punjabi-Sikh sporting experience: a study into the place of sport in the socio-cultural landscape of Punjabi-Sikhs in Britain. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Jakka, Ateeq Abdul-Aziz (1993) Development administration in the United Arab Emirates : a socio-political approach. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kremers, Ruben Sandino (2021) 'Hack/make the bank' : the everyday politics of Fintech. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Ko, Kyoungyun (2020) America’s alliance management and military technology transfer policies : the cases of Japan and South Korea in aerospace technology cooperation. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kim, Hwa Young (2018) Politics and the Limits of Philosophy: Political Realism and the Limits of the Political Realist Critique. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kranke, Matthias (2017) The politics of collaborative global governance : organisational positioning in IMF-World Bank collaboration. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Karabegovic, Dzeneta (2017) Bosnia abroad : transnational diaspora mobilization. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kadhum, Oula (2017) Diasporic interventions : state-building in Iraq following the 2003 Iraq war. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

King, Benjamin D. (2015) G. A. Cohen and what type of society we ought to seek. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kim, Gunwoo (2015) The political culture of university students in South Korea : a comparison of before the democratic transition and today. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kim, Jiyoung (Researcher in politics) (2013) The transformation of norms, policies and state identity : the Kim Dae-jung government and the Republic of Korea. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Karlsrud, John E. (2013) Linked ecologies and norm change in United Nations peacekeeping operations. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Khalil, Mouzayian (2012) An assessment of the African peer review mechanism (APRM) : the case of Nigeria. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kuzemko, Caroline (2011) UK energy governance in the twenty-first century : unravelling the ties that bind. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kim, Dong-il (2011) The principle of fairness : theory, defence, and application. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kettell, Steven (2002) The political economy of exchange rate policy-making : a re-assessment of Britain’s return to the gold standard in 1925. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kim, Jeong-youg (2002) South Korea's sunshine policy, 1998-2002 : domestic imperatives and private interests. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kanwar, Ranvir Singh (2000) States, firms, and oil : British policy, 1939-54. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kiernan, Annabel K. (2000) Power and policymaking. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kenyon, Timothy (1981) Communism and the fall of man : the social theories of Thomas More and Gerrard Winstanley. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Kuhn, Raymond (1980) The politics of broadcasting in France 1974-1978. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Lübben, Ida Hannah (2023) Appearance discrimination in public and semi-public spaces : hypervisibility, misgendering, and objectification. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Liu, Mingyi (2022) Domestic politics and international ambitions : explaining China’s maritime assertiveness in the South China Sea, 2006-2016. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Lugano, Geoffrey (2018) Politicization of international criminal interventions and the impasse of transitional justice : a comparative study of Uganda and Kenya. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Levers, Leanne Alexis (2017) RJ policy transfer: the case of Jamaica. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Löfflmann, Georg (2014) The fractured consensus : how competing visions of grand strategy challenge the geopolitical identity of American leadership under the Obama presidency. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Lopez Lucia, Elisa (2014) Discourses and practices of the regionalisation of foreign and security policies : the cases of West Africa and South America. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Lenos, Angelos (2013) EU-GCC relationship : towards 'strategic partnership'. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Lai, Yew Meng (2008) Nationalism and power politics in Japan's relations with China: a neoclassical realist interpretation. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Liaw, Booker Fann-Bey (2004) Taiwan's economic diplomacy and southward policy in the 1990s. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Liu, Hung-Hwei (1998) The effects of Taiwan's state-industrial arrangements on international competitiveness : the case of notebook-sized computer and high-definition television industry. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Lynch, Philip (1992) British Conservatism and the concept of the nation. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Lloyd, Moya Susan (1986) The place of ideas about property in political theory in Great Britain between 1750-1850 : with special reference to labour and value theories, and the distribution of wealth between classes. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Lyne, Thomas Gerard (1986) The politics of agriculture : le Mouvement pour la Défense de l'Exploitation familial, 1959-1982. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Mugnai, Iacopo (2022) The ECB and the technocratic politics of ideas : embedding a resilient EMU from the top-down? PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Matkovic, Blanka (2021) From combatants to civilians : exploring and re-thinking ‘normal life’ in post-conflict Croatia (1995-2017). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Melhuish, Francesca (2021) “There is no status quo”: ‘crisis’ and nostalgia in the vote leave campaign. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Mainwaring, Sarah (2021) ‘From dark art to the everyday’ : American encryption policy 1950-2020. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Mathieu, Shannon Marie (2020) Gender and the responsibility to protect: a study of protection narratives in international intervention. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

McDaniel, Sean (2019) Social democracy in the age of austerity: the cases of the UK Labour Party and France’s Parti Socialiste, 2010-17. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Moreno Zacarés, Javier (2018) The political in political economy: historicising the great crisis of Spanish residential capitalism. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Mohammad, Munir Hasan (2018) Social media and democratization in Iraqi Kurdistan since 2003. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Mulas, Roberta (2016) Strategies of disarmament : civil society and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

McPhilemy, Samuel (2015) Financial stability and central bank power : a comparative perspective. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Müller, Gustavo G. (2015) Legitimation of security regionalism : a study of the legitimacy claims of the African Union and the European Union. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Mura, Marika Noemi (2015) The discontented farmer : state-society relations and food insecurity in rural Tanzania. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Matsuoka, Misato (2015) Moving beyond (traditional) alliance theory : the neo-Gramscian approach to the U.S.-Japan alliance. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Morii, Kazunari (2011) Japan's persistent engagement policy toward Myanmar in the post-Cold War era : a case of Japan's 'problem-driven pragmatism'. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Malcolm, James A. (2011) The securitisation of the United Kingdom's maritime infrastructure during the 'war on terror'. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Mumford, Andrew (2009) From Belfast to Basra: Britain and the 'tri-partite counter-insurgency model'. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Meepiarn, Worakamol (2009) Bargaining strategies for Developing Countries at the WTO: the case of Thailand and the Agreement on Agriculture in the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Marcellin, Sherry Suzette (2008) The political economy of pharmaceutical patents: US sectional interests and the African group at the WTO: a case study in international trade decision-making and the possibility for change. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Moles Velázquez, Andrés (2007) Autonomy, freedom of speech and mental contamination. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Manoli, Panagiota (2004) The formation of Black Sea Economic Cooperation : a case study of subregionalism. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Mohd, Ali Hamdan (2002) The British colonial legacy: sport and politics in multi-ethnic Malaysia from 1800 to 2000. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Mixcóatl Tinoco, Gerardo (1997) Implementing anti-poverty programmes in Mexico: the national solidarity programme in the state of Campeche. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Mallin, Kenneth (1996) N. Hingley & Sons Limited - Black Country Anchor Smith and Chain Cable Maker : a study of the world's premier manufacturer of ships' anchors and cables in the period 1890-1918. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Malhan, Nisha (1996) The implications of unification for Germany's role in the European Union. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Mohammed, Ismaila (1985) The Nigerian Enterprises Promotion Decrees (1972 and 1977) and indigenisation in Nigeria. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Munro, Angus A. D. (1978) The French occupation of Tübingen, 1945-1947: French policies and German reactions in the immediate post-war period. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Nassar, Aya (2018) Spaces of power: Politics, subjectivity and materiality in post-independence Cairo. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Niker, Fay (2017) Living well by design : an account of permissible public nudging. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Nagyfejeo, Eva (2016) Transatlantic collaboration in response to cyber crime: how does strategic culture affect EU-U.S. collaboration in the fight against cyber crime? PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Nishiyama, Hidefumi (2015) Race, biometrics, and security in modern Japan : a history of racial government. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Nieuwenhuis, Marijn (2013) Producing China : the politics of space in the making of modern China. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Newton, Allen Alexander (2013) Anti-insurgency narratives : territory, locality and the organisation of non-state military formations in Iraq and Afghanistan. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Nomura, Ko (2006) The impact of democratisation on environmental governance in Indonesia: NGOs and forest policy networks. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Nesadurai, Helen Sharmini (2001) The political economy of the ASEAN Free Trade Area : the dynamics of globalisation, developmental regionalism and domestic politics. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Nelson, Patricia Ann (1998) Rivalry and cooperation: how the Japanese photographic industry went global. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Owe, Masumi (2014) Collective action in global governance : the case of the OECD development assistance committee. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

O'Neill, Michael A. (1996) Safe with us vs the sacred trust : policy change under Conservative government : health policy under Britain's Thatcher and Canada's Mulroney. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Price, Charlie W. (2023) Who controls the border?: an analysis of the Nordic far-right. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Pape, Fabian (2022) The macrofinancial turn in central banking : money market changes and Federal Reserve policy after the global financial crisis. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Preiherman, Yauheni (2021) Managing geopolitical uncertainty : foreign policy hedging by small in-between states (the cases of Armenia and Belarus in 2008-2020). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Pettinger, Tom (2020) The subjugated knowledge of Prevent: UK terrorism pre-emption and the disruptive history of Northern Ireland. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Petry, Johannes (2020) Capital markets with Chinese characteristics : exchanges, state capitalism & China’s integration into the global financial order. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Paone, Martina (2018) From civilising mission to civilian power: rethinking EU peacebuilding from a postcolonial perspective. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Pasuni, Afif (2018) Issuing fatwas in the name of the state: reshaping co-optation through religious decrees in Singapore. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Pereyra Iraola, Victoria (2017) Struggles against deemed disposability : counter-conduct and carceral governmentality around federal prisons in Argentina. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Pino, Simona (2016) The politics of branding : iRobot, branding and common sense. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Pforr, Tobias (2015) Meaning construction and the socialisation of economic ideas : an autobiographical approach. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Parr, Tom (2015) On the job. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Pate, Tanvi (2015) The United States and the global nuclear order : narrative identity and the representation of India as the 'other' 1993-2009. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Pieczara, Kamila (2014) The trilateral cooperation of China, South Korea and Japan : a sign of regional shifts. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Park, Jinsoo (2011) Sino-Japanese competitive leadership and East Asian regionalism : the Chiang Mai Initiative and East Asian organisations. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Parker, Owen (2010) The ethics of cosmopolitan government in Europe : subjects of interest/subjects of right. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Peláez Tortosa, Antonio J. (2009) State-society relations and grassroots democracy in rural Vietnam : institutional adaptation and limited gramscian hegemony. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Porras Sánchez, Francisco Javier (2005) Broadening understandings of governance: the case of Mexican local government. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Phakdeewanich, Titipol (2004) The role of farmers groups in Thai politics : a case study of domestic and global pressure on rice, sugarcane, and potato farmers. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Pop, Liliana (2001) The political economy of transformation in Romania, 1989-2001. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Phillpots, Kyle (2000) The professionalisation of rugby union. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Park, Sun-Won (2000) The dynamics of triangular intra-alliance politics : political interventions of the United States and Japan towards South Korea in regime transition 1979-1980. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Page, Edward (1998) Intergenerational ethics and climate change. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Qobo, Mzukisi Jonathan (2005) South Africa as a global actor : regional and multilateral trade strategies from 1994 to 2004. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Rietveld, Jochem (2021) The regional diffusion and internalisation of the norm of the responsibility to protect : lessons from the European Union and the Economic Community of West African States. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Rumsby, Seb (2020) Alternative routes to development? The everyday political economy of Christianisation among a marginalised ethnic minority in Vietnam’s highlands. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Rodríguez-Merino, Pablo A. (2019) The terroristization of Xinjiang : violence, discourse and politics in China’s Uyghur region (1978-2018). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Robles, Maria Theresa Anna Castillo (2019) Through Whose Lens? The Politics of Regional and Global Surveillance and Systemic Risk in East Asia. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Richterova, Daniela (2018) Communist Czechoslovakia, terrorists and revolutionaries : an investigation into state relations with violent non-state actors. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Rossdale, Chris (2013) Anarchism, anti-militarism, and the politics of security. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Rethel, Lena (2009) Local bond markets, financial development and the new politics of debt in Malaysia. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Rogers, Chris (Christopher James) (2009) The politics of economic policy-making under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan and the 1976 IMF crisis. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Riggirozzi, Pía (2005) The World Bank as a norm-broker : knowledge, funds and power in governance reforms in Argentina. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Robotti, Paola Giovanna (2003) The political economy of hedge fund regulation. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Robinson, Nick (Nick T.) (1998) Major government, minor change : the politics of transport, 1990-1997. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Schmid, Julian (2020) Warning! Contains spoilers: reading post-‘9/11’ US security discourses through superhero films. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Sampson-Foster, James Ringo Harley (2020) Critical faith: an exploration of Christian elites and UK government engagement. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Sundrijo, Dwi Ardhanariswari (2020) Interpreting global norms in Southeast Asia : the case of the Asean intergovernmental commission on human rights (AICHR). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Steeds, Leo (2019) Earth, property, territory : the birth of an economic concept of land. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Soares, Lisa K. (2018) Recasting rights in the Caribbean: the politics of the Barbadian flyingfish fishery. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Street, Tim (2017) The politics of nuclear disarmament : obstacles to and opportunities for eliminating nuclear weapons in and between the nuclear weapon states. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Skarveli, Sotira (2016) Social egalitarianism, responsibility and luck. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Shah, Nikita (2016) ‘Secret Towns’ : British intelligence in Asia during the Cold War. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Shapovalova, Natalia (2015) Advocacy and interest group influence in EU foreign policy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Saqer, Ali (2015) The visible power of the transnational capitalist class : the case of the World Economic Forum. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Shiraz, Zakia (2014) Unending war? : the Colombian conflict, 1946 to the present day. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Solecki, Sarah Goler (2014) A tale of two cheeses : Parmesan, Cheddar, and the politics of Generic Geographical Indications (GGIs). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Stierl, Maurice (2014) Migration resistance as border politics : counter-imaginaries of EUrope. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Savevska, Maja (2014) The evolving governance structure of the European Union : asymmetric, but not disembedded : immanent possibilities in the social and environmental policy domains. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Sutton, Alex (2012) Imperial relations : Britain, the sterling area, and Malaya 1945-1960. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Shimada, Stephen (2012) EU-US airplane subsidy disputes : Airbus vs. Boeing. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Sung, Ki-Young (2010) Security crisis and economic interdependence : a case study of inter-Korean trade (2002-2006). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Svensson, Ted (2010) Meanings of partition : production of postcolonial India and Pakistan. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Suckle, Elsa (2009) Muslim religious accommodation in public institutions: an exploration of religious equality in principle and practice. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Svendsen, Adam D. M. (2008) On 'a continuum with expansion' : UK-US intelligence relations & wider reflections on international intelligence liaison. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Saguier, Marcelo I. (2006) Challenges and opportunities in the construction of alternatives to neoliberalism: the Hemispheric Social Alliance and the Free Trade Area of the Americas process. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Soko, Milford Sibusiso (2004) Re-engaging with the global trading system : the political economy of trade policy reform in post-apartheid South Africa, 1994-2004. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Sales Heredia, Francisco Javier (2003) Distributive justice and poverty alleviation in Mexico (1992-2000). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Sasuga, Katsuhiro (2002) The dynamics of cross-border micro-regionalisation among Guangdong, Taiwan and Japan : sub-national governments, multinational corporations and the emergence of multi-level governance. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Spillane, Martin Gerard (1999) Entrepreneurs, educators and the slicing of fish : some Anglo-American parallels in higher education. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Stables, Richard (1996) Relations between Britain and Kuwait, 1957-1963. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Shackleton, Michael (1984) The role of state and society in response to change in the fishing industry : a comparative study of Britain and France, 1975-1983. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Tu, Kun-Feng (2022) The right of stateless peoples : reconsidering statelessness, rightlessness, and the right to have rights. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Tang, Wai Hong (2019) China, institutional leadership and regional order: the cases of ASEAN Plus Three and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, 2007 - 2017. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Tercovich, Giulia (2019) The EU inter-regional influence in comparison: the case of the institutionalization of ASEAN disaster management. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Tooker, Lauren (2017) Ordinary democracy : reading resistances to debt after the global financial crisis with Stanley Cavell’s ordinary language philosophy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Tatour, Lana (2016) Domination and resistance in liberal settler colonialism : Palestinians in Israel between the homeland and the transnational. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Tilley, Lisa (2016) The condition of market emergence in Indonesia : coloniality as exclusion and translation. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Taylor, Nick J. (2015) Perspectives on the social question : poverty and unemployment in liberal and neoliberal Britain. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Tziarras, Zenonas (2014) Turkish foreign policy towards the Middle East under the AKP (2002-2013): a neoclassical realist account. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Tuke, Victoria (2011) Japan’s foreign policy towards India : a neoclassical realist analysis of the policymaking process. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Tok, Sow Keat (2011) The discourse and practice of sovereignty in the People's Republic of China : principles and pragmatism in the management of Hong Kong and Taiwan affairs. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Tsolakis, Andreas (2009) Globalisation and the reform of the Bolivian state, 1985-2005. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Taki, Tomonori (2003) Globalisation, labour migration and state transformation in Japan: the language barrier and resilience of the Japanese state in the 1990s. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Tsai, William (1998) The re-examination of Taiwan's democratisation : the KMT's factional politics and Taiwan's democratic transition. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Tedesco, Laura (1994) The crisis of the Argentinian State: democratisation and economic restructuring, 1976-1989. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Tahi, Mohand Salah (1988) The Maghreb states : regional and foreign policies 1973-1987. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Uthaisang, Pitaya (2006) Telecommunications reform programme of Thailand: institutionalism and the reform process. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Vlad, Ruxandra Oana Eugenia (2020) Striking the shadow commander: ascertaining the legitimacy of the drone strike on Gen. Qasem Soleimani through an examination of the U.S. claim to pre-attack self-defence. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Vianelli, Lorenzo (2017) Governing asylum seekers : logistics, differentiation, and failure in the European Union’s reception regime. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Vuorelma, Johanna (2016) Losing Turkey? : Narrative traditions in Western foreign policy analysis. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Vickers, Rhiannon (1998) Manipulating hegemony : British Labour and the Marshall Plan. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Vickers, Stephen (1986) The transformation of British fisheries policy, 1967-83. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Work, J. D. (2023) The evolving relationship of intelligence in support of cyber operations. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Warrack, Max (2023) Japan’s cultural remilitarisation : gendered representations of the Japan self-defense force in manga. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Wilson, Peter Robert (2023) Jobless : how policymakers should respond to involuntary unemployment. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Watai, Yuki (2019) Japan’s incremental grand strategic shift in the 21st century : the cases of article 9 and ballistic missile defence through a neoclassical realist approach. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Wang, Pei-Hsin Gwenyth (2019) How do social media affect Taiwanese people’s participation in social movements under the Ma Ying-Jeou administration between 2008 and 2016. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Wang, Hairong (2018) A middle class that cannot be the vanguard of democracy : understanding the Chinese middle class through its political support, political participation, and civic consciousness. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Wang, Zhaohui (2017) The international political economy of China's exchange rate policymaking from 2003 to 2013. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Watanabe, Atsuko (2016) Geopolitics as a traveling theory : the evolution of geopolitical imagination in Japan, 1925-1945. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Wang, Jue (Researcher in Politics and International Studies) (2014) The People’s Republic of China and the IMF. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Walker, Louise (Researcher in politics) (2012) Healing power : the global fund, disrupted multilateralism and mediated country ownership. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Webber, David M. (2012) From Whitehall to the world : international development and the global reconfiguration of New Labour's political economy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Willmetts, Simon (2011) Falling out with history : Hollywood and the Central Intelligence Agency, 1945 - 1975. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Walton, Andrew (2009) Global justice, the WTO, and Fair Trade. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Wilkinson, Mark (2009) Playing the long game : UK secret intelligence and its relationship with chemical and biological weapons related foreign policy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Waldman, Thomas (2009) War, Clausewitz, and the Trinity. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Walsh, Andrew Michael (1999) The politics and philosophy of an education in virtue. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Williams, John (1997) The concept of legitimacy in international relations : lessons from Yugoslavia. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Wilson, Silvius E. (Silvius Egerton) (1997) The 1924 Workers' Incident at Ruimveldt British Guiana and the development of working people's organisation. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Woodard, Christopher (1997) Justice, responsibility, and acquiescence. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Wilson, David J. (David Jack) (1974) Regional organisation in the Conservative and Labour parties. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Xiao, Yuefan (2013) The politics of crisis management in China. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Ye, Xiaojing (2021) Understanding the international involvement of China’s subnational governments : case study of Zhejiang and Yunnan province. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Yarrow, David (2018) Accounting against the economy: the beyond GDP agenda and the limits of the “market mentality". PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Yanarisik, Oguzhan (2015) Turkey-EU relations and the representation of AK Party in the western political and media discourse. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Yang, Oh Suk (2001) An inter-disciplinary study of strategic interactions in foreign economic policy-making of the EU: agent, structure and knowledge. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Zhang, Chang (2020) A comparative study of the communication strategies of Chinese and Russian English language international broadcasting. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Zeng, Jia (2020) Success or failure under a system of responsive authoritarianism : an evaluation of China’s internet governance policy within a macro-and-micro framework. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Zhang, Yiming (2019) EU-China relations: identities, interests and interactions. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Zepeda Castillo, Carlos S. (2015) Water politics in El Salvador : power, water and social change in poor communities of San José Villanueva. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Zeng, Jinghan (2014) The Chinese Communist Party's capacity to rule : legitimacy, ideology, and party cohesion. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Zeeuw, Jeroen, de. (2009) Political party development in post-war societies: the institutionalization of parties and party systems in El Salvador and Cambodia. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Zeng, Huaguo (2006) Globalization and media governance in the People's Republic of China (1992-2004). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Şerban, Ileana (2017) The European Union and Latin America : normative encounters. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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• Bodleian Libraries
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• Theses and Dissertations

