LPINT5236 British Government in Global Context Course Descriptor

Course Overview

This course will enable students to acquire a specialised understanding of modern British government and politics in the context of global Britain, and to explore scholarly debates in this area. The course will advance the powers of analysis, of interpretation, and of devising, formulating and criticising arguments regarding British political society. The course will require students to accrue substantial understanding on the operation of constitutionalism, the electoral system, political parties, and voting behaviours in the UK, as well as the organisation and workings of the executive, legislature, judiciary, and the civil service, and the powers of Parliament and the devolved governments. Students will be required to familiarise themselves with recent debates on issues of constitutional reform, the position of Britain in the international system, and how Britain’s system of government compares with others across the world. Students will develop an active understanding of primary texts, questions, and debates, and will be asked to review official documents and other primary sources, including parliamentary papers and government reports, to evaluate their historical and political contexts. Within the programme, the course will advance student understanding of the workings of national political institutions (comparative politics) and contribute to the offering of regionally focused studies within Politics and International Relations.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject Specific Skills

Transferable and Employability Skills

Teaching and Learning

This course has a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) page with a syllabus and range of additional resources (e.g. readings, question prompts, tasks, assignment briefs, discussion boards) to orientate and engage students in their studies.

The scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course are:

Lectures and seminars

40 scheduled hours – typically including induction, consolidation or revision, and assessment activity hours.

• Version 1:all sessions in the same sized group

OR

• Version 2: most of the sessions in larger groups; some of the sessions in smaller groups

Faculty hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to drop in or sign up to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback, individually or in small groups. 

Students are to attend and participate in all the scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course and to manage their directed learning and independent study.

Indicative total learning hours for this course: 150 hours

Assessment

Both formative and summative assessments are used as part of this course, with purely formative opportunities typically embedded within interactive teaching sessions, office hours, and/or the VLE.

Summative Assessments

The assessment will require students to formulate and apply different political arguments to produce written work that critically analyses the political tradition, the key institutional and the social architecture of the United Kingdom, including through the analysis of official documents and other primary sources:

Further information about the assessments can be found in the Course Syllabus.

Feedback

Students will receive formative and summative feedback in a variety of ways, written (e.g. marked up on assignments, through email or the VLE) or oral (e.g. as part of interactive teaching sessions or in office hours).

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is for a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Bagehot, W. (2001), The English Constitution, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Dunleavy, P. and Gamble, A. and Holliday, I. (eds) (2000), Developments in British politics, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Kavanagh, D. (2000), British Politics: Continuities and Change, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Rao, N. and Young, K. (1997), Local Government since 1945, Wiley-Blackwell.

Indicative Topics

Note: Comprehensive and current topics for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative topics provided below are used as a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• The modern British constitution
• Institutions and division of power in the British system
• British political parties and interest groups
• Electioneering and devolution in the United Kingdom