The British Political Tradition

The British Political Tradition (BPT) is a concept developed by a range of authors to explain the nature and practices of British political life. It focuses on the ideas and values that underpin and inform the institutions and processes of British politics over time. However the concept is also a contested one, with no agreed definition of what constitutes the British Political Tradition.
Historically, most explanations of the British political system have been informed by the Westminster Model (WM) and there has been little focus on the ideas and traditions that shaped the institutions of the British political system. However reference to the idea that there is a distinctive British Political Tradition can be found in major works such as Anthony Birch’s ‘Representative and Responsible Government’ (1964) and Samuel Beer’s Modern British Politics (1965). It is also the subject of W H Greenleaf’s 3 volume ‘The British Political Tradition’ (1983 2 volumes; 1987) and discussed in the work of conservative philosopher Michael Oakeshott (1962).
Oakeshott (1962) suggests the British Political Tradition was not a consistent doctrine or ideology. Rather, it was a set of intertwined practices, values and ideas. It was characterised by: “pragmatic handling of social problems; an aversion to the intrusions of rationalist dogma and a commitment to the rule of law which enables a flourishing of what he termed, a vital civil association” (Kenny 1999: 278).
Birch (1964) and Beer (1965) focus on the notions representation and responsibility, with the former arguing that: “everyone knows that the British Constitution provides for a system of representative and responsible government. These characteristics are almost universally regarded as both desirable and important……….The concepts of representation and responsibility are indeed, invoked in almost every modern discussion of how countries ought to be governed” (Birch 1964: 13). Birch suggests that: “the British political tradition would clearly determine the order as first consistency, prudence and leadership, second accountability to parliament and the electorate and third, responsiveness to public opinions and public demands” (Birch 1964: 245), whilst Beer contends that the BPT is: “a body of beliefs widely held in British society”.
Greenleaf (1983 2 vols; 1987) argues that “the dialectic between the growing processes of collectivism and the opposing libertarian tendency is the one supreme fact of our political life as this has developed over the past century and a half” (Greenleaf 1983b: 3). Thus the British Political Tradition is constituted by the dialectical tension between collectivism and libertarianism.
More recently, a critical conception of the British Political Tradition has been developed and advocated in David Marsh and Tony Tant (1989), Tony Tant (1993) and Mark Evans (1995; 2003). This view stresses the centrality of an elitist or top down conception of democracy. These authors argue that “executive dominance…has consistently marked the British Political Tradition” (Marsh and Tant 1989: 9) and that “the most striking feature of the British political tradition and governmental practice is its elitist nature” (Tant 1993: 4). This critical view also forms a key component of the Asymmetrical Power Model developed by D Marsh, D Richards and M Smith (2001; 2003) and D Marsh (2008).
The most recent exposition of this conception of the British Political Tradition can be found in D Marsh and M Hall, The British Political Tradition: Explaining the fate of New Labour's Constitutional Reform Agenda (2007). In response to the interpretive approach to political traditions developed by Mark Bevir and Rod Rhodes (2003; 2006), Marsh and Hall stress the role of dominant and competing political traditions arguing that:
• Firstly, a dominant conception of democracy underpins the institutions and processes of British government. Based upon ideas deriving from political theorists such as Burke (1790) and Hobbes (1651), the British Political Tradition (BPT) offers a limited liberal view of representation where politicians represent differing views and deliberate on behalf of the populace. Politicians are in effect, the supreme arbiters of the national interest rather than the public themselves. The BPT also stresses a conservative view of responsibility which emphasises the need for strong, centralised government and executive dominance. When combined these notions form a political tradition that is elitist and whose key mantra is that politicians and the government 'knows best'. As a consequence of this dominant political tradition, popular participation in UK democracy has historically been reduced to periodic voting in elections. Marsh and Hall (2007) argue that there are competing political traditions to be found in UK politics which contest central tenets of the BPT and the institutions and processes it underpins. They highlight a more particpatory democratic tradition which informed recent groups such as Charter 88 and CFOI.

• Secondly, the BPT fits neatly with the interests and attitudes of politicians and civil servants alike. It also fits neatly with the ideas and attitudes of dominant socio-economic elites in UK society. Indeed Marsh and Hall argue that the linkage between dominant socio-economic elites and the ideas that underpin the British political system has often been neglected in the mainstream literature on British politics.
• Finally, challenges to the BPT have to be made within the context of institutions, processes and attitudes informed by the dominant tradition. Indeed the continued dominance of this view amongst the political elite remains a major obstacle to any challenges, albeit not an insurmountable one. The fate of reforms such as Scottish Devolution, Freedom of Information and Electoral Reform are cited to demonstrate this.

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