The Legacy of the Crash
Page 1
The Legacy of the Crash
The Legacy of the Crash
How the Financial Crisis Changed
America and Britain
Edited by
Terrence Casey
Associate Professor of Political Science and Head of Department,
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Rose-Hulman
Institute of Technology
Editorial matter, selection, introduction and conclusion © Terrence Casey 2011 All remaining chapters © respective authors 2011
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First published 2011 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne
To my wife Allison and our greatest
legacies – Maria, Jack, and Oliver
Contents
List of Tables and Figures
Preface and Acknowledgments
Notes on Contributors
1 Introduction: The Political Challenges of Hard Times
Terrence Casey
Part I: The Causes and Consequences of the Crash
2 Was there Ever an Anglo-American Model of Capitalism?
Wyn Grant
3 Capitalism, Crisis, and a Zombie Named TINA
Terrence Casey
4 A Tale of Two Cities: Financial Meltdown and the Atlantic Divide
David Coates and Kara Dickstein
5 Fiscal Policy Responses to the Economic Crisis in the UK and the US
Edward Ashbee
Part II: Post-Crash Political Trends
6 Divided in Victory? The Conservatives and the Republicans
Tim Bale and Robin Kolodny
7 The Crisis of Capitalism and the Downfall of the Left
Graham Wilson
8 Third Parties and Political Dynamics in the UK and the US
Arthur I. Cyr
9 Party Polarization and Ideology: Diverging Trends in Britain and the US
Nicol C. Rae and Juan S. Gil
10 Economics, Partisanship and Elections: Economic Voting in the 2010 UK Parliamentary and US Congressional Elections
Michael J. Brogan
Part III: The Shifting Ground of Public Policy
11 The Politics and Changing Political Economy of Health Care in the US and the UK
Alex Waddan
12 From 9/11 to 2011: The ‘War on Terror’ and the Onward March of Executive Power?
John E. Owens and Mark Shephard
13 The ‘War on Terror’ in Court: A Comparative Analysis of Judicial Empowerment
Richard J. Maiman
14 Conclusion: Anglo-American Politics in the Age of Austerity
Terrence Casey
Index
List of Tables and Figures
Tables
3.1 GDP growth and unemployment rates in the US and UK
5.1 Total projected size of stimulus packages (spending and tax measures) in the UK and US, 2008–10
6.1 Percentage of votes and seats by party, UK House of Commons, 1979–2010
6.2 Percentage of votes and seats by party, US House of Representatives, 1980–2010
10.1 Two-stage probit estimates 2010 UK general election (cross-sectional data)
10.2 Two-stage probit estimates 2010 US congressional elections
10.3 Defining the variables for the economic-minded partisan model
13.1 Summary of US Supreme Court and UK House of Lords judgments restricting government actions, 2004–09
Figures
3.1 US and UK total government expenditure, 1970–2008
3.2 Public debt levels
10.1 Average difference in probability of voting for the Labour Party based on economic vote (economy has ‘stayed the same or better’ from economy has gotten ‘worse’)
10.2 Average difference in probability of voting for the Democratic Party based on the economic vote (economy has ‘stayed the same or better’ from economy has gotten ‘worse’)
Preface and Acknowledgments
This volume was born of a conference organized by the British Politics Group of the American Political Science Association in September 2010 entitled ‘The UK and US in 2010: Transition and Transformation’. The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression slammed both the British and American economies full force in September 2008, obliterating the political and economic verities of the previous three decades. By 2010 the aftershocks still resonated. The moment was thus opportune for a collective assessment of how these events were transforming these polities – whether this represented a critical juncture in which political and economic relationships and institutions would be remade. That both states were then governed by relatively new administrations rendered these questions even more intriguing. The result was a lively one-day conference with 14 panels and over 90 participants. Given the size of the event it was not possible to include everyone in the volume that follows. Many a worthy paper had to be left by the wayside, hopefully to be picked up by other venues. My thanks go out to all who made it such a wonderful event.
No one can pull off something like this without the support and assistance of numerous colleagues. First and foremost I would like to thank Susan Sell of George Washington University. I pursued my graduate studies at GW and Susan was one of my professors and mentors. In her current role as Director of the Institute for Global and International Studies in the Elliott School of International Affairs, she offered to host the event. Without her willing support neither the conference nor this volume would have come to fruition. Special thanks also to her assistant, Mike Salamon, who saw to our every need leading up to and during the day of the event. Thanks also to the faculty in the GWU Department of Political Science, from which I earned my doctorate, and the Elliott School of International Affairs, for whom I worked as both a teaching assistant and visiting instructor. I want to extend my personal
gratitude to Harvey Feigenbaum – who taught me how to be a great researcher – and Henry Nau – who taught me how to be a great teacher. To the extent that I do not live up to their standards, the fault is entirely my own.