Politics and International Relations: Theses and Dissertations

• Digital Archives
• News and Analysis

Introduction

Theses and dissertations are documents that present an author's research findings, which are submitted to the University in support of their academic degree. They are very useful to consult when carrying out your own research because they:

• provide a springboard to scope existing literature
• provide inspiration for the finished product
• show you the evolution of an author's ideas over time
• provide relevant and up-to-date research (for recent theses and dissertations)

On this page you will find guidance on how to search for and access theses and dissertations in the Bodleian Libraries and beyond.

Theses and dissertations

• Reading theses and dissertations in the Bodleian Libraries
• Theses and dissertations in the Social Science Library

The Bodleian Libraries collection holds DPhil, MLitt and MPhil theses deposited at the University of Oxford. You can also search for theses and dissertations associated with other universities online, or request them via inter-library loan.

Help with theses and dissertations

To find out more about how to find and access theses and dissertations in the Bodleian Libraries and beyond, we recommend the following:

• Bodleian Libraries theses and dissertations Links to information on accessing the Bodleian Libraries collections of Oxford, UK, US and other international theses.
• Oxford University Research Archive [ORA] guide For searching, depositing and disseminating Oxford University research publications.
• Submitting your thesis to ORA Information on copyright, how to deposit your thesis in ORA and other important matters
• Guide to copyright The Bodleian Libraries' Quick guide to copyright and digital sources.

The Social Science Library holds hard copies of dissertations (usually MPhil and MSc) that departments have sent in according to their own selection criteria.

The library holds dissertations from the following departments: Criminology, Economics, Geography and the Environment, International Development, Politics and International Relations (note that MPhil Politics and International Relations dissertations are held in the Bodleian Library), Socio-Legal Studies and Social Policy and Intervention.

These dissertations are on the shelves opposite the Print and Copy Room, arranged by department, course and year. They are all indexed on SOLO, and they are for consultation in the library only. They cannot be borrowed.

Depositing your thesis

It is mandatory for students completing a research degree at the University of Oxford (registered to a programme of study on or after 1st October 2007) to deposit an electronic copy of their theses with the Oxford University Research Archive (ORA) in order to meet the requirements of their award. To find out more, visit the Oxford University Research Archive guide.

• Oxford University Research Archive guide

Definitions

Terms you may encounter in your research.

Thesis: In the UK, a thesis is normally a document that presents an author's research findings as part of a doctoral or research programme.

Dissertation: In the UK, a dissertation is normally a document that presents an author's research findings as part of an undergraduate or master's programme.

DPhil: An abbreviation for Doctor of Philosophy, which is an advanced research qualification. You may also see it referred to as PhD.

ORA: The Oxford University Research Archive , an institutional repository for the University of Oxford's research output including digital theses.

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UCL European & International Social & Political Studies

Past Dissertations

Below are the titles of dissertations completed by last year's finalists. For older examples, please click on the appropriate year in the list at the end of the page.

Dissertations of Finalists 2020

• Memes + urban planning
• A response to #takebackcontrol: is increased national parliamentary involvement the answer to the democratic deficit in the EU? The case of the Bundestag and EU affairs.
• Refugee law
• Richard Arkwright, Early Industrialists, and the Changing Relations between State and Economic Regulation in the Long Eighteenth Century.
• Environmental Human Rights: the emergence, evolution and diffusion of a new norm.
• Applying deterrence theory to economic cyber conflict: Evaluating the strengths and limitations of a deterrence framework for mitigating conflict in economic cyberspace
• Economic insecurity, cultural clash, or politics of disillusionment? Explaining the success of the AfD in Germany.
• Humanitarianism and the case of Venezuela
• The Spanish and German transitions to democracy.
• Critical aspects of the EU asylum policy
• L'écriture inclusive: Gender neutrality in a gendered language
• Climate Security
• Democratic theory
• Something is Rotten in the State of Denmark: The 2015 Refugee Crisis and it’s Role in the Neo-Liberalisation of the Danish Welfare State
• Visible vexation: charting the evolution of the Yellow Vest movement through visual data (working title)
• The response of the EU to populism
• The relationship between autocratic repression and education development in Africa
• Foreign Policy of the European Union
• The evolution of France and China diplomatic relations: the EU as a mediator?
• Music in society, and how music is used as a tool of social change
• The failed democratization of the DRC (Congo)
• How do gendered assumptions affect discourses about global citizenship, and what implications does this have for the roles envisaged for women and girls within it?
• Does the domestic Euroskeptic narrative of populist parties carry through into a  coherent voting behaviour in the European Parliament?
• A comparative approach to the High Representatives of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
• Human rights in post-conflict situations
• German immigration policies from a socio-economic and demographic approach.

Further Dissertation Examples

Finding UK theses

The Bodleian Libraries hold copies of some UK theses. These are listed on SOLO  and may be ordered for delivery to a reading room. 

These theses are not all catalogued in a uniform way. Adding the word 'thesis' as a keyword in SOLO may help, but this is unlikely to find all theses, and may find published works based upon theses as well as unpublished theses.

Card catalogue  

Some early theses accepted for higher degrees and published before 1973 are held in the Bodleian Libraries but are not yet catalogued on SOLO. These holdings can be found in the Foreign Dissertations Catalogue card index.

To request access to material in the catalogue, speak to library staff at the Main Enquiry Desk in the Lower Reading Room of the Old Bodleian Library, or contact us via  [email protected]  or phone (01865 277162). 

Other finding aids

Proquest dissertations & theses.

You can use ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global  to locate theses accepted for higher degrees at universities in the UK and Ireland since 1716. The service also provides abstracts of these theses.

Library Hub Discover

You can use Library Hub Discover to search the online catalogues of some of the UK’s largest university research libraries to see if a thesis is held by another UK library.

EThOS is the UK’s national thesis service, managed by the British Library. It aims to provide a national aggregated record of all doctoral theses awarded by UK higher education institutions, with free access to the full text of many theses. It has around 500,000 records for theses awarded by over 120 institutions.

UTREES - University Theses in Russian, Soviet, and East European Studies 1907–

UTREES is a bibliographical database of research in the British Isles. The database has been continuously extended from the printed volume, most recently with 202 recent theses added in 2021. The database lists details of over 6,000 doctoral and selected masters’ theses from British and Irish universities. It covers research relating to Eastern and Central Europe, Russia and the area of the former USSR, including Central Asia, the Caucasus and Siberia.

Individual universities

You can also go to individual UK universities' sites for their online theses repositories.

You can purchase copies of Cambridge University theses through the Cambridge University Library's online order form . There is a standard charge of £75 (plus VAT and postage). White Rose ETheses Online is an online repository of doctoral theses from the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York. It is part of a national and international network of open access online databases which promote access to research outputs. Many theses have been digitised by the British Library as part of the EThOS. However, there have been instances where theses are available via WhiteRose eTheses Online before they reach EThOS.  

Ordering UK theses

Many theses from other UK universities are available from the British Library's EThOS service.  Unfortunately, this service is currently unavailable due to a cyber attack on the British Library.  

You can also request theses from other UK universities as an inter-library request .

Please note that it may not be possible to obtain some theses due to restrictions on lending placed by the author of the thesis or the institution at which it is held.

• Browse by author
• Browse by year
• Departments
• History of Thought
• Advanced search

Misra, Tanmay (2023) The invention of corruption: India and the License Raj. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Garcés de Marcilla Musté, Mireia (2023) Designing, fixing and mutilating the vulva: exploring the meanings of vulval cutting. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Nolan, Katherine Anne (2023) The individual in EU data protection law. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Pinto, Mattia (2022) Human rights as sources of penality. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Girard, Raphaël (2022) Populism, law and the courts: space and time in an age of "constitutional impatience". PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Matabudul, Rachna (2022) Tax treaty dispute resolution: lessons from the law of the sea. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Dear British politics—where is the race and racism?

• Original Article
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• Published: 31 January 2023
• Volume 19 , pages 1–24, ( 2024 )

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This article explores the neglect of race and racism in the discipline of British politics. I outline why this has happened, the consequences of such neglect and how it might be remedied. The article proceeds in four stages: First, it makes the case that British politics has neglected race and racism. I do this by showing that race does not feature within the core concerns of the discipline, and that despite the fact that race may be noted in the relationship between demography and representation, its status as a social construct is not addressed. Second, the article explores the question of disciplinary reflexivity. Drawing on Emirbayer and Desmond’s (2012) racial reflexivity framework, I delineate the disciplinary and scholastic unconscious of British politics, showing that the reliance on the Westminster Model obscures questions of race. Next, the article discusses the Sewell Report (2021), explicating its post-racism narrative, and draws parallels between the findings of the report and the study of British politics. The final section of the article outlines a framework for a British politics of race. The framework draws on critical race theory, and Britain’s imperial history of colonialism and empire-building and thus puts the study of race at the centre of the discipline.

