IVlUDERI I .

NfETflUDS
OF
T.E.ACr11NG
POL1I'1CJ1L B-.. ~~·;;YI
Modern Methods
of
Teaching
Political Science

Prem Lata Sharma

SARUP&SONS
NEW DEUII-110002

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Published by
SARUP&SONS
4740/23, Ansari Road, Darya Ganj
New Delhi-11 0002
Ph. :3281029,3244664

Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

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1st Edition : 2002

ISBN- 81-7625-305-7

Printed in India
Published by Prabhat Kumar Sharma for Sarup & Sons, Laser Type-
setting at Mayank Printers and Printed at Roshan Offset Press, Delhi.

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 Preface

In the modern scientific and teclmological, industrial world the teaching

of political science has acquired a very important dimension. Besides
theoretical background, lesson in practical politics through student
politics, seminars. workshops and elections, can he given.
There topics have been discussed very lucidly in this book

- Editor

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 Contents

Preface v
I. Teaching of Political Science
2. The Political PrinciQle 18
J Ibe ~olitical Method 21
4. Two ExQeriments in Teaching Political Science 40
5. Training for Teaching Political Science 50
6. Organizations and Teaching of Political Science 65
7. The Problem of Bias in Teaching Political Science 81
8 ~olilical ~allies and Elections 96
9 Earliamcnt and Ministers 116
10 I ocal GoYernmen! 139
II. Judicia!Y and Government in Great Britain 155
12. Public Administration and Policy Studies 172
13. The Future of Teaching Political Science 193

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 Teaching of Political Science

Few political theorists show any interest in the political education of

the child: and those who do are usually pessimistic about the value of
introducing political theory into the school curriculum. Miller,• for
example, argues that 'children can be given only the most simplified
account of governmental institutions, and hardly any notion of the actual
charact>r of political activity'. At best we can teach only a purely
descriptive 'civics' in which we tell 'school children about such things
as the formal relations between central and local government, the
methods of election of MPs and local councillors, the distinctive work
of different officials, and so on'. And whilst Miller believes that 'it is
better to have this knowledge than not to have it', he recognizes that it
'provides only a static picture of institutions, which will certainly not,
in itself, provide only a static picture of institutions, which will certainly
not, in itself, provide any training in social values'. And it is a person's
general social values, rather than his civic knowledge, which determine
the quality of his citizenship.
Oakeshott took a similar view of the necessary limitations upon
the form of political knowledge which can be taught to the young. The
most that can be offered to them is 'an introduction to the current
activities of governments and to the relevant structures and practices
with some attention to the beliefs and opinions which may be held to
illuminate them.' But in childhood, this knowledge must remain inert:
it is a stock of' ideas, beliefs, images, practices', not a working capital.
It is 'not, perhaps, a very inspiring study and in its more dessicatcd
passages ... unlike Greek irregular verbs in holding out no evidence of
• J D.B. Miller, The Nature ofPolitics (Harmondsworth : Penguin. 1965) pp. 275-6

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2 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

better things to come' . • However, for Oakeshott, this somewhat

unpromising study of politics is no more misleading or tedious than
much else which has to be learned in school. His conception of political
education hangs together with his general view of schooldays as a stage
of education in which much has to be learned ' without the point of
learning it being evident to the learner.'••
This mechanical view of schooling as a period for acquiring
information without much understanding of its value is at odds with
the currently child-centred orientation of educational theory. Nowadays,
few educationists dissent from Whitehead's condemnation of the rote
learning of ' inert ideas'. And if, in practice, schools are not always the
happy, exciting institutions which are idealized in educational literature,
most teachers pay lip-service to the notion that the young child's
schooling should be adventurous, relevant, meaningful, related to his
present concerns and not merely a preparation for a distant future adult
life. He should be capable of understanding what be is asked to learn:
indeed, this prescription that the child should understand what he learns
seems to entail that he should also exercise some degree of choice over
what he studies in school. And th.is conclusion is hard to reconclte with
Oakeshott's claim that 'at school we are, quite properly, not permitted
to follow our own inclinations' . Thus, it seems that we must either rule
out meaningful political education in schools or we need a conception
of politics which can be assimilated to child-centred educational theory.
It has been a weakness of much child-centred education that it
has applied too literally the slogan, ' We teach children, not subjects.'
Much of educational value has followed from widespread acceptance
of the sentiments underlying this view: fewer children go 'unwillingly
to school' and schools are happier places than they often were half a
century ago. But a less desirable c onsequence of this slogan has been a
tendency to ' dissolve the curriculum' and to pay insufficient attention
to the epistemological structure of the forms of knowledge and
experience which ought to characterize the educated life in civilized
communities. And because of this awareness that the curriculum has
been unduly neglected, there is a danger that the educational pendulum
might swing towards an extreme subject-centredness. It is fortunate,
therefore, that educational theory is increasingly influenced by the work