This volume is not only a product of its contributors, but also of the larger British Politics Group. The BPG is full of many wonderful people who are also exceptional scholars, and my personal and professional life has been greatly enriched by being a member. I am particularly privileged that they have entrusted me with the role of Executive Director. Everyone in the BPG is thus deserving of thanks. I would like to single out Janet Laible, who served as the co-chair of the conference and beyond that has always been unselfish in giving her time to the group. Thanks are also warranted for Justin Fisher, our president at the time of the conference, who was not only a very able executive, but retains an uncanny ability to locate the best breakfast spot in any city on earth. Graham Wilson has proven a worthy successor, although he has yet to prove himself on the dining front. Thanks also go out to our APSA program chair, Florence Faucher-King; our newsletter editor, Tom Wolf; our webmaster (and emergency sommelier), Alistair Howard; and to all who serve or have served on the BPG executive
This is the second volume that I have edited for Palgrave Macmillan, an exceptionally supportive and professional organization. My special thanks to Amber Stone-Galilee, who marshaled the project from the conference through completion, and to Liz Blackmore for her tireless work in moving the book from manuscript through production – and especially for not giving me too much grief that my contributions were the last ones submitted!
A nod of appreciation also to my colleagues in the Department of Humanities and Social Science at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Teaching politics at a small engineering school in western Indiana where I am the sole political scientist was not perhaps my ‘dream job’ coming out of grad school. Yet I reside in a world of outstanding students and colleagues who are both incomparable teachers and first-rate scholars. I am lucky to be part of such a fine academic family. I am also doubly blessed at home. I could never have achieved as much as I have without the loving support of my wife Allison (who had the stamina and perseverance to get her nursing degree with three kids and a husband occupied by teaching and editing books) and our children Maria, Jack, and Oliver – excellent legacies indeed! Thanks for everything.
Terrence Casey
Terre Haute, Indiana, USA
Notes on Contributors
Edward Ashbee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Business and Politics, Copenhagen Business School (Denmark). His books include The US Economy Today, The Bush Administration, Sex and the Moral Agenda and US Politics Today, (Manchester University Press). He co-edited The Politics, Economics, and Culture of Mexican-US Migration: Both Sides of the Border (Palgrave Macmillan) and has had articles published in journals such as Parliamentary Affairs, Politics, the Political Quarterly and Society.
Tim Bale is a graduate of Cambridge, Northwestern and Sheffield Universities. He is now Professor of Politics at the University of Sussex. He is the author of The Conservative Party from Thatcher to Cameron (Polity, 2011) and European Politics: A Comparative Introduction (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).
Michael J. Brogan is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Rider University located in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. He has published articles in such journals as Lex-Localis, Public Administration Quarterly, and the Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment. He is currently working on a book project entitled Precision Politics: Evaluating the Impact of Political Institutions, Elections, and Economic Conditions on State-Level Budget Forecasting Errors (Lexington, 2013).
Terrence Casey is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Head of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana. He also serves as the Executive Director of the British Politics Group of the American Political Science Association. His previous books include The Social Context of Economic Change in Britain (Manchester University Press, 2002) and The Blair Legacy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).
David Coates holds the Worrell Chair in Anglo-American Studies at Wake Forest University. He has written extensively on US and UK political economy, labor movements and progressive politics. His recent writing on the financial crisis is in Answering Back: Liberal Responses to Conservative Arguments (Continuum, 2010) and Making the Progressive Case (Continuum, 2011).
Arthur I. Cyr is the Clausen Distinguished Professor and Director of the Clausen Center for World Business at Carthage College. He previously served as President of the Chicago World Trade Center and Vice President of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations. His books include Liberal Politics in Britain (John Calder and Transaction Press, 1977, rev. edn 1988), British Foreign Policy and the Atlantic Area: The Techniques of Accommodation (Macmillan, 1979), and After the Cold War: American Foreign Policy, Europe and Asia (Macmillan, 1997, rev. edn 2000). His articles have appeared in numerous journals, including Armed Forces and Society, Comparative Politics, International Affairs, Parliamentary Affairs, Policy Sciences, Political Science Quarterly, RUSI Journal, and Society.