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Introduction

In Domination and the Arts of Resistance ( 1990 ), James C. Scott makes a distinction between public transcripts and hidden transcripts . Scott defines the former as ‘the open interaction between subordinates and those who dominate’, adding that when ‘not positively misleading’, the public transcript ‘is unlikely to tell the whole story about power relations’ ( 1990 , p. 2). The hidden transcript, the other side of the public transcript, exists ‘offstage’ and may give rise to covert resistance ( 1990 , p. 2). My interest in invoking Scott is to draw attention to the fact that British Politics Footnote 1 has a public and hidden transcript relating to race and racism. The public transcript reflects the ways in which the discipline approaches questions regarding race, which might be understood as invocations of race take place when they refer to demographic or identity-based characteristics of the individual that affect voting or modes of engagement relating to political representation. Parallel to this, there exists a hidden transcript where there are issues pertaining to race and racism that the discipline is acutely aware of, but for various reasons are supressed. Race and racism are then hidden to the extent that the discipline of British Politics is largely silent about these issues. The overall effect of this position is that the discipline has been unwilling or indeed unable to respond to Grenfell, to the Windrush scandal, to the Black Lives Matter Movement, or the Sewell Report. Footnote 2 This stands in contrast to other disciplines, including sociology (Szetela 2020 ; Ellefsen and Sandberg 2022 ; Connelly and Joseph-Salisbury 2019 ), history (Hirsh 2020 ), as well as sub-fields such as political theory (Havercroft and Owen 2016 ) and international relations (Danewid 2020 ; Abu-Bakare 2020 ). British politics is conspicuous in its absence. Footnote 3

While there is a normative commitment to equality and anti-racism in the discipline, persistent racial inequality speaks to these silences and requires that we do more and indeed recognise the areas where we need to do better. Disciplines such as sociology have had to grapple with their own complicated relationships with race and racism, including the question of to what extent the birth of the discipline of sociology, linked as it is with modernity, was involved in promoting racialised imperial projects, but also exclusionary projects with regards its canon. Such questions are being considered under the decolonisation agenda (Bhambra and Holmwood 2020 ; Meghji 2022 ). In British Politics, however, we are somewhat behind in this process of reckoning with our past but, also, we lack the tools and the concepts to engage in debates about race and racism. Admittedly these are hard conversations, which may involve some discomfort, but disciplinary reflexivity does not come without its challenges.

My approach in this article is as follows: I begin by explicating the thesis that British Politics has neglected questions of race. I do this by tracing and making explicit British Politics’ present mode of operation. Specifically, I am concerned with establishing the modes through which the discipline engages with concepts of race, and how this delimits the scope of inquiry, while also leading to little meaningful interrogation of the social construction of the concept of race. From here, the article explores the question of disciplinary reflexivity and I draw on Emirbayer and Desmond’s ( 2012 ) racial reflexivity framework to delve into the disciplinary and scholastic unconscious of the discipline to consider how this shapes how it approaches its subject matter, but also how this serves to obfuscate questions of race. Next, to illustrate these problems, the article discusses the Sewell Report ( 2021 ), explicating its post-racism narrative, and the uneasy parallels between the findings of the report and the neglect of race in the discipline of British Politics. In the fourth and final section of the paper, I outline a framework for how British Politics might re-engage with debates about race and racism, suggesting key indices for consideration and where it can offer a unique contribution.

The state of the discipline

Bagehot’s reputation as a founding father of British Politics is well-known, less well-known are his concerns over Anglo-Saxon purity and how it is threatened by mobility stemming from empire, colonialism and industrial urbanisation. These concerns combine to produce a racialised logic in Bagehot’s work, which is underpinned by hereditary science (Shilliam 2021 ). Hereditary science, inspired by Darwin, Spencer and Galton promulgated the view that biological characteristics are inherited, evolutionary and constitute a battle between the races for survival (Shilliam 2021 ). For example, in ‘The English Constitution’ (1865–1867), Bagehot argued that racial impurity bought about by enfranchisement of the masses would impact negatively on the ‘dignified’ and ‘efficient’ elements of government and lead to the degeneration of politics. Later, in ‘Physics and Politics’ (1873), Bagehot claims that evolution had created different brain capacities among the races which enabled and outlawed different political behaviours. Such distinctions lead Bagehot to argue that the ‘modern savage’ mind was ‘twisted into a thousand curious habits; his reason… darkened by a thousand strange prejudices…’ (Bagehot 1873, p. 120 in Shilliam 2021 , p. 6). In contrast, the ‘accomplished’ white man’s inheritance credited him with ‘nervous organisation’, that replaced instinct with reason (Shilliam 2021 , pp. 61–62).

Racialised thinking also informed the early behaviouralist approaches to political science in America under the influence of Watson ( 1913 /1924) where cultural deficit arguments replaced biologically reductionist ones (Shilliam 2021 ). Following this nineteenth century period of explicit disciplinary racism, we see that for much of twentieth century British Politics devoted less attention to race than kindred disciplines such as sociology (Bhambra and Holmwood 2020 ). While this situation has improved somewhat in recent years, research on race continues to make negligible inroads into the discipline. In this section, I draw out the main contours of how British Politics has engaged with race, identifying trends in the public transcript of the discipline, before offering some explanations for why the discipline has taken this course.

While races do not exist in any scientifically meaningful sense, many people act as if race is a fixed objective category—and these beliefs are reflected in social and political discourse (Miles 1982 ). A racism based on biological reductionism may now be eclipsed by a concern with culture and ethnicity as fixed categories, but we might also add that common-sense conceptions of race rely on a panoply of classificatory variables such as skin colour, country of origin, religion, nationality and language (Solomos 1989 ). Racism emerges when those ideologies and social processes discriminate against others based on their putatively different racial membership.

Scanning the twentieth century, the political dimension of race relations in British society has, until relatively recently, received little serious attention from British Politics scholars; a point that has been noted by sociologists interested in the impact of race on politics as can be seen in the work of Hall et al. ( 1978 ), Solomos ( 1986 , 1989 ), Layton-Henry ( 1984 , 1992 ), Miles ( 1990 ) and Smith ( 2009 ).

Into this vacuum, we might note the signal contribiution of Stuart Hall, the founding figure of British Cultural Studies, who eschews a discipline-specific gaze to provide an account of the intersections between cultural, social, economic and political relations as played out in relation to race and, later, new ethnicities in Britain in the 1970s and beyond. In Policing the Crisis ( 1978 ) Hall et al. focus on the moral panic around ‘mugging’ and race, shifting the focus away from ideas of assimilation, integration and ‘the immigrant problem’ towards a recognition of the role of discourse, representation and its implications for the emerging ‘law and order society’ that was to trigger large scale black resistance in the 1980s under Thatcherism. Influenced by Gramsci and Althusser, Hall and his co-authors were concerned with the role of the state and the media in framing ideologies of national and racial crisis. The object of study here, then, is not ‘race’, ‘black communities’ or even ‘mugging’ but the way in which these serve as emblematic of discourses of broader social, cultural, political and economic crisis in 1970s Britain.

Smith’s ( 2009 ), New Right Discourse on Race and Sexuality (1968–1990) is also noteworthy for highlighting racism and homophobia in British politics and noting the demonisation of black, lesbian and gay people in New Right discourse under Thatcherism in the 1980s. Smith highlights the centrality of race and (homo) sexuality to the Thatcherite project through immigration debates of the late 1960s, highlighting the infamous speeches of Enoch Powell and the debates about the promotion of homosexuality articulated around the Section 28 legislation of 1987–1988.

Notwithstanding the valuable work of Hall et al. ( 1978 ) and Smith ( 2009 ), the argument remains that while sociological studies of race abound, there has not yet emerged a major body of research on the various aspects of the interrelationship between race and politics in the period since 1945 in British Politics. This neglect is striking given the post-second world war history of race and racism in Britain as can be gleaned through a historical overview of immigration policy in British politics. For instance, we might note the political response to black immigration in the immediate post-war period; the pressure for legislative controls and restrictions; national and local policy development in relation to issues such as racial discrimination and disadvantage. There are also the shifts in racial ideologies that took place during the period from the 1940–1980s, as well as the race riots of 1981 (Akram 2012b , 2014 ). Race is also clearly implicated in development commitments and foreign policy under successive governments. Also noteworthy are the role of anti-racist and black political mobilisation in the United Kingdom. All of which brings us back to scholars such as Solomos ( 1989 ), Hall et al. ( 1978 ) and Smith ( 2009 ), whose research has focused on the racialisation of contemporary British politics, exploring how the British state has manoeuvred on issues of race, and looking at the growth of race as an important political symbol. As Solomos ( 1989 ) states, British Politics’ neglect of such issues is hard to understand given the relatively high profile occupied by racial questions on the political agenda during the post-war period. While much of the extant research on these issues comes from sociology and cognate disciplines, there has been some research on race and ethnicity in the discipline of British Politics, and it is interesting to note its specific concerns and contours.

Politics as usual?

Political science and the sub-field of British Politics’ distinctiveness on matters of race might stem from the fact that the discipline focuses on governing institutions, the elites who inhabit them, and the voters who formally participate in the selection of such elites. Disciplines like sociology in contrast have long been more ‘bottom-up’ rather than ‘top-down’ in their interests. Given this disciplinary context, and insofar as British Politics has been concerned to explore the relationship between politics and race, we see that it is a concern with race in terms of how it affects voting behaviour or contact and engagement with political institutions which characterises much of the literature on race in British Politics. There is a longstanding body of work addressing the relationship between race, ethnicity, voting behaviour and elections (Anwar 2001 ; Heath et al. 2011 ; Geddes 2001 ; Hill et al. 2017 ). A further dominant trend in the literature on race and politics is the not insignificant branch of literature on race and the Labour party (Purdam 2001 ; Sobolewska 2013 ; Krook and Nugent 2016 ). Further to this, there is the research on British political parties that mobilise on issues of race, such as the British National Party (BNP), Britain First and the English Defence League (Clark et al. 2008 ; Rhodes 2009 ; Allchorn 2020 ). Additionally, Allen’s ( 2018 ) work on the uniform, but largely white and male British political class is noteworthy for critiquing the lack of diversity of elites.

By the late 1980s, we see a shift from race to ethnicity as an independent variable, and this is particularly evident in comparative work, where it was apparent that ethnicity was replacing race as a description of group membership. This is particularly true with regards research on ethnic conflict and consociationalism. Ethnicity, however much like race, as Taylor ( 1996 ) reminds us, is problematic and we can question the usefulness of this concept. The concept of ethnicity either assumes shared origins, or instrumentalism, but often a combination of the two, but it nonetheless remains unclear how and why such factors might affect politics. This leads Taylor ( 1996 ) to suggest that much like race, the effects of ethnicity have not been sufficiently substantiated in the literature.

An extended albeit selective illustration of this thesis can be seen in Table 1 below which provides a systematic mapping of articles published on race in two of the journals of the discipline: The British Journal of Politics and International Relations (BJPIR) [1999–2022] and the present journal, British Politics (2006–2022). These two journals have been selected because in the case of British Politics it is a specialist journal ‘solely devoted to British politics’, while BJPIR is a more general journal that is ‘especially interested in developments in British politics’ (Beech 2012 , p. 11). Footnote 4

To date, BJPIR (1999–2022) has published 205 out of possible 924 articles, which mention race, ethnicity and related terms.* ** A closer analysis of the data suggests that of these 205 articles identified with the search term race or ethnicity only 17 out of the 205 deal with race or ethnicity in a substantive manner, meaning that they explore the topics as the main, or one of the main focuses of the article. A further 172 of the 205 articles bought up in the search mention race or ethnicity, but do so in a cursory manner. This means that race or ethnicity is mentioned at least once in the article but is not explored in any depth, so it may be mentioned without any examination, or appear in the references or the biography of the author(s) or refer to race as in a competition. Of the total number of articles published in the journal over its history—924 articles—17 of these, or 1.84% deal with race in a substantive manner.

Of the two journals, British Politics (2006–2022) is the younger and has published 102 articles which mention either race, ethnicity or similar terms. Of these 102 articles, 11 deal with race or ethnicity in a substantive manner. 11 articles is 2.06% of the total 535 articles published over the journal’s 28 year span.

As such, in BJPIR and British Politics we see that of the total number of articles published, race and related topics feature at around 1–2%, so minimally (see Table 1 ). Notably, for both journals the number of articles on race improves in recent years indicating an upward trend and that the situation is improving albeit slowly.

In terms of broader patterns identifiable from this data, four key findings are worth highlighting. First, although a broader analysis of research in British Politics shows that research on race in politics is largely concerned with exploring the impact of race as a demographic factor and as an independent variable on voting or engagement with political institutions, it was interesting to note that this was not the case in BJPIR (Hill et al. 2017 is the exception). Notably, and perhaps unsurprisingly, a number of British Politics’ articles on race explore British political parties that have mobilised on issues of race, so the British National Party (BNP) (Clark et al. 2008 ; Rhodes 2009 ) and The English Defence League and Britain First (Allchorn 2020 ). Second, the past decade or so has witnessed a growth in research on new migration, refugees and asylum seekers, and many of the articles that did address race in BJPIR focused on these topics (see Betts 2006 ; Morris 2012 ; Karyotis et al. 2022 ). This pattern is also evident in British Politics, but to a lesser extent (Squire 2008 ). Research on contemporary trends in racialisation is welcome, but it should not obscure the fact that there is negligible research on what we might call old or post-WW2 migration, or the activities of the racialising state. It is, however, worth pointing out that British Politics has published a number of articles relating to citizenship and community cohesion (MacGregor and Bailey 2012 ; Donoghue 2013 ; Thomas 2014 ), and Britain’s Muslim communities (Allen 2022 ). Third, research on race and politics lags that on politics and gender, which fare better than race in the two journals (see Moon et al. 2019 ; Milner 2019 ). Fourth, a search for research on intersectionality bought up negligible results.

Diagnosing the problem

It is important to recognise the precise articulation of race and ethnicity in the extant literature in British Politics. There has been an understanding that race matters most in social and cultural contexts, hence it being the preserve of those disciplines concerned with society and culture such as sociology, but where it did have an effect in British Politics was in relation to the person, as a demographic or identity-based attribute or symbol of group membership, hence we see the acknowledgment that race has, some of the time, affected politics as an exogenously generated independent variable. Accordingly, race is something that affects persons as a social, psychological or identity-based feature, or might be studied in relation to prejudice, but is has no direct relationship to politics. On this view, race is something that largely arises and exists outside of politics and is therefore largely to be studied as such (Smith 2004 ). This stance is problematic for several reasons.

The reasoning behind this articulation is the overarching scientific method of political science, which privileges the identification of causal laws which explain the effects of race or ethnicity as independent variables on phenomena such as voting or joining political parties (Taylor 1996 ). In establishing race as one of many independent variables that may affect political behaviour, this leads to a situation where: “(R)ace is a thing in the world, which could be picked up, listed, and coded to analyse political behaviour” ( 1996 , p. 887)—and or correlated to other such facts . Such an approach does not recognise the changing, contested and socially constructed nature of race, or indeed ethnicity and culture, and forecloses that discussion rather than centring it as has been the core insight of decades of research on race (Miles 1982 ). The overall effect is race and ethnicity continue to be seen as natural and essential phenomena, rather than something that is generated and reproduced through everyday usage or is instrumentally created by political institutions and the state thus making it a ‘political product’ (Taylor 1996 ).

