Political Theory and the Modern State by David Held

Author:David Held
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Polity Press

The 1980s: the state at the intersection of international and national pressures

In this section I want to explore further the strength and vulnerability of the contemporary British state. I shall pursue the question of social compliance and state power but in closer relation to recent developments. Three points (which will be expanded upon throughout the section) are of particular importance to the analysis:

1 The processes which shaped the formation of the modern British state created a situation which can be characterized as one both of structural weakness (primarily as a result of the extraordinary decline in Britain’s world position as a political and economic power) and of growing political strength (primarily as a result of the expansion of institutions of administration, constraint and coercion to contain, in part, the multiple economic and social difficulties linked to decline).

2 Economic crisis (indicated by unemployment, inflation, fiscal difficulties and trade deficits) and the failure hitherto of political strategies to resolve it (for example the demise of James Callaghan’s and Denis Healey’s Social Contract during the ‘winter of discontent’ (a period of intense industrial conflict), 1978–9, or the marked decline of British manufacturing capacity under Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives) considerably increases the number of those who experience the worst effects of these problems. As the prospects for prosperity look uncertain and the political and economic system fails to ‘deliver the goods’ and ‘deliver on promises’, the potentiality of enhanced political conflict grows. 3 While there are extensive pressures and demands on the polity (as suggested by theorists of overload and legitimation crisis), the resources of state power generate sufficient scope to ensure that actual political outcomes (particular policies, coalitional arrangements and so on) are not simply determined by socio-economic forces.

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