Kara Dickstein graduated summa cum laude from Wake Forest in May 2010 with a BA in economics. She headed the research team that helped produce David Coates’ Answering Back: Liberal Responses to Conservative Arguments (Continuum, 2010). She is currently doing graduate work in International Political Economy at the London School of Economics.
Juan S. Gil is a graduate summa cum laude from Florida International University with a BA in philosophy and a BA in political science.
Wyn Grant is Professor of Politics at the University of Warwick and Vice-President of the International Political Science Association. He has written extensively on British politics, comparative public policy and research methods.
Robin Kolodny is Associate Professor of Political Science at Temple University, where she has taught since 1991. During Academic Year 2008–09, Kolodny was a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar to the United Kingdom, affiliated with the University of Sussex. She is the author of Pursuing Majorities: Congressional Campaign Committees in American Politics (University of Oklahoma Press, 1998) as well as numerous articles on political parties in Congress, in elections, and in comparative perspective. She is a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Campaign Finance Institute in Washington, DC, and a Fellow at the Sussex European Institute (SEI) in the United Kingdom.
Richard J. Maiman is Professor of Political Science Emeritus at the University of Southern Maine. Since 2000 he has been a Visiting Fellow at the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex. In 2011 he is a Fulbright Scholar at the Centre for Human Rights in the Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria in the Republic of South Africa. His book, Divorce Lawyers at Work: Varieties of Professionalism in Practice, co-authored with Lynn Mather and Craig McEwen, won the APSA’s C. Herman Pritchett Award for ‘the best book on law and courts’ in 2000.
John E. Owens is Professor of United States Government and Politics in the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Westminster, Faculty Fellow in the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at the American University in Washington, DC, and Associate Fellow at the Institute for the Study of the Americas in the University of London’s School of Advanced Study. He is the author of numerous articles in leading journals and book chapters on the US Congress, congressional-presidential relations, and comparative legislative politics. His most recent book coedited with Ricardo Pelizzo is The ‘War on Terror’ and the Growth of Executive Power? A Comparative Perspective (Routledge). Previous publications include America’s ‘War on Terrorism’: New Dimensions in United States Government and National Security (with John W. Dumbrell), Congress and the Presidency: Institutional Politics in a Separated System (with Michael Foley), Leadership in Context (with Erwin C. Hargrove); and The Republican Takeover of Congress (with Dean McSweeney). He is a member of the editorial boards of the Congress a
nd the Presidency, Journal of Legislative Studies and Politics & Policy.
Nicol C. Rae is Senior Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University. He is the author of The Decline & Fall of the Liberal Republicans: From 1952 to the Present (Oxford University Press, 1989), Southern Democrats (Oxford University Press, 1994), and Conservative Reformers: The Republican Freshmen and the Lessons of the 104th Congress (M.E. Sharpe, 1998), and co-author (with Colton C. Campbell) of Impeaching Clinton: Partisan Strife on Capitol Hill (University of Kansas Press, 2003).
Mark Shephard is Senior Lecturer at the University of Strathclyde. He is the author of numerous articles on different aspects of the British, Scottish, and European parliaments, as well as the US Congress. His work has appeared in leading journals, including Political Studies, the Journal of Legislative Studies, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, British Politics, Public Administration, and the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties. He is also a contributor to Legislative Oversight and Budgeting: A World Perspective (edited with Rick Stapenhurst, Riccardo Pelizzo, David M. Olson and Lisa von Trapp, 2008). His current research interests include comparative youth parliaments, comparative committees, parliamentary questions and accountability, elite policy actions versus rhetoric, and social media discourse and its effects on attitudes towards constitutional issues.
Alex Waddan is a member of faculty at the University of Leicester in the UK. His publications include the books The Politics of Social Welfare (Edward Elgar, 1997), Clinton’s Legacy? (Palgrave, 2002) and The Politics of Social Policy (forthcoming Georgetown University Press, co-authored with Professor Daniel Beland). He has also published various journal articles on US social policy, including pieces in Political Science Quarterly, Political Studies and the Journal of Social Policy.
Graham Wilson was born and educated in the United Kingdom and began his career teaching American politics at the University of Essex. He was a Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Wisconsin Madison from 1984 to 2007 where he taught and published in both the American and comparative politics fields. He moved to Boston University in 2007 and is currently the Chair of its Political Science Department. He contributed to and co-edited the Oxford Handbook of Business and Government which appeared in the spring of 2010 and has published on the British election of 2010.