Ultimately, British Politics, then, has either ignored or minimised race, thereby relegating it to a hidden transcript (Scott 1990 ). In doing so, the politics of race and how politics and the state instrumentally creates and reproduces race through state-making initiatives—systems for creating inequality and unequal power—are denied (Miles 1982 ). Disciplinary silence on matters of race is a depoliticising manoeuvre, which takes the politics out of race, rather than centring it, and when the discipline of British Politics does encounter race, it essentialises it rather than affirms its social construction. Political (and lay) activity in Britain actively creates race, yet the discipline of British Politics does not study or reflect this. For instance, the state is implicated in creating racial categories as used in the census; the state actively creates and legislates for race relations (see British Race Relations Acts 1965, 1968 and 2000) as well as produces racialised immigration policy (see Commonwealth Immigration Acts 1962, 1968; and Immigration Act 1971). As such, the state articulates race through fostering positive race relations on the one hand, while actively creating a hostile and racialised environment on the other.

In sum, and as Taylor points out, the question is not just how British Politics has failed to incorporate race and racism into its disciplinary remit and public transcript, but also why it has failed to establish a coherent position that offers a valid answer as to the ‘thinghood’ of race and ethnicity ( 1996 , p. 892), meaning to recognise its effects without essentialising it as a stable category. The end result for the study of British Politics ‘is a neglect which may not have been malignant, but which is hard to call benign’ (Smith 2004 , p. 42).

Disciplinary reflexivity: what is it that we do when we do British politics?

Writing in the early 1960s, Kuhn struck a chord in the natural sciences and beyond for making the academy think about knowledge production, advance, and the tendency to ‘normal science’, or the promulgation of paradigms. Paradigms persist because a research community ‘acknowledges [the paradigm] for a time as supplying the foundation for its further practice’ ( 1962 , p. 10). In practice, paradigms persist through disciplinary journals, through repositories of knowledge such as textbooks, through the courses taught at universities, and they desist up until the point that a ‘scientific revolution’ takes place, which challenges the paradigm, moving us to a competing paradigm. With Kuhn in mind, British Politics has been extraordinarily resilient in maintaining its dominant paradigm, or public transcript, over the years despite much critique. My concern here is not to add to the substantial literature addressing the utility or not of the Westminster Model as the dominant paradigm in British Politics, but to critique the presuppositions which underly the model, while also highlighting what the dominance of the model occludes with regards to debates on race and racism.

To do so I turn to Bourdieu, who contributes to these debates by conceptualising reflexivity, which he defines as: an interrogation of three types of limitations—of social position, of field, Footnote 5 and of the scholastic point of view—that are constitutive of knowledge itself (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992 , p. 40). Starting with Bourdieu, but extending his ideas about reflexivity to critique the position of race in disciplinary knowledge, Emirbayer and Desmond ( 2012 ) are interested in the nature of, and limits on, disciplinary reflexivity. Doing so enables one to address the unsettling question of why certain disciplines have neglected or marginalised discussions of race, and the implications of this for disciplinary reflexivity. Drawing on Emirbayer’s and Desmond’s three-tier taxonomy of the concept of racial reflexivity (social, scholastic and the disciplinary unconscious), I use this framework to explore British Politics’ approach to race. While there is some overlap, my concern here is with the second and third tiers, although I outline all three tiers below.

The social unconscious

Reflecting the insight that the critical gaze must be turned back on the researcher and not just the research object, an individualistic approach to reflexivity is the dominant trend in the literature on reflexivity. Accordingly, the first tier of Emirbayer and Desmond’s three-tier model—the social unconscious—emphasises the need to recognise the social location and unconscious of those engaged in knowledge production. This requires situating the researcher in relation to a racial hierarchy which privileges whiteness in knowledge production. The dominance of whiteness necessarily distorts and marginalises those who are engaged in researching race as it positions the study of race as a minority concern, whilst failing to situate whiteness as a racialised identity, so whiteness is taken-for-granted and normalised. For example, Emirbayer and Desmond point to regression analysis where whiteness often functions as a standard against which all other categories are (implicitly) compared, “the consummate ‘reference category’ in the parlance of regression analysis” ( 2012 , p. 579). Whiteness is also normalised in the common, implicit and uncritical use of concepts such as ‘mainstream culture’ and ‘middle-class values’ … ‘supposedly commonplace categories, widely recognised, unquestionably stable, and internally consistent—… against which all other (non-white, non-middle-class) groups can be measured’ ( 2012 , p, 579). The point here is that there are different vantage points from which research in British Politics is conducted, which will inform what is deemed worthy of study. The neglect of race in the discipline affirms the dominance of whiteness in the discipline; a point which is little commented on or questioned.

The disciplinary unconscious

Individual-level reflexivity must be situated in relation to a discipline-level reflexivity, where we recognise the intellectual currents or the ‘position-takings’ prevailing in the discipline, often in mutual antagonism. To this end, the second tier of Emirbayer and Desmond’s ( 2012 ) framework, the disciplinary unconscious, asks us to map out this disciplinary ‘common sense’ or ‘doxa’. This requires documenting the discipline’s ‘traditions and national particularities’, its ‘obligatory problematics’ and ‘habits of thought’ (Bourdieu 2004 [2001], p. 94 in Emirbayer and Desmond 2012 , pp. 582–583). Together, these create the collective history of a discipline and inform the questions that it pursues. What, then, is the disciplinary unconscious of the study of British Politics?

Turner ( 2006 ), when defining the noun discipline, identifies five different meanings with the most relevant for our present purposes suggesting that it is ‘an organising perspective on phenomena that is sustained by academic training or the disciplining of the mind’ ( 2006 , p. 183). Unlike the sub-field of international relations, which has at points needed to question and convince that it is in fact a distinct discipline (Kaplan 1961 ), British Politics has an ‘organising perspective’ (Gamble 1990 ), that has remained relatively imperious to change, maintaining a core set of assumptions and focuses over the course of its evolution. These foci include the study of British political institutions, the processes of central government and the formal procedures within the public realm. One reason for this continuity in subject matter over the history of the discipline is that unlike cognate disciplines such as sociology and economics, British Politics bypassed debates that other disciplines faced in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s where they questioned the status of the knowledge claims being made as well as the philosophies behind their thinking. Thus, this organising perspective, despite some internal shocks, has remained intact since the discipline’s emergence in the latter third of the nineteenth century (Dearlove 1982 ). This history can be traced in classic works by leading founding fathers, Bagehot ( 1867 ), Dicey ( 1885 ) and Jennings ( 1933 ).

Tivey ( 1988 ), uses the language of an ‘image’ to describe the mainstream literature in the discipline, suggesting that British Politics has an image of its subject matter, which comprises a core set of assumptions about the system and how it works. For Marsh ( 1999 ), there is a mainstream or family of ideas about British government shared by practitioners and academics alike, while for Gamble ( 1990 ), the organising perspective precedes theory and provides a map of how things relate, a set of research questions ( 1990 , p. 405). Whether thought of as an image or set of underlying assumptions, British Politics revolves around the Westminster Model, which, as Dearlove ( 1982 , p. 438) states is: ‘[the] core that provides the continuity which gives coherence to the diversity within the established discourse’.

Although familiar to many, it is worth outlining the central tenets of the Westminster Model, whose core features include strong cabinet and institutions (Greenleaf 1983 ); government based on majority rule; the importance attached to constitutional convention; a two-party system based on single member constituencies, and the assumption that minorities find expression in one of the major parties amongst other related principles (Verney 1991 ).

There have been many critiques of the Westminster Model (Marsh et al. 2003 ; Rhodes 1997 ) with some calling it muddled and subject to conceptual stretching beyond meaning (Russell and Serban 2021 ; Flinders et al. 2022 ), while others suggest that it should be recognised as a narrative (Bevir and Rhodes 2003 ), but it continues to operate at a implicit if not explicit level in the field. Criticisms of the model reflect broader criticisms of the nature and evolution of the discipline since the nineteenth century. For Marsh et al. ( 2003 , p. 306), the Westminster Model offers a ‘shorthand, normative, organising perspective’ to portray a particular image of the British political system, rather than a theoretically, well-developed and explicit model of how British politics works. Similarly, for Kerr and Kettell the Westminster Model is fundamentally restrictive, emphasising a Whiggish-focus on historical evolution, leading to the production of ‘highly static, overly empiricist, and largely descriptive accounts of formal institutional processes and political behaviour…’ ( 2006 , p. 6).

A central limitation of the Westminster Model is that it purports to portray a particular image of the British political system that is ‘fundamentally and essentially democratic’ (Dearlove 1982 ) rather than a theoretically well-developed model of how British politics works—or one that acknowledges conflict and inequality that is racial or otherwise. For Dearlove, this established discourse has gone beyond description and explanation ‘to embrace applause for our democratic politics as a stable, flexible, consensual, adaptive, peaceful and successful example of representative and responsible government that is the best in the world’ ( 1982 , p. 439). As is clear, a focus on the Westminster Model equates with a focus on the core areas of government, parliament and related actors and institutions, while neglecting whole areas of political life, particularly where they intersect with questions of race or socio-political inequality and conflict. As discussed earlier in the article, when race does feature in British Politics, it is in relation to voting and elections, or in observations about the persistent ‘whiteness’ of the political class, but even then, it features in limited ways.

The scholarly unconscious

Scholarly activity, according to Bourdieu, is mistakenly characterised by a preoccupation with ‘skholè’—the privileged freedom to enjoy ‘free time, freed from the urgencies of the world, that allows a free and liberated relation to those urgencies…’ (Bourdieu, 2000 , p. 1.). Adopting this notion of skholè, Emirbayer and Desmond define the scholastic unconscious as: “a characteristic attitude of pure, disinterested thought, of detached intellectuality, unconstrained by social and economic necessity and drawn to a playful ‘as-if’ mode of engagement with the world and its problems” ( 2012 , p. 585).

Applied to British Politics, a notion of the scholarly unconscious allows us to think critically about the scholastic presuppositions that inform British Politics’ reliance on the Westminster Model, and the type of scholarly gaze that this encourages and, moreover, how this necessarily mitigates against seeing racial inequality. Specifically, I am concerned with detailing the evasions implicit in adopting a moral universalising gaze in British Politics, but also an attitude of pure disconnected thought unconstrained by socio-economic necessity.

The core insights raised in the literature describe British Politics as a discipline with an overarching paradigm and a binding epistemology, which combine to produce an overly empiricist, descriptive, and largely a-theoretical approach to British Politics. The overall effect of this is to produce an approach which aligns the political as being wholly contiguous with formal procedures within the public realm. Consequently, it pays negligible attention to the non-elite individuals who comprise the British polity and neglects the perspectives of subordinate groups. Writing in the 1980s, Dearlove points out that ‘we have ignored real class inequality in favour of a focus upon the abstract equality of citizens’ ( 1982 , p. 450), and while the discipline may have made some improvement in relation to class and gender in recent years the same cannot be said of race. Today, a class-based analysis of voters provides the dominant frame in British Politics, and while the neglect of race is at times noted, as is the whiteness of the British political class (Allen 2018 ), there is little enthusiasm to rectify this neglect. Actors or agents matter in the literature, but these actors tend to be elite actors (prime ministers, parliamentarians, civil servants) or, more characteristically, there is a tendency to adopt a moral universalising stance to citizens without paying attention to questions of race, gender, sexuality or disability. Such a perspective assumes a neutral starting point for citizens, and equal access to, and engagement with, political resources when this is clearly not the case. A focus on a neutral actor or citizen is partial when it is divorced from the structural contexts in which actors operate, yet the Westminster Model struggles to take such context into consideration, if at all (Marsh et al. 2003 ).

There have of course been attempts to revise and update the Westminster Model. Rhodes’ differentiated polity model (Rhodes 1997 ), reliant on the notion of governance rather than government and on networks as ‘exchange relationships’, offers an alternative to the centralised and unitary power of the Westminster Model. Responding to changes such as globalisation, Rhodes highlights fragmentation over centralization of power and a segmented over a core executive in British politics, meaning that power is diffuse and fragmented. On this view, interest groups, the voluntary and the private sector function as the multitude of interdependent organisations that make up a system of government because the British government need their cooperation given that it rarely delivers services itself.

There is also Marsh et al.’s ( 2003 ) asymmetric power model, which recognises the strengths of Rhodes’ approach with regards moving us from a centralised to a dispersed understanding of power, but critiques Rhodes’ commitment to pluralism, instead highlighting the structural inequality that pervades British politics. For Marsh et al., Rhodes’ model does not pay sufficient attention to the asymmetries of power and resources, meaning it does not recognise that structural inequality is reflected in crucial political resources such as money, education and key political positions. Marsh et al. criticise the neglect of the broader structural context in which politics takes place, highlighting the tendency in British Politics to privilege agents while downplaying structure.

Marsh et al.’s ( 2003 ) argument that structural inequality has been neglected in debates in British Politics while privileging the agency of elites is important, but we need to go further than they do in thinking about structural inequality and specifically the effects of race and racism. A key issue with both Rhodes ( 1997 ) and Marsh et al.’s ( 2003 ) critiques of the Westminster Model is that they remain wedded to core institutions and processes of Westminster rather than taking a broader understanding of the relationship between the state, its institutions and the public. Further, acknowledging structural inequality as Marsh et al. do without specifying the precise mechanisms through which it exerts its effects is a limited solution as is engaging in discussion of structural inequality without considering the agency of individuals. Ultimately, Marsh et al.’s critique highlights the limitations of the Westminster Model as does Rhodes, but both only take us so far. British Politics has tended to neglect whole areas of British politics, preferring to defer these discussions to other disciplines, but the role of the state and it’s power to intervene in public life is fundamental to such debates.

At root, the issue for Bourdieu as well as Emirbayer and Desmond is the detail that is lost in remaining wedded to a theoretical stance or models such as the Westminster Model, and how this obscures the lifeworlds of individuals. Emirbayer and Desmond criticise the attitude of pure disconnected thought and an intellectualism unconstrained by socio-economic necessity characteristic of disciplines such as British Politics. This perspective entails a distancing valorised as objectivity while insulating academic thought from practical urgencies and concerns. While some argue that the Westminster Model is devoid of serious engagement with theory, the model occupies a pivotal place in the discipline and, in privileging abstract knowledge as well as the objectifying gaze, it misses the quotidian or practical dimension of political and racialised life. Practice can always be informed by theory, but in neglecting practice, we miss a crucial dimension of people’s everyday reality (Bourdieu 1977 ).

In sum, Emirbayer and Desmond’s model is helpful for making explicit that which is implicit in British Politics—for turning the critical gaze back on ourselves. In describing the implicit as the ‘unconscious’ as they do, their three-tier typology helps us to discern that which may be hidden or less visible thereby bringing British Politics’ hidden transcript into the light. The unconscious occupies a pivotal place in this schema and might be seen as the other side of reflexivity. Where reflexivity demands inward looking attentiveness and reflection, the unconscious is often thought to bubble away under the surface; a repository of thoughts which make occasional appearances, but often outside of the conscious awareness of the agent. In other work I have challenged this reading of the unconscious, arguing that it is a much-neglected aspect of agency, which features in an everyday way in agents’ lives as a store of past experiences both positive and negative (Akram 2012a , 2014 , 2015 , 2017 , 2019 ). Reclaiming the unconscious as I suggest is necessary opens it up as an arena for thinking about everyday encounters for agents, but there are also insights here for thinking about disciplinary reflexivity.