• M. Oakcshon, Rationalism in Politics and Other EJsays (london Methuen. 1962)

p.326.
" Ibid., pp. 315·1 6

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Teaching of Political Science 3

of two psychologists (Piaget and Bruner) whose interest is in both the

intellectual development of the child and the stru cture of human
knowledge. It has generally bee:! assumed that Piaget 's greatest
contribution to education is as a psychologist. In fact, he has approached
the problem of the development of intelligence as an !epistemologist
His primary interest has been in the logic of knowledge, and his
experiments have been designed to demonstrate, not the development
of intelligence in vacuo, but how intelligence develops in relation to
the growing understanding of scientific concepts in particular areas of
knowledge. Hence, to attempt to apply Piagetian theory to education is
to be committed, in part to an examination of the forms of knowledge
one is trying to teach, no less than to an examination of the child's
psychology. Briefly, Piaget implies that the learning of concepts in a
discipline passes through three stages. There is a pre-operational stage
when the learner finds it difficult to focus upon more than one variable
in a problem at a time. Secondly, there is a concrete operational stage
in which the Ieamer is pre-occupied with ca~gorizing and classifying
his experience in concrete terms; building his concrete experience of
phenomena into abstractions or concepts. Finally, there is a formal-
operational stage when concepts and principles are used in the
hypothetical and abstract thinking characteristic of mature disciplinary
thought. Piagetians have often attached age norms to these stages: two
to five years, fi ve to eleven years and eleven-plus respectively. Recently
there has been a tendency to play down the notion that the Piagetian
stages are age-dependent and to stress instead the more valuable
conception that these define a necessary sequence through which the
Ieamer must pass in approaching any d iscipline for the first time at
whatever age. •
The realization that Piaget is saying important things about the
logical character of academic disciplines has comr. somewhat later than
the grasp of what he is saying about the mental characteristics of the
Ieamer. This later development owes much to the work of Bruner and
his associates. The Piagetian conception that mastery of a subject must
depend upon stages of development which the child is usually passing
through in the primary and early secondary years has led Bruner to argue
that it is possible (and, indeed, necessary) to teach the fundamental
• Summary accounts of the work ofPiaget C'!JI be found in: W.H. Maier, Three Theories
of Child Development (New York: Harper & Row, 1965) Ch. 3 ; J.H. Flavell, The
Dcvelopmemal Psychology ofJean Piaget (princeton: Van Nostrand, 1962). A more
difficult account of the developmental stages can be found in Piaget's own Ligica and
PsycholoKJ•(Manchester University Press, 1953).

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4 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science.

concepts of any discipline to children at any age. In The Process of

Education he wrote: ' We begin with the hypothesis that any subject can
be taught effectively in some intellectually honest fonn at any stage of
development' . • These objectives are to be pursued by a 'spiral
curriculum.' The circle of fundamental concepts and principles are
acquired on the ground floor of one's education. Educational growth at
different stages of schooling is then achieved, not by introducing the
Ieamer to distinctively new concepts and principles, but by applying
these first principles to more difficult and complex material. On the
spiral analogy, being educated involves climbing a spiral staircase,
returning again and again to the same point of view, but ever higher in ·
the spiral with the wider perspective upon experience which this makes
possible. Fundamental concepts and principles are used to analyse
material of increasing difficulty and complexity. Bruner's confidence
in the possibility of introducing young children to disciplinary study
without destroying its integrity is grounded upon the conviction that
the fundamental ideas in the sciences and the humanities are both
powerful and simple and that their key concepts and principles are
intimated even in the behaviour of very young children. On this view,
the task facing teachers of the young is not the simplification of abstruse,
scholarl y subject-matter, but rather a development of principled
understanding of what is essentially simple and fundamental to human
experience. Thus, in the social disc.iplines, Economics, Sociology and
Politics, for example, we are confronted not with the problem of reducing
explanations of complicated ' adult' institutions into the vocabulary of
children, but with identifying those aspects of their own behaviour which
require explanation in the language of economics or sociology or politics.
In political tenns this means that we are faced with the problem of
identifying that area of children's behaviour which is political in
character, and not with the dilemma of how to explain the functions
and operations of things like Parliament, the Cabinet, the Civil Service,
local government, the assize or magistrate's court, or the United Nations
Association; in short, the materials of traditional 'civics.'
If Bruner is right in thinking that it is possible to teach any
discipline to any child, this means that it ought to be possible to
introduce politics into the school curriculum. The only sound objection
to the application of Bruner's thesis to politics would follow from a

• See J. S. Bruner, n1e Process of £ducario11 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

t 963); also. Towards a Tlreoryof !nsrrucrion (Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
t966).

