United Kingdom

THE BROAD POLITICAL beliefs, values, and ideals of the British people are set in the context of a constitutional monarchy that has evolved into a modern political system on the basis of democracy and the rule of law. Thus, while there is an everpresent strand of deferential and traditional conservatism in the British political culture, there is also a deep-rooted liberal tradition that underpins participatory democracy, human rights, and a range of freedoms. There is also a strong socialist heritage in the United Kingdom (UK), manifest in the longevity of the British Labour Party as well as the growth of the British welfare state.

Like other western nation-states, the UK (comprising England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) has experienced major shifts in its political culture over the past 30 years. Increasingly better-educated citizens have become politically more self-confident and assertive, and at the same time decreasingly satisfied with the major political organizations, institutions, and leaders. [Page 468][Page 469]Their sense of political efficacy has increased as their levels of political trust have decreased. This era has also seen the reawakening of ideologies most of which had been latent in the immediate post-World War II era, including feminism, racism, anti-racism, nationalism, regionalism, and environmentalism.

The United Kingdom, comprising England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, has a rich tradition and history of the left, including its Labour Party, which has been in and out of office in one form or another for 100 years.

Of greater importance than the overall British political culture is the proliferation of subcultural forces resulting from the principal sociopolitical cleavages. Of these, the most important is social class. While the class structure has changed in the United Kingdom since World War II, with a sharp diminution in the proportion of manual workers and the skilled working class, social class—as measured by occupation, education, and income—retains its political salience.

Ethnoracial differences are also important in the British context. Throughout its period of decolonization, the UK attracted nonwhite immigrants from the new Commonwealth countries. In 1996, racial minority Britons numbered 3.3 million, just under 6 percent of the population. Of these, 27 percent were of Indian origin, 23 percent were of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin, and 26 percent were Afro-Caribbean.