Emirbayer and Desmond’s framework as explored here makes visible the contours and concerns, but also the gaps in both the public and hidden transcript of race in British Politics. Applying the racial reflexivity framework to British Politics makes visible the discipline's social, disciplinary and scholastic unconscious, but it worth recalling that the unconscious is not necessarily something which is solely or necessarily hidden. Rather, as Burkitt elucidates:

What we are unconscious of is in front of us, yet it is that which we do not see or articulate, just as we do not see the space between the trees… and it would take an unusual occurrence for the internal space between things to be at the forefront of our minds. (Burkitt 2010 , p. 327)

As such, while scholars of British Politics may undoubtably have an understanding of the disciplinary context in which they operate, they may not always see it in its entirety, or in terms of its exclusions. Bringing this unconscious disciplinary context to the fore as this article does can lead to insight, but also (mis)communication, thus affirming the porous boundary between conscious and unconscious thought and, crucially, our not always conscious role in reproducing the discipline.

The Sewell Report

The argument of this article might be seen as solely academic, but I wish strongly to counteract this reading by turning to the practical implications of continuing in the present mode where British Politics remains silent on questions of race and racism. If the discipline remains in its current form, then there will not only be little scrutiny of race and racism in British politics, but the alternative thesis can also prevail: that, as concluded by the Government-commissioned Sewell Report ( 2021 ), claims regarding racism in the United Kingdom come to be viewed as exaggerated and insubstantial.

In March 2021, The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities published its report examining ‘race and ethnic disparities’ in the United Kingdom. Chaired by Tony Sewell, the report, popularly referred to as the Sewell Report, was commissioned by Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. It would be reasonable to surmise that this report was Johnson’s attempt to acknowledge and address a mounting crisis as exemplified by a series of recent and ongoing incidents involving race and racism including the Grenfell tragedy in June 2017, the Windrush scandal of 2017 and the Black Lives Matter movement. Indeed, the opening pages of the report acknowledge that ‘the spirit of BLM was the original trigger for our report’ (2021, p. 7). The report was met with widespread condemnation, with the Runneymede Trust calling the claim that institutional racism no longer exists ‘insulting as it is farcical’, Footnote 6 while Bhopal, Footnote 7 the author of ‘White privilege: the myth of the post-racial society’ (2018), called it a ‘whitewash’. There are evidently many problems with the Sewell Report, here I restrict myself to some key issues.

The Sewell Report investigated racial and ethnic disparities in education, employment, crime and policing, and health. It accepts that disparities in access and outcomes exist, but the range of explanations offered for these disparities bear scrutiny. My criticisms pertain to three points: the need to support claims of racism with objective data; the pitting of racism against class-based inequality; and the reliance on cultural explanations to explain racial inequality.

First, the report states that claims of racism in society have been exaggerated while ‘stretching the meaning of racism without objective data to support it’ (2021, p. 45). It outlines the different forms that racism takes, listing institutional, systematic and structural racism, but the report minimises the existence of these forms of racism, instead suggesting that distinctions between ‘ explained racial disparities’ and ‘ unexplained racial disparities’ are what matter most, while emphasising the need to move discussions of race onto more objective foundations which are evidenced through data (my emphasis). Such a position not only fails to recognise the complexity involved in documenting racism and its effects but is then followed by the contradictory statement that where there are racial disparities, these will be explained by reference to ‘geography, class or sex’, meaning factors other than racism are responsible (2021, p. 36).

This brings me to my second key concern with the report: it downplays racism, but highlights geographic inequality across the United Kingdom, highlighting white working-class disadvantage particularly in the North East of England (2021, pp. 37–43). As such, the report reinforces inter-ethnic disparity rather than recognising as Hall et al. ( 1978 ) state that: ‘race is the modality through which class is lived (Hall et al. 1978 , p. 394), but also ignoring the critical insights of intersectionality which reminds us that identity comprises multiple intersecting factors (Crenshaw 1989 ). Pitting the white working class against ethnic minority groups, while also suggesting that some ethnic groups have been better at integrating than others, the report is impressed by the ‘immigrant optimism’ of some of the ‘new African Communities’ (2021, p. 7). However, it is the recycling of cultural tropes that affirms the paucity of this report as can be seen in its use of cultural explanations to explain disparities in outcomes for certain black groups. For example, the report uses select data on family breakdown, absent fathers, working mothers and lone parent families as reasons for Black-Caribbean male underachievement thereby stigmatising single-parent families as well as whole communities. Overall, the report is striking in its tone of optimism, as well as its insistence that it is the ‘mistrust’ and ‘perceptions of bias’ rather than the reality of bias that haunts the present and has led to a reluctance to acknowledge that the United Kingdom has become open and fairer in the past fifty years.

The Sewell Report is a symbolic event for signifying the erasure of decades of research and thinking about the problem of race and racism. In commissioning and legitimising this report, the state continues to ignore the reality, complexity and challenges associated with tackling race and racism. My immediate concern here, however, is not the responsibility of the state in addressing these matters—a point that I return to later—but in the discipline of British Politics and how it is also subject to evasions, silences and relative neglect of debates on race and racism. Thus while the Sewell Report is undoubtedly chronically flawed, it reflects a wider problem where issues of race and racism are hidden in plain sight, they are seen but misrepresented or neglected. Yet, on closer inspection there are some striking similarities between the finding of the Sewell Report and the discipline of British Politics, which serve to remind us of how race becomes sidelined to more dominant narratives in British politics and in the discipline of British Politics.

Sewell’s concerns with white, class-based and geographic inequality in the North East of England echo long-standing concerns in British Politics, which stubbornly refuse to evolve. As an illustration, Sewell’s concerns about class are notably reminiscent of recent scholarly debate about the fall of ‘red walls’ or Labour heartlands in the North East of England, the Midlands, and Yorkshire and Humber to the Conservative Party following the 2019 General Election (Cutts et al. 2020 ). Sewell’s focus on the white working class in the North East of England, and British Politics’ concerns with electoral geography and re-and de-alignment in British politics speak to a longstanding and timeless preoccupation with class and geography in the discipline, which obfuscate race from the analysis rather than seeing class and race as inextricably linked for white and minority groups. Where Sewell misrepresents the debate on race, the discipline of British Politics circumnavigates this debate altogether by excluding the topic from its disciplinary remit. Such a position is, I suggest, wholly untenable for the discipline of British Politics and has implications for the mirror it holds up to British politics more broadly. For if the discipline cannot see its own evasions around issues of race, this impacts on its ability to comment on issues of race in the polity.

A British politics of race?

If we accept that the scholarly study of race has been neglected in the discipline of British Politics and that this requires remedy, then, what does a British Politics which centres race look like? To answer this question we might begin by noting that a distinctly American politics of race emerged after the post-civil rights movement in response to the rhetoric and limitations of the perceived gains of the civil rights movement (1950s–1960s). This corresponded with an increase in Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and black political scientists establishing their own publishing outlets and professional organizations, such as the National Conference of Black Political Scientists (Smith 2004 ). Gains and set-backs arise from this development in the form of ‘separate but dubiously equal professional existences’, leading to the segregation of scholarly activity from the wider discipline of American political science (Smith 2004 , p. 43). Disciplinary segregation is counterproductive and to be avoided, but the issue remains, however, that a British Politics of race must reflect on Britain’s own legacies of racism and politics, and it must begin with the acknowledgement of the minimisation of race in the discipline, but where does it go from here? In this section, I outline a framework to identify the core concerns of an agenda for a more serious engagement with race in the discipline. The framework pivots on three key points: critical race theory; the importance of history; and how reform of the sub-discipline must be linked to reform of political science departments. I address each in turn.

• Critical race theory

If race were to be taken more seriously and if we are to avoid the relegation of race to the side-lines of the discipline, critical race theory (CRT) offers a way forward . CRT has received much negative backlash of late, Footnote 8 but this is perhaps expected given its ambit and the scale of the task that it envisages. CRT has its roots first in American legal studies and then educational studies, but its impact is growing. While some have argued that there is a lack of clarity about the theoretical and conceptual focus of CRT, others have maintained that this lack of prescriptiveness or universalism is in fact a strength. Describing CRT as more of a verb than a noun, Crenshaw ( 1989 ) argues that CRT offers an inherently activist, practical and flexible framework, which can be adapted in fields of inquiry beyond legal studies.

At root, CRT asks us to centre race and racism in our analysis and to recognise its pivotal role in reproducing racial domination, inequality and outcomes (Delgado and Stefancic 2000 ; Crenshaw 1989 ). In defining CRT, Delgado and Stefancic ( 2000 ) argue that the following key principles are core: That racism is routine and ordinary rather than exceptional, and it is the effect not of individual prejudice, but structural power relations. Racism is purposive, meaning that it rationalises and reproduces racial inequality. Racism has no objective essence but is a social construction which is the product of social thought and relations leading to differential outcomes. Intersectionality is central to CRT, and there is no single unitary identity, but an overlap of identities. And, finally, CRT tells us that experiences of racism are unique and different and that groups must be allowed to recount their own experience of racism, rather than be subsumed within a singular and universalising black experience.

Accepting the need for refinement of CRT principles, Meghji ( 2022 ), argues that CRT’s core presuppositions are enriched when complemented with Bonilla-Silva’s notion of the ‘racialised social system’. For Bonilla-Silva ( 1997 ), racism begins with racialisation, but with the proviso that all actors are racialised, not just black ones. But some racialised actors receive greater economic renumeration than others, they have a better labour market participation, enjoy primary positions in the political system, have license to draw social segregation as well as enjoy higher social esteem and a psychological wage, which is a DuBoisian term meaning such actors receive non-material benefits for being white (Bonilla-Silva 1997 , pp. 469–470). This structural conception of material and symbolic racism is underpinned by a recognition that race is socially constructed, that it places people into a racial hierarchy and leads to the unequal distribution of resources across racial hierarchy.

A further key insight developed by a racialised social system approach to CRT is that racism and racialisation are endemic across society and that racial inequality is reproduced via processes at the micro, meso and macro levels. As such, the approach taken to tackling racial inequality cannot be partial, meaning focus on discrete areas be they in education or the law, but needs to look at how racism shapes all spheres of life in interconnected ways, so a poor education leads to limited housing and labour market prospects. Academic disciplines may of course need to take a discrete disciplinary gaze, nevertheless the key lesson for British Politics is that there are distinct but interconnected vantage points in the racial regime with regards politics, these include the role of the state; of elite actors; of political parties; of institutions, but not forgetting that we also need to pay attention to institutions beyond the state, because racism is not specific to the state. I do not have the space to engage in detailed examination of, for example, institutional racism here (Akram 2022 ), but each of these components is potentially worthy of detailed scrutiny for its role in reproducing race and racism.

In linking the micro, meso and macro of race, a racialised systems approach to CRT allows us to brings individuals’ experiences of racism to the fore while linking these experiences to structures, the state and ideologies. This shows how race is normalised, legitimised and reproduced.

Seminal studies in sociology, such as Rex and Moore’s Race, Community and Conflict: A Study of Sparkbrook ( 1967 ); and similarly, but focusing on Handsworth— Colonial Immigrants in a British City: A Class Analysis (Rex and Tomlinson 1979 )—offer rich qualitative examples of the lived experiences of race in ethnically diverse cities such as Birmingham. More recently, research by Khan ( 2022 ) on Muslim women in Manchester points to the effects of everyday racism on hijabi women (see also Afshar 2008 ) or we can point to research on the effects of Islamaphobia amidst anti-terrorism discourses (Awan and Zempi 2017 ). The lived experiences of race may have multiple referents, but we might ask where are the studies of the everyday political lives of Britain’s ethnic minorities in cities such as Birmingham, or indeed Manchester, Cardiff and Glasgow? Documenting political parties that mobilise around issues of race is of course part of the picture, but to explore the effects of race on everyday life, scholars of British Politics need to recognise that race is experienced in varied ways and that we need to reflect on the types of methodologies that will help to capture this varied picture. As per the insights of CRT, the discipline would be richer as well as more reflective of the polity if it included more bottom-up accounts of the political lives and lived experience of race and racism of the United Kingdom’s multi-generational ethnic minorities.

Yet, the focus on the everyday reality of racism should not equate with an individualised approach to the problem of race. Instead, we need to recognise that racism is structural, it is systematic and not something that can be tackled at an individual level. We need a penetrating analysis not on ‘diversification’ or ‘inclusion’—the more palatable form that anti-racist strategies can take—but on how racism is reproduced while recognising that it is routine and ordinary rather than exceptional.

The importance of history

In the spirit of CRT, British Politics’ approach to race would be attuned to the relationship between national and global critiques of racism and intrinsic to this is an understanding of Britain’s imperial past. British racism at a domestic level would be considered in relation to critiques of colonialism, empire and racial capitalism and, crucially, recognise Britain’s unique role in orchestrating this racialised order (Williams 1944 /2021). Race is undoubtedly central to British history but has been little commented on in relation to matters such as, for instance, the origins and development of British capitalism. Historians such as Eric Williams have considered this question and, Williams, the author of Capitalism and Slavery ( 1944 /2021) argues that while race is undoubtedly a factor in slavery, economic motives prefigure racism as the primary motivation in Britain’s approach to slavery: ‘it had not to do with the color of the laborer, but the cheapness of the labor’ ( 1944 /2021, p. 17). Meticulously detailing Britain’s pivotal role in slavery, Williams shows that the slave trade was foundational in providing ‘the capital which financed the Industrial Revolution in England…’, but that by the early nineteenth century ‘commercial capitalism’ gave way to a ‘mature industrial capitalism’, which was less reliant on monopolies and slavery ( 1944 /2021, p. xi). Slavery, Williams argues, ended when it was no longer profitable for the British rather than for moral reasons associated with the British abolitionist movement ( 1944 /2021, pp. 169–186).

For Bhambra ( 2022 ), adopting a historical perspective allows us to view the British state as an ‘imperial state’ with a ‘national project at its heart’ funded through imperial revenue from colonial populations. An asymmetry lies at the heart of the British imperial state, because while the imperial state is constituted through ‘relations of extraction’, the national project—and specifically the British welfare state—comes into being through ‘relations of re-distribution’ or welfare. Injustice is at the heart of the British imperial state reliant as it is on the legitimacy of the white working class rather than any ethical commitiment to colonial populations. This injustice reverberates today in practices that privilege national citizens over others, and which negate the multi-racial character of Britian’s working class.

Gilroy ( 2001 ) similarly reminds us of the need to take a historical approach to racialised domestic politics, but shows that doing so requires asking some uncomfortable questions. For Gilroy, ‘the residues of imperial and colonial culture live on wherever ‘race’ is invoked’ (Gilroy 2001 , p. 162), and so reference to race necessarily invokes questions of Britain’s empire. The fact that debates about race in Britain tend to be conducted in isolation from historically-informed debates about Britain’s colonial past is in fact a signal of a wider malaise, with Gilroy diagnosing Britain as suffering from a ‘postcolonial melancholia’ which is, at root, the failure to address and acknowledge Britain’s post-imperial decline that is tied up with ‘the content and character of the shrinking culture that makes England distinctive’ ( 2001 , p. 162). This post-colonial melancholia, or a failure to seriously acknowledge Britain’s imperial history, both economic and political successes and prestige, but also post-colonial shame and guilt, feeds discussion of nationalism on the one hand, while reinforcing a racial hierarchy premised on white supremacy.