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Teaching of Political Science 5

demonstration that the phenomena of politics form no part of the

experiences of children. Since children count, measure, add, subtract,
live in rectangular houses, drink from cylindrical glasses, and so on,
mathematics presents no problem to those educationists who wish to
relate teaching to the experiences of the child. The concrete
manifestations of this subject are available for inspection daily and from
an early age. Similarly, since young children soon learn to regulate their
behaviour in accordance with the laws of physics, and since simple
experiments to illustrate the working of physical laws can easily be
constructed from everyday objects, physical science is taught increasingly
in the primary school. But what about the institutions and modes of
behaviour which constitute the data of the social disciplines: in
particular, how far do children have experi~nces which could be
described as political?
Traditionally, political education has focused upon politics as a
macro-activity: civics has been parliamentary-oriented and education for
citizenship has been a preparation for things to come. What has been
taught has been remote from the Ieamer's interests and concerns: it has,
therefore, been impossible to use his own experience as a point of
departure or to exemplify the principles being taught. Hence, in order
to 'Brunerize' political education a concept of politics is required which
locates it within the experience of the child.
Oddly enough, despite their own conclusions that political
education in schools can only offer the somewhat unappetizing diet of
traditional Civics, both Oakeshon and Miller point a way out of this
dilemma. Thus, Miller argues that ' politics is a basic human activity
which makes its appearance wherever there are people and rules. It may
be seen in small compass in a tennis club or a dramatic society, and in
its widest scope in the manoeuvrings of the cold war'. • Similarly,
Oakeshott writes: 'politics I take to be the activity of attending to the
general arrangements of a set of people whom chance or choice has
brought together. In this sense, families, clubs and learned societies have
their politics'.•• This suggests that we might find politics at work in
the experience of children much less remotely than through the
governmental apparatus of the local community and the state. For, from
this micro of view, even schools have their politics. They have to be
governed; they have their conflict of interests. There are rules for the
•
• Op. cit., p. 290 .
.. Op.cit., p.ll2

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6 Modern Me1hods of Teaching Polilical Science

orderly conduct of the social re lationships which learning entails; they

have their systems of punishment, and so on. So children experience at
first hand (though it might be more accurate to say that they suffer) the
politics of the school. And, particularly under the stimulus of the
progressive education movement, the vocabulary of social philosophy
is frequ ently employed in discussion of their education. The
individualism of the child and the desirability of increasing his freedom
in school is increasingly canvassed; at the same time, the authority of
the teacher is called into question. Segregated secondary schooling and
streaming in schools has implications for quality of educational
opportunity and provision. The interests of the child are taken to be a
fundamental educational datum. Some educationists have written of the
rights of childhood. Moral and social principles are involved in the sort
of social regulation which is adopted by the school. This raises questions
about the function of law in a community and of different modes of
legislating as well as the problems of justice and punishment. And
related to all these issues is the question of democracy: in relation to
school government, how far shou ld children be more than passive,
disenfranchised members of the school community?
Any discussion of the desirability of school democracy must begin
from the fact that most schools have usually functioned as tyrannies.
This is often as true of the headteacher's relationship with his staff
(however benevolent his despotism may be) as it is of the adult-child
relationships in schools. There are those who would argue that a
paternalist rather than a democratic form of school government is
entailed by the nature of the school and its disciplinary functions (here
'disciplinary'. is intended to refer to the content and methodology- the
disciplines-of the curriculum, as well as to the problem of maintaining
an orderly framework within which learning can occur). Not only does
the school operate within the context of expectations on the part of the
community outside, so tha~ even teachers are not absolutely free agents:
it also seems that in detennining the content of the curriculum or (for
example) the rules affecting attendance at school, the immatu rity of the
child renders him unlit to make informed and responsible decisions on
these matters. Although his interests must constantly be borne in mind,
some educationists would argue that it is pointless to consult him about
these, since he is in a very poor position to judge what his own best
interests are. Hence, whilst schools undoubtedly have their politics, it
seems that the totalitarian rather than the democratic model is most
appropriate to school government.

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Teaching of Political Science 7

One attempt to resolve this difficulty of giving practical political

experience within an institution which apparently offers little
opportunity for this, has been the resort to 'mock' political activities:
mock elections, parliaments, local councils, trials and so on. There is
not room here to explore the vario1.1s objections which might be raised
against this educational device. But the most serious of these is that in
mock activities the political processes of discussion and decision-making
are entirely separated from administration: they divorce experience of
the machinery of government from its responsible use. In mock activities
no one is being asked to do anythin.g but talk, and this form of political
education often seems as liable to produce asinine and irresponsible talk
as to encourage responsible political attitudes.
Elected school parliaments or councils where class representatives
come together with teachers to discuss school problems have sometirr.t:s
been tried in an attempt to avoid the limitations of mock activities and
to put political education on a more rea.listic footing. Here, the degree
of child participation may very from the near pupil autonomy of some
progressive schools to more circumspect attempts to create machinery
through which pupils may express their opinions, but stopping short of
any intention to share with them the management of the school. The
specter of A.S. Neill deters most educationists-as well as some political
theorists (e.g. Miller}-from seriously entertaining the more radical of
these alternatives. And when pupil participation is confined to limited
and occasional consultations, it is often argued that this merely makes
a confidence trick of any talk of school democracy. No doubt school
councils, of whatever kind, give some practice in electoral procedures
and the workings of representative government: if taken seriously by
the staff, they may be a genuine instrument for the expression of
grievances and the consultation of interests. However, they share with
mock activities a parliamentary orientation: most children are denied
all but minimal active participation for most of the time.
A more radical objection to school councils is raised by those who
argue that this device invites children to meddle in matters which they
cannot properly understand and to legislate for things (the content of
the curriculum, for example) which they cannot possibly alter. Moreover,
the intelligent child knows that this is so and sees through the entire
exercise for the bogus thing it is. This was Lord James's judgement upon
school democracy: ' there is a fundamental unreality about self-
government in schools that certainly does not escape the intelligent

