Author Description

This well-established textbook will be invaluable to all students studying British politics within degree courses. Greatly expanded for this third edition, Gillian Peele's book develops a framework for understanding the radical changes in the relationships between the polity, economy and society which have occurred across the last two decades. She brings to the fore the impact on British government and politics, of Europe, factors of social change, the decline of consensus, the shaping of a more marked ideological politics and the rising tide of technology. Against the backdrop of her analytical framework, Peele sets out the details of the British System of Government providing students with a clear understanding of the basic machinery of Government and the Constitution - Executive, Legislative and Judiciary - as well as of the forces shaping the dynamics of political change such as parties, voting behaviour and pressure groups. The comprehensiveness of this text and its accessibility will ensure that lay readers, students and teachers of politics have to hand a work that provides a rich blend of fact, judgement and analysis from one of the most perceptive writers on contemporary British politics.