The politics of memory, or the question of what is remembered or forgotten of a nation’s past is not a neutral question but refers to: ‘a subjective experience of a social group that essentially sustains a relationship of power’ (Confino 1997 , p. 1393). Countries have thought long and hard about how to navigate and address the harms of their ancestors and history, but also the value of collective remembering, Footnote 9 and British Politics, with reference to its own imperial past, could take a lead in helping to navigate this complex terrain.

From the department to the discipline

While ‘practical urgencies and concerns’ may be absent in the Westminster Model they loom large for British Politics and offer some explanation for why there is a paucity of race scholarship in the discipline. UK Higher Education and academic career progression incentivise a culture of capturing large grants and generating impact. These grants privilege quantitative approaches characteristic of American political science and venerate American journals. While this research does not exclude research on race, it tends to favour ‘mainstream’ political science topics rather than marginal topics like race, thus affirming what is seen and understood as knowledge in political science. Additional pressures exist in the form of the Research Excellent Framework (REF) by which academic research is evaluated and funding distributed by the Higher Education Funding Council for England. In privileging work that is of international standing this in turn disincentivises research focusing exclusively on the British domestic sphere (Beech 2012 ).

Political science departments in the United Kingdom also contain their own mechanisms for side-lining research on, but also the researchers of, race. Departments need to do more to both recruit staff who research race, but also support those who do this work to progress within the discipline. As Emejulu ( 2019 ) argues, people of colour in political science tend to research neglected topics such as race and that: ‘(w)orking in these sub-disciplines means that it is unlikely that they will be able to attract support, in terms of viable peer groups and mentors, funding for research projects and invitations to powerful, career-defining network’ (Emejulu, p. 203, see also Begum and Saini 2019 ). Such concerns are even more pressing when we consider the very vocal demands from students to ‘decolonise the curriculum’, meaning to transform the ways in which the academy engages in knowledge production. Calls to decolonise the political theory canon, for instance, question the logic of exclusion and dismissal established in a canon composed of ‘dead white European males’ dedicated to Enlightenment ideals, but for whom universal principles such as freedom only applied to propertied white men (Emejulu 2019 ).

Overall, a British Politics of race must be premised a wider definition of the political rather than a narrowly Westminster-focused one; it would centre the study of the (dis)empowered and (in)equality. Pivotal to this task would be the recognition that we must document the lived reality of race and racism, rather than deny or minimise such perspective in favour of objective theories, models and data collection. The task ahead is not insignificant, and there are signs that some of this work is already underway as can be seen in the emerging decolonisation critiques of political science (Begum and Saini 2019 ; Shilliam 2021 ), but there is clearly more to be done. CRT is still emergent and while it may not be a silver bullet, its key insight of centring race as a focal point for critique rather than evading, sidestepping or silencing such analysis, seems a vital starting point for British Politics to renew itself and to become more relevant.

In conclusion

This article has been concerned with critiquing British Politics’ relationship with race. I have outlined the key concerns of the discipline in terms of its mode of operation, the Westminster Model, while outlining the implications of this approach for race scholarship. I have argued that the discipline has not only failed to acknowledge or engage in meaningful scholarship on the social construction of race and its material and symbolic effects, but that when it has engaged with race it has done so in a narrow manner, focusing on representation rather than re-distribution, or the effects of racism on the polity. Following Emirbayer and Desmond, engaging in a more serious and sustained way with disciplinary racial reflexivity in British Politics means grappling with Britain’s colonial past; with critical race theory; as well as with internal reform of how race scholarship is supported at department and discipline level as outlined in the framework above. Taking this agenda forward, future research could explore how race might be incorporated into analysis at the level of institutions, the state and public policy.

Returning to Scott ( 1990 ), power is never total, but where it exists, one finds resistance. Where there is a public transcript, there will be hidden transcripts. In the case of British Politics, dominant perspectives must necessarily coincide with marginal perspectives. Hidden transcripts are also effective in another respect: they exist as provocations when bought into the light. The question then becomes one of whether the provocation is taken and accepted, or again pushed to the sidelines. In extending a provocation, this article makes the case that reflexive disciplinary introspection on the issue of race is long overdue. Writing in the 1960s and reflecting on the epistemological and philosophical ruptures that erupted across many disciplinary fields, Dearlove stated that British Politics was somewhat insulated from these ruptures and shifts, but the time for re-positioning itself is now, as is the time to offer a uniquely British Politics perspective on race and racism.

Change history

01 march 2023.

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41293-023-00229-y

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Akram, S. Dear British politics—where is the race and racism?. Br Polit 19 , 1–24 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41293-023-00224-3

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Dissertation examples

Listed below are some of the best examples of research projects and dissertations from undergraduate and taught postgraduate students at the University of Leeds We have not been able to gather examples from all schools. The module requirements for research projects may have changed since these examples were written. Refer to your module guidelines to make sure that you address all of the current assessment criteria. Some of the examples below are only available to access on campus.

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Politics Dissertation Topics

100 recommended politics dissertation topics for a stellar dissertation.

Political Science students seeking higher studies must write a dissertation paper to earn their degree course certification. However, choosing an appropriate topic to write an authentic thesis becomes often a challenge for the students. For this reason, we at the British Dissertation Help website offer Politics Dissertation topics   help from experienced academic writers. They are devoted to helping students write stellar papers to secure desired grades in their Political Science courses. Before we see some of the  politics dissertation topics , here are some keywords you can consider for developing your own set of topics:

• Neopatrimonialism
• America’s War of Independence
• Global Security
• UNGA – DISEC
• Security council – United Nations
• Constitutional rights
• Civil Liberties
• Criminal Laws
• Unitary Government Model
• Soviet Russia

100 Best Politics Dissertation Topics for 2022

General topics for politics dissertation.

1. Understanding the political ideology of Soviet Union: A historical retrospection

2. Syrian Conflict and its nature and impact on global politics

3. Discussion on the ethics of elections in countries with a democratic political system

4. A case study of the Arctic circle and the politics of power battles

5. Unveiling the driving factors behind the American revolution

6. What are the differences between Civil Republicanism and Liberalism

7. The Dangers and Prospects of Neopatromonialism

8. A case study of The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith: How capitalism changed the world politics forever

9. A closer look into the Republican Traditions of Education

10. Laying out extensive guidelines for the ethical functioning of NGOs

11. A case study of Edward Snowden: What motivates the modern American Whistle blowers

12. How biased media is causing a trail of fake political news across the country

13. How tech giants can meddle with the election process: A case study of the Cambridge Analytica Scandal and understanding Facebook’s role

14. The causes and motivating factors of rebellion in the Central African Republic

15. Understanding the Iraq War and the nature of War crimes

16. A historical analysis of the prison conflict between Black American and White Americans

17. The terror incident of 9/11 and how it shaped the Afghanistan-Pakistan relationship

18. Reviewing Judicial system of the United States: An argumentative analysis 

19. Global Influence of the 9/11 attacks on the US

20. Foreign political powers: A study of competency and ideology gap

21. How political organisations weaponise poverty for their own interest: A case study of Indian National Congress and Gandhi

22. Establishing the links between Religion, Terrorism and Politics

23. US foreign policy and its effects worldwide

24. Understanding India’s version of secularism: Should religion and politics be separate?

25. Assessing the importance of Public Safety: Nature, Scope and Benefits for nations optimum development

26. Human rights act of 1998 in the UK: A comprehensive discussion

27. Pardoning of Criminals: An effective way of reintegration or a dangerous decision for the benign citizens

28. American and European Union and how they treat Federal Crimes: A comparative Study

29. How anarchism shaped the course of history: A retrospective Analysis

30. Foucault and understanding the Disciplinary power of Law

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Politics Dissertation Topics for Thesis

31. A comparative analysis of Presidential democracy and Parliamentary Democracy

32. Non-state actors and their roles in Japanese Corporation: A case study

33. Understanding the Thought Process of the Famous Legislators in Europe’s legal history

34. What are the similarities and dissimilarities between a political conflict and an armed conflict

35. How the political powers influenced the division of Ukraine

36. A case study of the annexation of Crimea by Russia

37. Yemen crisis: Finding some decisive methods of conflict resolution

38. An investigation into the similarities and differences between India’s foreign policies and US’s foreign policy

39. What is the necessity of implementing urgent changes in the legislation process 

40. Why is religion considered as a source of immense social power: A study on religious minorities of Pakistan

41. Unitary Government Model: How it works and influences the Roots of Federalism

42. German philosophy and how the theses of Karl Schmidt and Karl Marx influenced it

43. A retrospective study on the reasons for Rwandan Genocide

44. Understanding the effects of Totalitarianism in the light of the political situation of North Korea

45. A literary review on the outlook of Jean Bodin on sovereignty

46. How extremism affects world-politics: A case study of the Islamic Nations

47. Accountability of political leaders to the public and the role of the media

48. A closer look into the structure and inner working of the International Monetary Fund

49. Immigrant crisis in Mexico and the Role of US

50. A case study of Chinese Communist Party (CCP): Understanding the political hierarchy

Politics Dissertation Topics for Research

51. A review of the history of Apartheid in South Africa

52. How the Human rights movement in Uganda transformed the political scenario of the country

53. A study of the social movements in Europe post-WWII

54. Understanding political controversies through a comprehensive case study of Amnesty International

55. Understanding the outlook of John Rohr of the Constitution: An investigation into Rohr’s vision

56. A literary review on the notes of John Austin’s Theory

57. Edmund Burke’s political Theories: An investigation into the classic theories

58. A case study of Plato’s republic: Understanding Ancient Greece’s political systems

59. How ancient Sparta is different from Athens: A comparative study on political practices

60. How the United States Government exhibits Anglo-Saxon traits in their Governance style

61. Understanding the approach of Vladimir Lenin towards communism

62. A argumentative analysis of Aristotle’s Theory of governance

63. How the existence of social networks can create a successful political movement

64. Role and Responsibilities of the Modern Media in propagating political hate speech

65. Economic preferences in police interrogation: Identifying the psychopolitical elements

66. Why political censorship is a prevalent phenomenon in the US 

67. How social reforms and conservatism relate to each other

68. A comparative study on various political structures: Federal Structure vs Central Structure

69. Neo-fascism and how it influenced the European politics

70. Acceptance of LGBTQ and how it favours the political parties in the US

71. How commercial exploitation of the privacy laws affecting the US citizens

72. Discussion of the most efficacious methods to eradicate corruption from the government

73. Impact of social media on democracy: A comparative discussion on the electoral process of India and America

74. Arab-Israeli conflict and the political interests of the western world

75. A comprehensive review of the advantages and disadvantages of democracy in the 21st Century

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Miscellaneous Political Science Dissertation Topics

76. Role and responsibilities of Five Eyes in Global security network Assessment

77. Political Decisions and how it negatively influences environmental management: A case study of Canada

78. Understanding the ethical and moral duties of non-profit organisations

79. How common morality shapes the Criminal law of a country: A case study of India

80. What challenges do the national security face due to Civil liberties

81. Studying the interdependence of the global leaders in the modern times

82. Organ trafficking of political prisoners in China: A case study

83. Understanding the psychological reasons behind Gender bias in custodial battles

84. How the internet and online spaces are shaping the modern global political atmosphere

85. Understanding the influence of coronavirus on the global geo-political atmosphere

86. Migrant refugee crisis in Poland: An investigation into Poland’s policies

87. Discussion on the transition of geopolitical perspective from Trump era to Biden era

88. Investment of China in Pakistan: What it means for the future of South Asia

89. How Naxalism changed the course of political movements in Bengal, India

90. Modern-day dictatorship: A case study of North Korea and the rise of Kim Jong Un

91. Understanding the complex political structure of India’s democracy

92. Australian political framework and how it treats the rights of Aboriginals

93. A Discussion on the Foreign Policy of Belgium in 21st Century

94. How personal ambitions of the political leaders determine the fate of the nation

95. A study into the effective political Negotiation strategies in times of war crisis

96. China: Understanding the impact of communism on Human rights

97. Strategies to settle a legal dispute between transitional Governments

98. Understanding the reasons behind the Afghanistan crisis: The annexation of Kabul by Taliban and the rise of a new surge of Terrorism

99. Understanding the factors behind the Iran oil conflict

100. Understanding the Ideological differences between the Right-wing parties and Left-wing parties

Final Thoughts

Here we end the comprehensive list of 100 top Politics Dissertation Topics to start composing an excellent dissertation thesis. If you require help for the entire part of writing your Political Science dissertation, ask help from us at the  British Dissertation Help  website and get an instant response.

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Political science is an essential study of politics that deals with all political matters of the state and its citizens. Philosophers and thinkers have proposed political theories for positive change. Research in political science is crucial to study the latest developments in national and global politics. Thus, students need to provide complete attention while selecting political science dissertation topics .

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Importance of Research in Politics

• Have you ever wondered if the UK will have 5 Prime Ministers in just 6 years, experiencing the fastest political turnover in a century?
• Or do you know what led to the fall of the Berlin Wall?
• Or how did BREXIT happen?
• Or what tactics did Donald Trump use to get elected as President of the United States in 2016?

These, and many other such questions, can be explored using the knowledge of political science.

Political science deals with the theory and practice of government and politics at different levels. It helps us understand various institutions, relations, and practices that make up public life. As a student of political science, you can explore topics like American politics dissertation topics, international relations dissertation topics , and geography dissertation topics. To start your dissertation journey, review multiple politics dissertation examples and shortlist your ideas.

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Political science students need good writing skills to assess political situations and find practical solutions. Your dissertation topic is crucial to your final degree score. Our list of political dissertation topics can help you find your research niche and get your supervisor's approval. Our experts have created a range of topics, including political economy dissertation topics, international politics dissertation topics, British politics dissertation topics, and political international relations dissertation topics. Our writers consider your strengths and weaknesses while ensuring the topic and aim are unique and get immediate approval.

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Review: The Real Reason Britain Can’t Change

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The Real Reason Britain Can’t Change

A new book accidentally puts forward a provocative thesis on the country’s entropy..

There is, it turns out, one phrase that perfectly captures modern Britain. When economist Duncan Weldon wrote a history of the country’s finances two years ago, it was called Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through . When, 23 years before that, politician and historian Peter Hennessy published a collection of his writing on politics in postwar Britain, it was titled Muddling Through . No racing ahead, please, we’re British.

Turning Points: Crisis and Change in Modern Britain, from 1945 to Truss , Steve Richards, Macmillan UK, 400 pp., $28.99, January 2024

In Steve Richards’s latest book, Turning Points : Crisis and Change in Modern Britain, From 1945 to Truss , the British journalist tries to identify the tidal shifts of the past eight decades in U.K. politics. Still, even he admits in his conclusion that “on the whole, turning points are reached, passed and the UK muddles on with the old familiar patterns still in place.”