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8 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

child. In very few schools would the vote of the Schools Council be
capable of bringing about any major change in the school such as the
dropping of French from the curriculum. ••
One way of avoiding this difficulty would be to identify limited
areas of school life where children could practise responsible government
without encroaching upon the statutory responsibilities of the school.
In the smaller groupings within the school where continuous fact-to-
face relationships are possible, procedures might be established which
would underline the values of democratic decision-making. The class
unit comes to mind in this respect. It seems less outrageous to suggest
that class discipline might be fashioned out of democratic discussion
than the disciplinary structure of the whole school. And in relation to
curriculum content, the project-type of learning situation influenced by
the work of Dewey has also-as Dewey himself intended-many
democratic-type procedures written into it. There exists little systematic
evaluation of the consequences of inviting children's participation in
the planning of their own education. But the series of experiments
encouraged by Kurt Lewin• throw some light upon this question.
Lewin and his associates evolved a situation where young boys
were engaged in craft activities. Three separate groups were established
and submitted, respectively, to authoritarian, democratic and laisser-
faire patterns of social control: that is, there was a group where
objectives and routines were dictated by the leader, a second where
appropriate aims and methods were evolved from group discussion, and
a third in which boys were left to their own devices. This third
alternative proved least satisfactory (it was unpopular with the boys and
unproductive), whilst the democratic group scored over the authoritarian
regime in being more popular and productive of better quality work. It
is important not to read too much into this limited series of experiments.
Perhaps its most pertinent implication for the school situation is in the
distinction it suggests between a completely liberal educational situation
and a participant regime in which a mature adult leader encourages,
stimulates and guides group discussion. The laisser-faire siruation has
within it the seeds of anarchy which critics of school democracy usually
fear. It seems a necessary condition for democratic education in schools

• E James, Education for Leadership (london: Harrap, 1951) p. 68.

•• K.Lewin, Resolving Social Conflicls (Now York: Harper, 1948). See also
the briefaccount of Lewin's work in W.J.M. Mackenzie, Polilics and Social
Science (Harrnondsworth: Penguin, 1967) pp. 183-4.

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Teaching of Political Science 9

that teachers should not conclude that the encouragement of democracy

involves them is abdication of responsibility for providing the leadership
which is implicit in their role and professional competence.
However, whatever use a class lesson may make of the techniques
of democratic discussion, it lacks many of the characteristics of a
political situation. It is probably in the extra-curricular life of the school
that pupil participant activity can best be encouraged. Where children
as:;ociate voluntarily in clubs and societies to promote different interests,
the kind of objection which is raised against pupils meddling in the
school's statutory functions loses its force . In these areas of voluntary
activity it ought to be possible to encourage discussion of objecti ves,
participation in rule-and constitution-making, and to involve members
in executive functions in a way which emphasizes the relationship
between the quality of decision-making and administration and the
quality of the resultant activity. Where children have to live with the
decisions they have made in relation to activities which they enjoy, there
is a premium upon responsible discussion and management. As officers
and committee members of school societies implementing democratic
decisions, they are involved in the sort of real management situations
which never face mock 'cabinets' in mock parliaments or the 'judicial'
officers ir. a mock trial.
Apart from the intrinsic value of these extra-curricular groups in
promoting activities which children value within the school, have they
any instrumental value as training for participatlon in political life in
the wider community outside the school? It can at least be claimed on
behalf of mock parliaments and school councils that their model is the
government of the state. Arguably, in these cases. the macro situation
is only the micro situation 'writ large' . In what sense. if at all. is the
situation of the extra-curricular club or society analogous with the
political life in the adult community outside the school?
Crick doubts the value of all attempts to understand the political
macrocosm by reference to the microcosm: 'common usage may
encourage us to talk about politics in the small group--in the trade
union. in the office, and even in the family ... Some social scientists,
perhaps being a little too clever, make quite a song and dance about
"the politics of small groups." They hope by studying the microcosm
to understand the macrocosm. But the difference is not just one of scale:
a valuable qualitative distinction is lost. If all discussion, conflict. rivalry,
~truggle and even conciliation is called politics. then it i~ forgotten , _once

