Reading the Thirties: The Rise of Fascism and Totalitarianism

Image Bundesarchiv. Bild 137 048390 Foto: Hoffmann

The Political Quarterly is pleased to present our first virtual issue, a foray into the depths of our archives, and a new venture where we examine a theme at close quarters via articles written for the journal over the last eighty years. The founding of The Political Quarterly in 1930 by Leonard Woolf, Kingsley Martin and William Robson created a space for academics and non-academics alike to write about issues of the day that concerned them. It quickly became a vessel for high-quality writing in good, clear English, and which now provides us with a valuable source of archive material for readers in the 21st century. Following on from the recent digitisation of the journal, we are pleased to be able to share many of these articles with a new audience and this first virtual issue charts the rise of Fascism and Totalitarianism in the 1930s.

Marc Chagall mural Krakow Jewish Quarter

You can read the full introduction here and explore the many articles from Leonard Woolf, Leon Trotsky, Carl Joachim Friedrich, Benito Mussolini, Harold Laswell, Elizabeth Wiskeman, Ernst Toller, H R G Greaves, Freda Utley, "Miles", "Genevan" and Charles H Wilson. You can access all of the articles here.

The Future of Capitalism

The Political Quarterly Annual Lecture

4 June, 6.30 - 8.00 pm New Theatre, East Building, LSE

The Political Quarterly are delighted to announce that John Kay will be giving the annual Political Quarterly lecture on 4 June 2013 at LSE. You can find more details here.

The crisis of 2007-8 was a major setback for supporters of a neoliberal economic philosophy: yet in its aftermath neither the political left nor the political right have been able to offer a coherent account of the strengths and limitations of a market economy. This lecture will attempt to fill that gap.

Julian Le Grand will be chairing and the respondent to John Kay is Mariana Mazzucato.

Response to Mulheirn and Jacobs debate

Alan Finlayson's response to Ian Mulheirn and Michael Jacobs' debate on the social market and its discontents.

"The debate between Ian Mulheirn and Michael Jacobs, published in Political Quarterly, provides a clear view of the fault lines that are taking shape within the British Labour left; divisions that do not derive simply from differences in tone, attitude or policy detail but which are rooted in fundamentally different conceptions of individuals, societies and government. Only when such differences are fully recognised can Labour properly clear the ground and coordinate a coherent political response to the coalition government. Accordingly, this response is intended to help clarify the ‘shape’ of these differences, indicating something of their origin and highlighting their political and philosophical orientation..." Read the full response here [pdf]

The social market and its discontents – analysing capitalism and public policy

In this Political Quarterly debate held at the Institute for Government on 15 April, Ian Mulheirn and Michael Jacobs discussed whether or not the social market offers the right framework for addressing the big public policy challenges of the day. 

Social market theorists argue that public policy should promote the use of market mechanisms, as the most effective means of allocating resources both in the private sector and in many public services.  They argue that neither free-market fundamentalism nor statist approaches offer a role for government that will result in either socially acceptable or economically efficient outcomes from the market economy.   

But critics argue that the huge number of problems generated by economies today - from the financial crisis to environmental degradation, from growing inequality to the concentration of corporate power - requires a more systemic government role in shaping and constraining market forces.  Who is right? 


You can watch the debate here 

You can read Ian Mulheirn's article here, Michael Jacobs' article here and Ian Mulheirn's reply here.

Please feel free to comment below.

Ian Mulheirn is Director of the Social Market Foundation. Michael Jacobs is Visiting Professor in the School of Public Policy at University College London and Co-Editor of The Political Quarterly. Chair Polly Toynbee is columnist for the Guardian.

Scotland, renewable energy and the independence debate: will head or heart rule the roost?

All rights Supercod

David Toke

Five energy experts led by Dr David Toke of the University of Birmingham cast doubt on notions that Westminster would continue to pay for the achievement of Scottish Governmental renewable energy targets if Scotland becomes independent. Renewable energy development is a centrepiece of SNP policy. The Scottish Government has led the way in the pursuit of ambitious renewable energy objectives, but it is still the case that without the subsidies paid by electricity consumers in the rest of the UK, the Scottish Government's ambitious targets for renewable energy would be politically unachievable. You can download the article free here.

Northern Ireland

Image courtesy of Sippakorn

In October 2011, a number of experts from Britain, Northern Ireland and Ireland gathered to debate the Northern Ireland Peace Process in an Age of Austerity at a roundtable at Birkbeck College, University of London. Contributors to the roundtable provided articles for a Political Quarterly special issue in early 2012. Articles concentrated on how tougher economic times would affect dissident Republicanism and Protestant paramilitarism, as well as on the broader question of how the Peace Process would be affected by government cutbacks. This was followed by a successful discussion of the papers by leading Northern Ireland politicians, journalists and academics at the Political Studies Association conference in Belfast in April. The general view, with some dissent, was that many of the dynamics that were driving both the Peace Process and sectarian violence had a long trajectory, and would not be greatly affected - for good or ill - by economic austerity.

As we enter 2013, the themes discussed in the special issue continue to resonate. The tempo of dissident Republican activity remained high throughout 2012, with numerous successful and foiled attacks. In November, David Black, a 52-year-old father of two, was shot on the M1, becoming the first prison officer to be murdered in Northern Ireland in almost 20 years. Dissident republicans joined forces to form a reconstituted IRA, promising further attacks in the New Year. Meanwhile, Belfast City Council's decision in December 2012 to cease flying the Union flag apart from on designated days led to weeks of rioting by loyalist protesters. Though Unionist politicians condemned the violence, many supported the aims of the protesters. The violence reflected a theme of continuing Unionist angst over their demographic, economic and political decline which began in the dying days of the Stormont period. As with much else in the province, the vagaries of peace and conflict appear to be rooted in long-term dynamics.

Details of the special issue can be seen here and you can read four of the articles that came out of the conference here free:

Martyn Frampton:  Dissident Irish Republican Violence: A Resurgent Threat?

Peter Shirlow: A Prosperity of Thought in an Age of Austerity: The Case of Ulster Loyalism

Henry Patterson: Unionism after Good Friday and St Andrews

Jon Tonge: ‘No-one likes us; we don't care’: ‘Dissident’ Irish Republicans and Mandates

Eric Kaufmann

Birkbeck

Political Quarterly special subscriptions offers for 2013 – just £27 or £10!

The Political Quarterly is pleased to let you know that from 2013 you can subscribe to The Political Quarterly for just £27 a year – or a mere £10 for the online edition.  For this you will get four action-packed issues plus a special PQ book on the state of democracy in the UK. Amazing value!

The next issue of The Political Quarterly will be out in the New Year. It includes:

• A debate between Ian Mulheirn and Michael Jacobs on whether we are all social marketeers now
• An analysis of the social composition of the Parliamentary Conservative Party in the wake of ‘plebgate’ and the ‘arrogant posh boys’ accusation
• Analyses of public attitudes towards the poor and welfare by Peter Taylor-Gooby, and towards immigration and public trust in politics by Lauren McLaren
• Kenneth Morgan on the left and constitutional reform – from Gladstone to Miliband
• Oliver Daddow on the shifts in British foreign policy from Blair to Cameron

So order your subscription today!  Click here.