He should know: Now mostly a TV presenter and columnist, Richards first became a political journalist in 1990. Since then, he has worked for several newspapers, radio stations, and TV stations, and was, for a time, political editor of left-leaning magazine the New Statesman . He’s not quite seen it all, but he has certainly witnessed a lot of it.

Frustratingly, he never quite takes his thesis to its logical conclusion. That Britain keeps failing to turn is a worthwhile observation, but why is entropy stronger there than elsewhere? The clues are strewn across the book, but he never quite picks up on them. Instead, he looks to the usual explanations: short institutional memories and the conservative nature of the political class.

Yet, page after page, Richards mentions the all-powerful British press, menacingly glaring at the political class from Fleet Street. In the book, prime ministers often do not do things because they fear the Daily Mail ’s ire, and ministers are pushed to do things they’d rather avoid because they want to keep the Sun on their side.

British newspapers are especially ideological and more likely to stick to their political guns—low taxes, less regulation, social conservatism, Euroscepticism—than politicians themselves. Couldn’t this explain why things never quite change, and why Britain forever remains a small “c” conservative country? It’s the theory Richards accidentally puts forward, without ever reaching it himself.

Margaret Thatcher, on her first day as Britain’s prime minister, is seen on Downing Street in London on May 5, 1979. Bettmann/via Getty Images

Even today, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher still looms large in Westminster. All of Richards’s chapter titles are descriptive, but the one about Thatcher’s years in power is simply named “1979.” Everyone knows what happened then. She took a postwar consensus that favored or tolerated a strong union movement, reasonably high taxes, nationalized industries, and a healthy welfare state, and she tore it to pieces. She wasn’t afraid of unemployment or the occasionally cruel hand of the markets. She went to war against Argentina, and she won. She took on the miners, and she won. She fought three elections, and she won, and won, and won.

Thatcher’s real victory came years after her premiership. Once asked about her greatest achievement, she named “Tony Blair and New Labour”—the government that came into power in 1997, after 18 years of electoral failure. “We forced our opponents to change their minds,” she said. She was right: In order to win, Blair had to give up on many of Labour’s once-flagship policies. He embraced privatization and the promise of lower taxes, because the rules of the game had been changed for good.

As Richards points out, these rules are still in place. When current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak gave his first speech to the Conservatives’ annual conference last year, he praised the “party of the grocer’s daughter and the pharmacist’s son.” Sunak’s mother was a pharmacist. There are no prizes for guessing who was raised by a grocer.

None of this feels especially revelatory. Anyone with a passing knowledge of British history could tell you that Thatcher was influential. They could probably also tell you, as Richards does, that the Suez Crisis and the Iraq War were disquieting to the British psyche, as they revealed that the country never quite knew where it stood in the postwar world. A medium-sized power with grand ambitions and an illustrious past, always uncomfortably stuck between Europe and America, yadda yadda. We all followed the Brexit vote and the chaos it unleashed. We’re aware.

Still, Turning Points doesn’t merely identify those watershed moments. It also seeks to understand why Britain may turn, and why it often doesn’t. This is where things get interesting, but perhaps not in the way Richards intended.

Thatcher stands behind British Prime Minister Tony Blair at a wreath-laying ceremony in London on Nov. 12, 2005. Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images

Take Thatcher, again. As Richards points out, much of her success cannot solely be attributed to her political genius. The Social Democratic Party (SDP) was formed in 1981 and, for two elections after that, split the center and left vote. In both 1983 and 1987, “more voters in total backed Labour and the SDP/Liberal Alliance … than Thatcher’s Conservative party.”

Why, then, was Thatcher allowed to cement such a legacy? Richards offers some clues: “With much of the media fully on board with the Thatcher revolution…”; “In the Conservative newspapers, the constant demand was for more tax cuts to be financed by spending cuts”; “Much of the media and quite a lot of voters were by then with the change-maker.”

It doesn’t stop there. Why did Blair so successfully manage to reshape the image of the Labour Party? “The media broadly accepted Tony Blair’s narrative that he led ‘New Labour’”; “He managed to persuade many columnists who might be otherwise sceptical that New Labour’s break with the past was an act of breathtaking radicalism in itself.”

Why, once elected, did Blair manage to instigate peace in Northern Ireland, something all his predecessors had failed to do? “Although highly complex … the process was safe in the sense that this was not an area where The Sun newspaper would erupt.” How did he, a few years later, successfully bring more investment into the national health service? “[E]ven the Daily Mail had started campaigning for higher pay for nurses.”

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As for the Iraq War, what made Blair decide to side with the United States? “Blair wanted at some point to win a referendum on the euro so it was important as far as he was concerned to show that he was pro-American in order to build up credit with Rupert Murdoch and his newspapers.”

On and on it goes, all the way to Brexit, which was backed by a majority of newspapers, and to Liz Truss’s disastrous 44-day premiership, which nevertheless found many cheerleaders in the British press.

Amazingly, these newspapers do not feature in the book’s conclusion. They are mentioned at every juncture, in every chapter, yet their presence and influence are never meaningfully acknowledged. The media may well be a natural phenomenon like the weather, present but only ever in the background.

An assortment of U.K. daily newspapers reporting on Brexit, photographed on Feb. 1, 2020. Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images

It isn’t really Richards’s fault: He has, after all, been a journalist in Britain for more than three decades. You could hardly give a fish a voice and complain that it doesn’t end up mentioning the water.

The British press campaigns for and against things and revels in its own power, bragging about turning certain politicians into rising stars and condemning others to obscurity. Most famous is perhaps “ It’s The Sun Wot Won It ,” the headline on the front page of the Sun after the Conservatives’ shock election victory in 1992.

These newspapers’ owners are, for the most part, Conservative and conservative. The Daily Mirror , a left-wing tabloid, was influential for a while, but it stood alone. Among the broadsheet newspapers, political opinions have always been somewhat more balanced, with the Independent and the Guardian  respectively representing the center and the left, but their readership figures could never quite compete with the remarkably popular “red tops.”

As journalist Adrian Addison writes in Mail Men , the Daily Mail ’s voice “does carry far beyond its loyal readers; it howls through Westminster corridors befuddling politicians … before whistling on through the nation’s newsrooms to help define the media agenda for the day.” In Stick It Up Your Punter! , journalists Chris Horrie and Peter Chippindale note that “the Sun had made Rupert Murdoch a political power in Britain,” and that it “was widely believed that Murdoch had an effective veto on any policy that might negatively affect his business empire.”

News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch holds up a copy of the  Sun on Sunday as he leaves his London home on Feb. 26, 2012. Carl Court/AFP via Getty Images

This isn’t hyperbole: In Where Power Lies , Lance Price described the way Blair and his senior advisor Alastair Campbell had to work with the media magnate. “If Murdoch were left to pursue his business interests in peace he would give Labour a fair wind,” he writes. The deal was never committed to paper, but it was there, and honored by both parties.

By merely noting newspapers’ influence instead of delving into how they became so influential, Richards never quite gets to the crux of the issue: Why did those big bad hacks manage to get away with it for so long?

Again, hints can be found in Turning Points . When discussing the energy crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine, Richards notes that “[c]ontingency planning was not part of the UK’s political culture with its focus on the short term and in its wariness of planning ahead.”

Some decades earlier, Richards explains, Thatcher’s drastic reforms could happen because “there was no grown-up conversation in the UK … about whether a modern state might have an important role to play and what form it should take.” Elsewhere, he laments the fact that Britons keep stubbornly refusing to learn from political events.

This is, or ought to be, the real thesis of Turning Points : Britain keeps muddling through, largely unchanged, because it cannot escape from the vicious circle governing it. The political class isn’t especially interested in the past and the lessons it can hold. It finds the idea of thinking deeply and precisely about the future to be a waste of time. Anything that happens today might just about be of interest, though it will probably be forgotten tomorrow.

The press, on the other hand, is opinionated and has a fierce memory. It doesn’t forgive or forget, and it is clear in its aims. More than inform its readers, it seeks to reshape the country in their image. Speaking of former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre, journalist Peter Oborne once said that “he articulates the dreams, fears and hopes of socially insecure members of the suburban middle class.” In practice, this can look like support for “traditional” families, an inherent suspicion of local authorities, mistrusting anything that feels “foreign,” sneering at feminists, stoking anti-immigration sentiment, and fighting for good, honest, British values, whatever they are. These days, hatred of anything deemed “woke” is likely to feature in tabloid pages.

It’s a marriage made in heaven: Media owners and editors can—often rightly—feel like they are making the weather, and politicians get to absolve themselves of real responsibility.

But the landscape is beginning to change. British people do not read newspapers like they once did. Even the tabloids, once feared by all, are now shadows of their former selves. Richards’s argument is that the shape of the country’s political class has prevented it from ever being too swayed by events. His real conclusion, hiding in plain sight, is that the political class spent just under a century shackled to a press that distrusted any and all change, Thatcherism aside. The shackles are now coming loose. In the coming decades, Westminster will have to realize that it no longer needs to look behind its shoulder to check that Fleet Street is on board.

If Richards’s headline thesis is right, little will change. Memories will remain short, and lessons will remain unlearnt. Britain will keep muddling through. But if the press is indeed the culprit, Britain may finally be entering an era in which politicians no longer operate inside the unhelpful feedback loop they have been stuck in for a lifetime. Might some real turning points be just around the corner?

Books are independently selected by FP editors. FP earns an affiliate commission on anything purchased through links to Amazon.com on this page.

Marie Le Conte is a freelance political journalist based in London. Her book, Haven’t You Heard? Gossip, Politics and Power , is out now. Twitter:  @youngvulgarian

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Post-war politics'

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Leenders, Reinoldus Edgarus Caecilius. "The politics of corruption in post-war Lebanon." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.407160.

Sims, Paul David. "The development of environmental politics in inter-war and post-war Britain." Thesis, Queen Mary, University of London, 2016. http://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/23653.

Shaw, D. J. "Ireland and the Irish in post-war British politics." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 2018. http://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3021158/.

Jones, Benjamin Nicholas Farror. "British politics and the post-war development of human rights." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:e680adc1-a3e9-4c7a-be6d-0f3b374fb209.

Haugbolle, Sune. "The politics of remembering in post-war Lebanon : civil war, memory and public culture." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.432123.

Dixon, Peter Robert. "Barriers to cooperation in post-Cold War conflict interventions." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2015. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.709381.

Adiseshiah, Sian Helen. "Theory, politics and cultural practice in the plays of Caryl Churchill." Thesis, Online version, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?did=1&uin=uk.bl.ethos.274420.

Freeman, James George. "Talking liberties : the rhetoric of freedom in post-War British politics." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/17445.

Mahon, Milena. "The politics of nationalism under communism in Bulgaria : myths, memories and minorities." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2001. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1317549/.

Woodhouse, Thomas, and Alexander Ramsbotham. "The Politics of Peacekeeping: United Kingdom." Frank Cass, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/3006.

Cassidy, Patrick. "Catholic Natural Law Conservatism in Post-War America." Thesis, Boston College, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/1209.

Budreau, Lisa M. "Repatriation, remembrance and return : the politics of commemoration in post-war America." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.432109.

Allum, Felia Skyle. "The Neapolitan Camorra : crime and politics in post-war Naples (1950-92)." Thesis, Brunel University, 2000. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/5085.

Mahon, Alyce. "Surrealism and the politics of Eros in post-war France 1944-68." Thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art (University of London), 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.267514.

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Gómez, Gutiérrez Juan José. "Italian Communist Party cultural policies during the post-war period 1944-1951." Thesis, Open University, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.270093.

Mbulle-Nziege, Leonard. "Post -war recovery and development in Liberia since 2013." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/12361.

Steinhoff, Dirk. "Determinants and politics of German military transformation in the post-Cold War Era." Thesis, Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10945/5618.

Stefatos, Katherine. "Engendering the nation : women, state oppression and political violence in post-war Greece (1946-1974)." Thesis, Goldsmiths College (University of London), 2011. http://research.gold.ac.uk/8057/.

Weld, David. "Reconceptualising South Africa's international identity : post-apartheid foreign policy in a post-cold war world." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14274.

FIeld, Nayomi Gunasekara. "Making Extremism Pay? Centripetalism and Nationalism in Post-War Sri Lanka." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1461018330.

Black, Amy. "The politics of motherhood in post-war Britain, feminism, socialism and the Labour Party." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape17/PQDD_0012/MQ36345.pdf.

Klepek, James Matthew. "Against the Grain: Biotechnology Regulation and the Politics of Expertise in Post-War Guatemala." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/145291.

Schafer, Jessica. "Soldiers at peace : the post-war politics of demobilised soldiers in Mozambique, 1975-1996." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.313570.

Trifu, Ioan. "Prefectural Governors in Post-War Japan : A Socio-Historical Approach." Thesis, Lyon 2, 2013. http://www.theses.fr/2013LYO20009.

Rae, Norman Gregor David. "Reinventing geopolitical codes in the post-Cold War world with special reference to international terrorism." Connect to e-thesis. Move to record for print version, 2007. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/26/.

Van, Vuuren Ian. "Varieties of neoliberalism within the Post-Cold War period : economic policy in the Post-Apartheid South Africa." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/79903.

Chen, Ping-Kuei. "Menace of Power: Russia-NATO Relations in the Post-Cold War Era." Ohio : Ohio University, 2008. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?ohiou1204826768.

McCollum, Daniel David. "But the Roots Remain: The Wisconsin Progressives in the Great Depression and Post-War Era." Thesis, North Dakota State University, 2012. https://hdl.handle.net/10365/26487.

Coyer, Paul. "Congress, China and the Cold War : domestic politics and Sino-American rapprochement and normalisation, 1969-1980." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2013. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/649/.

Devaney, Kieran John Michael. "Europe after the rain : Alan Burns and the post-war avant-garde." Thesis, Brunel University, 2016. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/15212.

Wilkin, Jeremy. "A marriage of convenience : Pax Americana, the African renaissance and the policing of Post-Cold War Africa." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/3682.

Bernstein, Sarah. "Social-scientific imagination : the politics of welfare in fiction by women, 1949-1979." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/23493.

Suga, Yasuko. "Image politics of the state : visual publicity of the General Post Office in inter-war Britain." Thesis, Royal College of Art, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.263055.

Pavulans, Anna-Minna. "Identities in motion : citizenship, mobility and the politics of belonging in the post-Cold War era /." view abstract or download file of text, 2004. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p3147832.

Mälksoo, Maria. "The politics of becoming European : a study of Polish and Baltic post-Cold War security imaginaries." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2008. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/283838.

Coggins, Bridget L. "Secession, recognition & the international politics of statehood." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1154013298.

Botham, Paola A. "Redefining political theatre in post Cold-War Britain (1990-2005) : an analysis of contemporary British political plays." Thesis, Coventry University, 2009. http://curve.coventry.ac.uk/open/items/f87298f3-39f6-86d2-9d5f-618aeb1e9eb8/1.

Coetzee, Wayne Stephen. "The role of the environment in conflict : complex realities in post-civil war Nigeria." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/20013.

Scott-Smith, Giles. "The politics of apolitical culture : the United States, Western Europe and the post-War 'Culture of Hegemony'." Thesis, Lancaster University, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.286995.

Xenakis, Dimitris K. "Transforming regional orders : the Helsinki and Barcelona processes compared." Thesis, University of Exeter, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.302665.