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10 Modern Methods ofTeaching Political Science

more, that politics depends upon some settled order. Small groups are
subordinate parts of that order. They may help to create politics, but
their internal behaviour is not political simply because their individual
function is quite different from that of the state itself. And, unlike the
state, they have no acknowledged legal right to use force if all else
fails' .• Mackenzie takes a different view: 'both political scientists and
plain men feel that what they meet in tbe politics of the state turns up
again in the politics of the club, the office, the army unit and even the
family. What generates political interest in all this range of institutions
is that we think we can feel politics in them, and that we cannot describe
them adequately without using political concepts'.**
Perhaps it is an exaggeration to claim, as Mackenzie does, that
the problems of state government are to be found, in essence, in the
management of something like a family . It is no doubt true that to
participate in the administration of a club, a trade union, a chamber of
commerce or a school gives little of the feel of what it is like to confront
the kind of problem which exerc ises those who govern the state. As
Crick implies, simply to have the power over life and death puts these,
qualitatively in a different category. In that sense, the macrocosm is not
in the microcosm. But Mackenzie is also right to suggest that small
groups are the only place where the common man really gets the feel
of politics. The quinquennial exercise of the franchise in a general
election gives little sense that one is actively engaged in politics. The
man who is inclined to become more closely involved in the government
of those matters which most affect him finds a more satisfactory sense
of participation through the management of voluntary associations. It
is through membership of these that we promote and defend our
distinctive interests whether these be economic, cultural, professional,
religious or recreational. Whilst the members of a tennis club may do
nothing more than administer their own pleasures, other associations
are also pressure-groups or lobbies whose influence may assume national
(even supra-national) significance. And it is not merely that some
conflicts of interest (e.g ., those between management and labour) are
resolved through negotiation between interests groups themselves: it is
also that departments of state recognize that these are often repositories
of considerable expertise which ought to be consulted in the interest of
efficient government: ' the various associations supply the parties,

• 13. Crick, In Defence ofPolitics (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1964) p. 20

•• Op. cit., p. 156.

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Teaching nfl'olitical Science It

ministries and officials with that technical and specialized advice without
which laws would be mere chimeras and administration a mere
bungle'.*
The relevance of this fact of associational democracy is that it
assigns an important educational function to the voluntary extra-
curricular groupings which exist in schools. If the political macrocosm
can be characteri;·.ed as 'associational democracy' (voluntary associations
contributing to the management of society's affairs alongside, and
sometimes in partnership with, the state), the associations within schools
are doubly relevant for political education. first, they are themselves
part of the macrocosm: school football or tennis clubs, school dramatic
or learned societies are fulfilling the same functions for their members,
as ar~ similar associations in the community outside for theirs. They
are a method of pursuing genuine interests, and offer similar scope for
member participation in management. On the other hand, viewed
instrumentally as a training for political participation, they are a more
accurate model of the body politic than are the alternative parliamentary
models, in demonstration the existence of more accessible outlets for
continuous and active political participation on the part of the ordinary
citizen. Viewed thus, political education through participation in extra-
curricular groups goes some way to meeting Miller's objection to
traditional Civics: that 'on the whole, schools are devoted to solidarist
conceptions of authority, power and interest: the notion of political
conflict as unending, and of inte'rests as essentially plural and
competitive in character, could not be introduced into the management
of schools without turning them into replicas of A.S. Neill's and would,
in any case, sort badly with predominant notions of immanent general
interest which lie behind most schools' examination of social, political
and economic questions.'* The fact that schools have used inappropriate
models in their treatment of social questions is no reason why they
should continue to do so. And whilst Miller's strictures may accurately
reflect traditional attempts to establish school democracy, the wide-
spread proliferation of extra-curricular activities in good secondary
schools represents. in fact, a pluralist conception of social organization.
Different and competing interests are recognized and encouraged, and
• S.E. Finer. Anonymous Empire (london : l'all Malll'ress, 1958) p. 108. There is a
~rowing literature on pressure groups . For a recent shon accoulll of th<se (and
bihliographyl. s~e F. G. Castles. Pre.tsure Groups and Palttical (ulwre (l.l>ndon:
Routledge & Kcgan Paul. IQ67)
•-• Op. cit.. p 275.

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12 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

children are faced with genuine problems of choice in terms of the

interests they are ab le to pursue.
At this point two related objections might be raised against this
analysis which has focused upon the possibility of giving children
practical experience of politics. First, has political theory no contribution
to make towards political education? Second, why assume that the point
of political education is to serve the utilitarian purpose of education for
citizenship? Indeed (and th is is why these objections are related), is not
politica l education primarily an example of that species of activity
concerned w ith discovery of truth about th e world and, hence, an
essentially theoretical activity?
Hitherto, our emphas is upon the practice of politics has followed
from the attempt to discover a way of exemplifying political concepts
and principles by reference to experiences capable of having meaning
for c hildren ; it has been a search fo r co ncrete ill ustrat ion within
children's experience, of the simple, strategic, political concepts of
politics. All that need be claimed for the different forms of practical
political experience which have been discussed is that they contribute
towards the concrete-ope rat ional development of the learner as a
necessary preparation for the distinctively formal-operational or abstract
consideration of political activity. What has been argued so far could
fit ei ther a utilitaria n or a transcendental justification of political
education. To have stressed the importance of practice is not necessarily
to have advocated mere education for cit izenship. Essentially, the
argument for learning by doing is not the utilitarian assum ptio n that
everything which is learned should have a practical application. The
j ustification for learning by doing is intrinsically pedagogical: doing is
a necessary condition for understanding. The Piagetians ' insistence upon
a concrete-operational stage of learning is recognition of this sense in
which our formal understanding is dependent upon practic3l activity.
Moreover, there are tacit dimensions to all our knowledge: we all know
more than we can tell. • The best of theoretical explanations inevitably
fails to get r ight to th e heart of the matter, and this is as true of
explanations of social behaviour as of distinctively motor skills. Thus,
even where political education is conceived (as by Miller. for example)
primarily as a truth-seek ing enterprise, practice as well as theory seems
to be essential to proper understanding.

