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The Rules of British Democracy under Duress: Has the British Constitution Proved Resilient or in Need of Reform?

Read more about The Rules of British Democracy under Duress: Has the British Constitution Proved Resilient or in Need of Reform?

The UK constitution appears to lurch from crisis to crisis. The last seven years have seen the UK negotiate Brexit, a global pandemic, threats to the Union, and a series of political crises that saw three Prime Ministers in one year. These events tempt calls for reform. Surely the UK's constitution is more populist than democratic and will remain so without long-lasting constitutional form, perhaps even moving to a codified constitution with strong, legal protections of federalism, democracy, and human rights?

The Politics of Immigration before and after Brexit: Changed Attitudes, Changed Coalitions... Changed Outcomes?

Read more about The Politics of Immigration before and after Brexit: Changed Attitudes, Changed Coalitions... Changed Outcomes?

The British political landscape on immigration before Brexit had a number of stable features: the public disliked migration; politicians from both parties tended to accept (if not actively support) higher migration levels than voters preferred; this mismatch generated electoral disruption when the issue rose up the agenda, in particular through mobilisation on the radical right and far right; and this initially intense public scepticism was gradually being eroded by demographic change.

Place-Based Politics: How Will Local Contexts Shape Voters’ Behaviour in the Next Election?

Read more about Place-Based Politics: How Will Local Contexts Shape Voters’ Behaviour in the Next Election?

British electoral geography has profoundly changed over the past decades. Place has become central to the language of elections and policy offerings from parties. Political divides have opened up between voters in locations strongly connected to global growth and those that are not. How do place-based factors matter for voting behaviour, and which political attitudes do they operate through?

From Austerity to the Cost-of-Living Crisis: What do Voters Want from Government Spending?

Read more about From Austerity to the Cost-of-Living Crisis: What do Voters Want from Government Spending?

The next UK general election looks set to be fought in a context of economic turmoil not seen in the UK since the 2010 election. However, the public mood toward public spending has dramatically shifted since then. Public services and the cost-of-living are at the forefront of voters’ worries, and majorities say they support increases in public spending even though the tax burden is historically high. How do voters form attitudes on economic policy and assess its trade-offs? What role did Brexit, Covid-19 and the 2022 ‘mini-budget’ play in shifting the grounds of the economic debate?

Samuel Burry

Read more about Samuel Burry

Samuel Burry is a DPhil (PhD) student in Politics at Oxford. He is a historian of political thought and primarily works on twentieth-century American and African American political thought. His research has been published in Perspectives on Politics, Modern Intellectual History, and The American Journal of Jurisprudence.

Aryemis Brown

Read more about Aryemis Brown

First Lieutenant Aryemis Brown, United States Space Force, reads the Doctor of Philosophy in International Relations at the University of Oxford. Aryemis was the outstanding military graduate and a distinguished graduate from the United States Air Force Academy where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Legal Studies and Humanities and minors in Religion Studies and Philosophy. While at the Academy, Aryemis commanded the Air Force Cadet Wing as the commander of troops, serving as the highest-ranking cadet, responsible for the leadership and character development of 4,400+ personnel.