Perry, Jamie Kenneth John. "Chatham House, the United Nations Association and the politics of foreign policy, c.1945-1975." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2015. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/6097/.

Delaporta, Eleftheria. "The role of Britain in Greek politics and military operations 1947-1952." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2003. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1138/.

Perez, Mario. "The Chavez challenge Venezuela, the United States and the geo-politics of post-Cold War inter-American relations." Thesis, Monterey, Calif. : Naval Postgraduate School, 2009. http://edocs.nps.edu/npspubs/scholarly/theses/2009/March/09Mar%5FPerez.pdf.

Bramley, P. N. "US trade policy in the post-Cold War era : the North American Free Trade Agreement - complexities and change." Thesis, Keele University, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.311122.

陳永恆 and Wing-hang Henry Chan. "Education and colonial mentality: a study of the post-war baby-boom generation in Hong Kong." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2001. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B3122572X.

Cooper, Ian David. "Networks, news and communication : political elites and community relations in Elizabethan Devon, 1588-1603." Thesis, University of Plymouth, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/1469.

Warnasuriya, Mihiri Saritha. "Building the 'Sri Lankan nation' through education : the identity politics of teaching history in a multicultural post-war society." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2019. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/290147.

Apio, Eunice Otuko. "Children born of war in northern Uganda : kinship, marriage, and the politics of post-conflict reintegration in Lango society." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2016. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/6926/.

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A radical British politics rooted in nature is spreading – and the establishment doesn’t like it

From right to roam to anger over polluted rivers, a new breed of activists is pushing back against environmental destruction

S omething very interesting is happening in the UK, to do with nature, the expanses of land we think of as the countryside, and where all those things sit in our collective consciousness. The change has probably been quietly afoot for 20 or 30 years. Now, it suddenly seems to be blurring over from the cultural sphere into our politics, with one obvious consequence – the belated entry into the national conversation of issues that have long been pushed to the margins, from land access and ownership to the shocking condition of our rivers .

The prevailing British attitude to nature has long been in an equally messed-up state. From the 1600s onwards, endless enclosure acts pushed people off the land and seeded the idea of the countryside as somewhere largely out of bounds. Britain’s rapid industrialisation only accelerated the process. And despite occasional cultural and political tilts in the opposite direction – the bucolic visions of the 18th- and 19th-century Romantics , the mass trespass movement of the 1930s – most of us now show the signs of that long story of loss and estrangement.

Our understanding of the changing of the seasons seems all about the superficialities of heat and light, rather than the much deeper cycles of flora and fauna; to distinguish between different bird calls or spot particular wild flowers would require a level of folk knowledge that now seems almost magical. In 2018, the average UK adult was reckoned to spend 90% of their time inside . Two years before, the Guardian reported that three-quarters of British children spent less than 60 minutes of each day playing outdoors, which left them less acquainted with fresh air than the average prison inmate. In that context, we might be locked into much the same dysfunctional relationship with the natural world as our immediate ancestors.

But maybe that is changing. In the midst of the UK’s Covid lockdowns, the popularity of outdoor walking suddenly surged . At about the same time, ancient and exclusionary cliches about green spaces were being undermined by such inspirational organisations as Muslim Hikers and Black Girls Hike (last week, the latter’s Mancunian founder, Rhiane Fatinikun , received an MBE for “services to nature and diversity”). Not long after, Right to Roam campaigners were given their biggest publicity boost in years when the wealthy landowner Alexander Darwall took legal action to end the long-established right to wild camping on Dartmoor, commencing a battle that looks set to reach the supreme court . In their very different ways, these stories centre on the same key ideas: a rejection of any idea of natural places and spaces being off limits, and the joyous democracy of gathering together to experience something more nourishing than concrete and tarmac.

They also involve a mounting interest in the kind of enchanting, magical aspects of life that we will only find if we connect with nature – and the traces of much older ways of living that pepper our landscape. My favourite example of this latter tendency is Weird Walk , a project set up by three friends who began by “walking an ancient trackway across southern England wearing incorrect footwear”, which has since spawned a book, a regularly published fanzine and an occasional podcast. Their interests include stone circles, enduring local rituals and “lost places”, and how walking heightens instinctive understanding of the mess the planet is in. “If we are to combat the climate change that is disrupting our seasons,” say the Weird Walkers, “perhaps we must also heed the call to embrace viscerally the natural world and its rhythms.”

There is a strand of our revived interest in nature that connects with recent British history, and the upsurge of protests against road-building that happened in the 1990s. These struggles – against such feats of tarmac-based official vandalism as the Newbury bypass and the M3 extension on Twyford Down, near Winchester – fused radical and creative action with a sense of history and mysticism: for their participants and many observers, they represented an inspirational rejection of a money-driven absolutism (one infamous legislative document from that time was titled Roads for Prosperity) that a lot of people thought was too powerful to fight. More than 30 years later, some of that energy is still coursing around: in the past decade or so, I have seen it in the campaigns against a dual carriageway cutting through the Stonehenge world heritage site , the madness of fracking and the nature-destroying effects of HS2 .

Moreover, the kind of activism that mixes a deep affinity with the landscape with a hardened political edge is more visible than ever. The two things have an obvious symbiotic relationship: the worse environmental destruction gets, the more precious nature seems and the louder people get. Recently, that has been the essential story of how the treatment of rivers by private water companies has become such a hot political issue. Thanks to that outrage and the endless effects of our heating climate, the notion of giving nature a set of legal rights is edging into political debate: in Lewes in East Sussex last year, for example, the district council passed a motion that opened the way for the River Ouse being granted rights – to flow, be free from pollution and sustain native biodiversity – based on the Universal Declaration of River Rights created via international cooperation in 2017.

Unsurprisingly, the political establishment does not like this stuff at all: earlier this year, the UK delegate to the UN environment assembly insisted that the rejection of rights for nature “is a fundamental principle for the UK and one from which we cannot deviate”. To many people, that will have sounded like someone stubbornly playing their part in a very familiar story, whereby today’s outlandish and unthinkable idea very often becomes tomorrow’s inevitability.

A new kind of politics is brewing here. It is both radical and deeply rooted in our history, and already giving rise to set texts. Next week brings the publication of Wild Service , co-edited by Nick Hayes, who wrote The Book of Trespass , the 2020 travelogue that shone glaring light on the absurdities of land ownership. This new book brings together writers and activists who are all working towards “a new culture that returns nature to the centre of society”. Its title reflects the idea not only of serving the planet by protecting it, but the idea that in doing so, we honour something genuinely sacred. The new breed of protesters, walkers, campers, foragers and wild swimmers are at the heart of it all. “We need people to be intertwined with the land like brambles in the bushes,” says one of the contributors. Nature, in other words, is something we are all part of, and we can only safeguard it from disaster by being joyously and defiantly tangled up in it.

John Harris is a Guardian columnist

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British troops may be tasked with delivering Gaza aid, BBC report says

The BBC is reporting that British troops may be tasked with delivering aid to Gaza from an offshore pier now under construction by the U.S. military

LONDON -- British troops may be tasked with delivering aid to Gaza from an offshore pier now under construction by the U.S. military, the BBC reported Saturday. U.K. government officials declined to comment on the report.

According to the BBC, the British government is considering deploying troops to drive the trucks that will carry aid from the pier along a floating causeway to the shore. No decision has been made and the proposal hasn’t yet reached Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the BBC reported, citing unidentified government sources.

The report comes after a senior U.S. military official said on Thursday that there would be no American “boots on the ground” and another nation would provide the personnel to drive the delivery trucks to the shore. The official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet made public, declined to identify the third party.

Britain is already providing logistical support for construction of the pier, including a Royal Navy ship that will house hundreds of U.S. soldiers and sailors working on the project.

In addition, British military planners have been embedded at U.S. Central Command in Florida and in Cyprus, where aid will be screened before shipment to Gaza, for several weeks, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said on Friday.

The U.K. Hydrographic Office has also shared analysis of the Gaza shoreline with the U.S. to aid in construction of the pier.

“It is critical we establish more routes for vital humanitarian aid to reach the people of Gaza, and the U.K. continues to take a leading role in the delivery of support in coordination with the U.S. and our international allies and partners,” Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said in a statement.

Development of the port and pier in Gaza comes as Israel faces widespread international criticism over the slow trickle of aid into the Palestinian territory, where the United Nations says at least a quarter of the population sits on the brink of starvation.

The Israel-Hamas began with a Hamas-led attack into southern Israel on Oct. 7, in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took some 250 people as hostages. Israel says the militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others. Since then, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s air and ground offensive, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, around two-thirds of them children and women.

Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

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U.K. Approves Bill That Would Send Asylum Seekers to Rwanda

Britain’s Parliament passed contentious legislation to allow the deportation of asylum seekers to the African country, a political victory for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

By Mark Landler and Stephen Castle

Reporting from London

Britain’s Conservative government finally won passage of its flagship immigration policy on Monday, enshrining a Rwanda deportation bill that human-rights campaigners say is inhumane, immigration experts say is unworkable and legal critics say has corroded the country’s reputation for rule of law.

The legislation is designed to allow the government to put some asylum seekers on one-way flights to Rwanda, where they would have their claims processed by the authorities in that Central African country. If they were then granted refugee status, they would be resettled in Rwanda, not Britain.

From the moment the plan was first introduced in 2022, under then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, experts said it would breach Britain’s human rights obligations under domestic and international law.

Even after the passage of the new bill, which came under heavy opposition in the House of Lords and effectively overrides a ruling by Britain’s Supreme Court, any deportation attempts are likely to encounter a flurry of further legal challenges, making it unlikely that large numbers of asylum seekers will ever be sent to Rwanda.

Yet the current prime minister, Rishi Sunak, insisted on Monday that the government would operate multiple charter flights every month, starting in 10 to 12 weeks. “These flights will go, come what may,” a feisty Mr. Sunak said, hours before the final vote. “This is novel,” he said of the policy. “It is innovative, but it will be a game changer.”

The plan’s tortured journey into law speaks mostly to the state of politics in post-Brexit Britain: a divided Conservative Party , desperate to exploit anxiety about immigration to close a polling gap with the opposition Labour Party, has clung to the policy for two years despite legal setbacks and deep doubts about its expense and viability.

While it is conceivable that the government could get some flights off the ground before a general election expected in the fall, it would have only done so at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds and, critics say, a blot on the country’s reputation as a bulwark of international and human-rights laws.

“It pushes every button: the limits of executive power, the role of the House of Lords, the courts, the conflict between domestic and international law,” said Jill Rutter, a senior research fellow at U.K. in a Changing Europe, a research institute. “You are playing constitutional-constraints bingo with this policy.”

Not only did the plan bring Mr. Sunak into conflict with civil servants, opposition politicians and international courts , it led the government to overrule the Supreme Court — in the process, critics said, effectively inventing its own facts.

The new legislation writes into law that Rwanda is “a safe country” for refugees, defying the court’s judgment, based on substantial evidence, that it is not . The legislation instructs judges and immigration officials to “conclusively treat the Republic of Rwanda as a safe country,” and gives the government the power to disregard future rulings by international courts. There are no provisions to amend it if conditions in Rwanda change.

While the African nation has made strides politically and socially in recent decades, even sympathetic observers point out that it was convulsed by genocide during a civil war in 1994 and is now ruled by an increasingly authoritarian leader, Paul Kagame. Those who publicly challenge him risk arrest, torture or death .

“You can’t make a country safe just by saying it’s safe,” said David Anderson, a barrister and member of the House of Lords who is not affiliated with any party and who opposed the law. “That is absolutely absurd.”

Given all these liabilities, the surprise is that Mr. Sunak embraced the plan as the means to fulfill his promise to “stop the boats.” British newspapers reported he had been skeptical of it when he was chancellor of the Exchequer under Mr. Johnson.

Political analysts said Mr. Sunak’s decision reflected pressure from the right of his party, where support for sending refugees to Rwanda is strong. But he spent significant political capital in the long campaign to pass the legislation and missed his self-imposed deadline of starting the flights by spring. The often bitter debate exposed rifts between Tory lawmakers, with moderates warning that the bill went too far while hard-liners complained that it did not go far enough.

In the latest act of this legislative drama, the House of Commons and its unelected counterpart, the House of Lords, kicked the legislation back and forth, as the Lords tried unsuccessfully to attach amendments to it, including one that would require an independent monitoring group to verify Rwanda was safe. On Monday, the Lords capitulated on the last of those amendments.

That cleared the way for the Commons to pass the legislation, known as the Safety of Rwanda Bill. The government said it addressed the Supreme Court’s concerns through a treaty with the Rwandans last December. But critics said the British government had still failed to guarantee that refugees could not someday be returned to their countries of origin, where they might suffer potential violence or ill-treatment.

That Mr. Johnson championed the plan was less surprising, given his bombastic, freewheeling style, which upended the cautious, evidence-based tradition of British policy-making. It was also a legacy of Brexit, for which Mr. Johnson had campaigned when he promised in 2016 to “take back control” of the country’s borders.

“Every time a small boat bounces in and you can’t get rid of the people, it is symbolic of the fact that you haven’t really taken back control,” said Ms. Rutter, who labeled the policy an “illegitimate child of Brexit.”

Before Brexit, Britain cooperated with France in nearly eliminating the flow of those who crossed the English Channel by stowing away on trucks. But Mr. Johnson’s relations with President Emmanuel Macron of France were icy — and, after leaving the European Union, Britain had fewer levers with which to pressure Paris.

At times, the British government’s desperation to curb the stream of barely seaworthy vessels seemed almost comical, such as when reports emerged that it was considering trying to repel them with giant wave machines.

The European Court of Human Rights could yet move to block the deportation flights to Rwanda. And the Labour Party has vowed to scrap the law if it comes into power. With the party far ahead in the polls, the policy may end up being remembered more as a political talking point than as a practical effort to curb the perilous crossings.

Even if Labour mothballs the plan, it could come back to haunt the party once in government, analysts said. Another law introduced last year bars those who arrived after March 2023 from claiming asylum, leaving them in limbo.

“Labour could find itself in a really tricky situation because you have these 40,000 people who are being housed in hotels at tremendous expense to the taxpayer,” said Anand Menon, a professor of European politics at King’s College London. “It’s not at all clear what you can do with them.”

The Rwanda debate, he said, reflected a broader problem for Western countries in controlling migration. Other European governments are examining the idea of processing asylum requests offshore, while not going as far as declaring that those granted refugee status should stay in those nations.

“There is a difficult discussion to be had as to whether the conventions signed in the aftermath of the Second World War are still fit for purpose,” Professor Menon said, referring to the legal protections for refugees. “The problem is that Western countries want to portray themselves as kind, generous and humanitarian — and to keep people out.”

Still, even if Britain manages to send some people to Rwanda, it seems unlikely that the policy will ever be judged a success.

“This has become so sullied now that most countries are seeing this as a massive reputational risk,” Professor Menon said, noting that even Rwanda’s flag carrier reportedly declined a British invitation to operate the flights. “It’s not a good look.”

Mark Landler is the London bureau chief of The Times, covering the United Kingdom, as well as American foreign policy in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He has been a journalist for more than three decades. More about Mark Landler

Stephen Castle is a London correspondent of The Times, writing widely about Britain, its politics and the country’s relationship with Europe. More about Stephen Castle