• Sec M. Polan) i. The Tacit Dimension (London: Rou1lcdgc 8:. Kcgan Paul. 1967).

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Teaching of Political Science 13

Howeve r, there is an insistent and perennial demand that

education should be related to life in the sense of cultivating insights
which have practical value in the daily business of living. And this
instrumental conception of education cannot be dismissed merely as a
threat from Philistines who are insensitive to what really constitutes the
good life. The quality of civihzed life is manifest as much in our dai ly
comings and goings in the market place as it is in our distinctively
intellectual and aesthetic activities. Indeed, the location of any human
activity is so apt to shift continuously along the means-ends spectrum,
that th e dichotomizing of instrumental and intrinsically valuable
activities becomes difficult to sustain. And especially in terms of a
human activity like the practice of politics, the requirement that we
should teach for academic detachment, pure and simple, is open to
question. Crick has argued the importance of not turning one's back
'On the whole tendency of Western civilization to be an improving,
reformist, ameliorative, not simply l1 contemplative cultu re.'* On the
other hand, perhaps if we value political education as primarily an
activity of understanding, thankful merely that there may be a by-product
in terms of an improvement in political participation, we shall be less
likely to be pre-occupied wit h teaching the mastery of political
machinery, thus avo' ling the sterility of traditional Civics. Maybe it is
right to insist that commitment to political activity is really a bonus
which might accrue from political understanding. After all, to
understand politics may be to be driven to greater personal participation,
if only from a sense that one's d ignity as a person requires active
participation in helping to shape the social framework within which
even non-utilitarian activ ities have to be pursued. But on the other hand,
it might not: emphasizing the truth-seeking aim may lead to the
cultivation of a superior academic detachment-'politics is a dirty
game' -the business of politics being left to the practical man who,
impatient of all theory, becomes impotently pragmatic. Whether as a
valuable study in itself, or as instrumentally valuable in improving the
qual ity of political activity, a knowledge of political theory seems
essential for the educated man.
Political theory has both an empirical and a theoretical dimension:
it assimilates knowledge of the structure of political institutions and the
sociology of political behaviour, as well as famil iarity wiih the ethical
presuppositions of different forms of government. In tum, both of these

' Op. cit.. p. Il l .

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14 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

contributory disciplines·- the sociological and the ethical-have a

historical context. It is only too evident that our political institutions
were not born yesterday and, arguable, neither they nor the values which
sustain or transform them are Platonic Forms. Hence, the study of a
tradition (or traditions) seems essential to political understanding and
it is this fact which leads some educationists to contend that political
education is best undertaken incidentally through the study of history.
There is little doubt that in the past most people have derived their
understanding of political concepts and principles mainly from their
school History which, traditionally, has had a political bias. Most of
our power concepts-authority, freedom, justice, monarch, subject, war,
peace, treaty, revolution and so on-derive from our school History. And
it is clear that a significant strand in the English history of the past
two centuries is the record of attempts by ordinary people to gain control
of their affairs through the development of voluntary associations. This
is a theme implicit in the social history of industrialism which is
common to many secondary-school History syllabuses. Thus, if there is
anything in our earlier argument that an important task of political
education is to demonstrate the role of interest groups in the government
of the democratic state, the history of the past two centuries offers
important evidence for this claim . The story of how ordinary citizens
learned to help themselves is no less important than the account of their
struggle for the franchise. Indeed, the former is frequently a success
story; the latter, arguably, a record of frustrated hopes and expectations.
It is doubtful whether the level of political maturity in the
community is any testimonial to the efficacy of th is sort of incidental
political education through history. But if history cannot supply the
whole of political education it is a necessary contributory element.
History has a dramatic quality which contributes an affective dimension
to political intelligence. In a democratic community political vigilance
requires that the va lues of politics should be felt no less than
intellectually apprehended. Hence, concerned as it is with the particular
event, history provides both !I wealth of concrete exemplification of the
principles of political behaviour and a culture of the imagination which
is effectively, as well as intellectually, important for political education.
A full discussion of the educational implications of incidental as
against direct, deliberate teaching of political theory in schools is beyond
the scope of this chapter. Certainly, there is a case for the development
of Social Studies in schools which, as rarely hitherto, are rooted in the

