Politics in Britain: From labourism to Thatcherism

Controversial when the first edition was published in 1983, Colin Leys’ analysis of the changing face of British politics has been confirmed by events of the late 1980s. The second edition, revised throughout, is brought up to date with substantial new material on the Thatcher era. Leys provides a solid body of information on the central topics of British politics—not only the nature of political parties or the evolution of the State, but also the organization of capital and labour, corporatism, the transformations of local democracy, the sphere of law and order, and other areas seldom discussed in more orthodox texts. The book also includes new accounts of Thatcher’s program of de-nationalization and of the changes to the Welfare State. Now more relevant than ever, Politics in Britain has yet to be surpassed as an introduction to its subject.