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Teaching of Political Science 15

social dtsciplines. And some attention to political theory would be an

essential element in this approach towards social education. But whether
through history or political theory, it is important to consider the age
at which the theoretical consideration of politics might begin. For to
argue as we have, following Bruner, that ch ildren are necessarily
involved in political activity from an early age is not to claim that they
can themselves offer or understand theoretical accounts of the principles
which explain their experiences. The researches of Piaget and his
associates amply demonstrate that it is one thing to behave appropriately
in practical situations, but quite another to give scientifically respectable
accounts of such behaviour.
Little empirical evidence exists to assist in the demarcation of clear
stages of development in relation to social and moral principles.
However, Piaget's The Moral Judgment ofthe Child has some relevance
to the question of political maturity as his own political references in
this work indicate. Piaget studied the behaviour of children in order to
assess their perceptions of the rules of games. He suggests that before
the age of ten children see the political universe as a theocracy or
gerontocracy.• Even the rules of marbles appear handed down from God
or from the village elders. But from about ten-years-old. the child' s
perception of the social order is transformed. The notion of a fixed,
eternal social universe is eroded by his 'discovery of democracy' : ' the
rule of a game appears to the child no longer as an eternal law, sacred
in so far as it is laid down by adults; but the outcome of a free decision
and worthy of respect in the measure that it has enlisted mutual
consent' .•• Thus, it is at the age when chi ldren are enteri ng the
secondary school that moral heteronomy gives way to moral autonomy
and democratic political education appears possible. On Piaget 's
evidence it would be pointless to give an account of democratic
government rnuch before the age of twelve. More than this, the
objections which we noted to the introduction of practical democracy
into schools would carry considerable weight when applied to the
primary school, given Piaget's account of stages of moral development.
At the primary stage it would be useless either to give children self-
government or even to consult them about mailers affecting their
interests. They appear quite content to accept the authority of their elder>

' J Piaget.71re Mora/Judgmento.fthe Chi/d(London: Routledge & Kcgan Paul. 1 91 ~ !

pp 42-56.
_. Ibid.. p. 57

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lh Modern Method5 of Teaching Political Science

iiJr whatever rules are required to govern their behaviour. Generally

s;,'!aking, then, the early' tee'ns would seem to mark the point before
which neither the theory nor practice of politics can meaningfully be
imroduced into the curriculum of the school. This does not mean, of
course, that young children should be denied explanations of why they
are being asked to behave in accordance with appropriate rules.
Children's perception of the fact that rule-giving should be a rational
actrvity may be assisted or inhibited by whether or not they live in a
COI!lmtmity where adults are accustomed to offer reasons for what they
do or expect others to do. Piaget himself implies that the development
of moral autonomy is, in part, sociologically conditioned in this way. •
The field of political education has been unduly neglected in
educational research: hence, it is not possible to offer research based
prescriptions of content or method. However, the work of Piaget and
Bruner points to three pertinent areas of research to which educationists
and political theorists together might address themselves.
First, there is need for philosophical investigation of the ' logical
geography' of Politics. Is it an autonomous or a derived area of study?
How does it relate to other social disciplines? It it a pure or applied
discipline? What is the nature of political ' facts' and how far is the
vocabulary of Poiitics an empirical, how far a normative, form of
discourse? How far in political education are we committed to teaching
a distinctive 'language' or only to a reinterpretation for technical
purposes of the vocabulary of common speech? A developmental
approach to the teaching of Politics requires the identification of strategic
facts, concepts and principles and of the relationship these bear to each
other. Epistemological priorities have to be established for teaching
purposes: what concepts (if any) are necessarily antecedent to the
understanding of others? What are the facts and particulars from which
political abstractions are fashioned and to which they can be referred
in common experience?..
Second, if the behaviour of children is capable of explanation by
reference to political, empirical investigation is required into the nature
of political behaviour in learners of different ages, abilities and cultural
background. If political education is justified as a preparation for
citizenship, it is important to identify the forms of political activity

• lbi,J .. PI'· 68·9 .

•,. Forth is sort of approach to philosophy of the curriculum, sec 1'.11. Phoenix. Healml of
\lea11i11g (New York. McGraw-IIi II. 1964).

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 Teaching ~1 Political Science 17

\\ hiclt are accessible to the average citizen, and to attempt to establish

areas of overlap betwzen the politics of the school and that of the adu:t
world. We have suggested above that the concept of associational
democracy might have important implications for a deve lopmental
approach towards political education. In this research area the task
. would be to study the political environment within which the Ieamer
functions and how this environmental data might be used to illustrate,
concretely, the teaching of political theory.
Third, it is also important to attempt to establish the ages at which
it is possible to teach given political concepts with some guarantee that
they will be understood. Again, the capacity for political behaviour must
be clearly distinguished from the ability to explain such behaviour. In
this area, Piaget's work on moral development is suggestive. But as he
himself wams, it is dangerous to generalize from an ability to behave
autonomously in relation to the rules of games to a similar capacity for
democracy in the more sophisticated rule making-situations which
characterize even the politics of families and schools. Stages of
development in political intelligence can only be delineated following
assessment of actual experiments in political education.
It is not suggested that curriculum development in the field of
political education should await the completion of a programme of
educational research of this scope and complexity. Making a sacred cow
of educational research is, perhaps, the surest guarantee of the
educational status quo. To ' programme' research in this way is not to
call a halt to political education pending watertight empirical evidence
of what is pedagogically possible, but to hint at the sort of questions
which might be asked alike by educationists and political theorists who
are concemed to improve the quality of political thought and action in
a democratic community.

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 The Political Principle

Jodged by the highest standard-and those who love them will not care
to use any other-the Public Schools must be said to have failed. llte
men whom they have turned out have not been d istinguished as a body
by joy in life and art, by hatred of poverty, serfdom and war, or by happy
eagerness in the search for truth and reality. They have for the most
part given no thought to such things; and when, in rare cases, they have
been uneasily stirred from their acquiescence in the existing order by a
gu ilty conscience, they have turned their attention to pitifully inadequate
Agenda Clubs and the like. It is futile to point to their record in the
war; the private soldier has received and deserved the same praise. The
officers and the rank an d file have a like shown a rare courage and
devotion which has kept hope al ive during the nighnnare of the last
three years. But such th ings are a tribute to the spirit of man, not to
that of the Public Schools.
Many writers- men like Mr. Shaw, Mr. Wells, and Mr. J.A.
Hobson-leave one with the impression that the only thing to do is to
make a clean sweep of the whole evil system. Concentrating in the main
on one issue, they see in the Public Schools the strongest bulwark of
those reactionary forces of class selfishness and narrow patriotism which
form the most dangerous opposition to the coming of a genuinely free
and united democracy. Few who have honestly faced the facts wi ll
consider their accusation groundless; and at first sight the conclusion
seems inevitable. Nevertheless, the Public Schools are supremely worth
preserving. Reactionary often in effect, they and the older Universities
stand almost alone in a commercial age of five per cent loans as being
in the ultimate intention liberal and humane; and the intention can be
released from the decay which has overtaken it, and the instruments by

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1'l1e Political Principle 19

which it is misinterpreted. and, receiving a new direction, may well issue

after a time of laborious reform in a fresh stream of life and health-
giving energy. To revolutionise the Public Schools is one of the most
crying needs of the age; to destroy them would be fatal.
It must be said at the outset that any attempt to 'democratise' the
Public Schools by the rough and ready method of throwing them open
to all classes, could only be made by refonners completely ignorant of
the real nature of the difficulties involved. The nation is divided into
classes, separated the one from the other by differences in manner of
life, which, to any but those who are endowed with a special sympathy,
form the most rea l of all distinctions; and it is mark, not of a
'democratic, but of an impatient and narrow-sighted intellect, merely
to ignore the fact. The average public school-boy feels tltese distinctions
more acutely and more unreasoningly than any other member of society;
and to force them on his attention at every moment of the day, before
he is capable of superseding his instincts in the matter by an intellectual
and moral revolt against the system which has shut off the great mass
of humanity from any delicacy or fineness of life, is simply to reinforce
in the most powerful manner possible all those hereditary prejudices
which teach him that it is naturally right for 'the superior' to rule 'the
inferior.' The idea of 'local scholarships' and the like has often in the
past been put into practice, and in almost every case it has resulted in
a hideous failure.* What is wanted is not to introduce into the Public
Schools an inevitably unreal and superficial democracy, but to convert
them into instruments by means of which a genuine and complete
democracy may be achieved; not to produce in them a jarring mixture
of classes, but to make them fit to play their part in the eventual abolition
of all class distinctions. To give a scholarship to the son of the local
plumber may be either well-intentioned folly or a Machiavellian stroke
of reactionary wisdom; but to create such a spirit in the school that it
views with disappointment the timid clauses of a much advertised
Education Bill, and with bitter indignation the shelving of them, is to
do something towards producing that moral and intellectual revolution
without which a social revolution of any sanity or stability is impossible.
• To take a somewhat analogous case, it is extrcmd) doubt fill whether the 'Working Lads'
Club' system, with its heart) handshakes, its football and ping-pong. docs not do more
harm than good . It is not to b<: denied that some have found here their lirst impulse
towards unselfish social work: but for others. the subtly poisonous atmosphere ofcharity
and condescension. so common in these clubs. puts the social problem in :m entirely false
light. It would certainly be intinitcly more dangerous tu bring the hoy into hourly contact
"ith people he regarded as bounders and boors

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20 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

The Public Schools, therefore, while remaining ' a class preserve.'

must become instrumental in hastening the day when such a phrase will
be happily mean ingless. There for the moment we will leave the matter,
to return to it later when we come to show that one and the same reform
will work the desired transformation in these institutions, whether
considered, on the one hand, as engines of political progress, or, on the
other, as purely intellectual associations for the attainment of culture.
For, after all, the supreme object of the genuine educationalist must be
to bring out and reinforce that love of beauty, that passion for truth,
and that disinterested desire to do what is right and good simply for its
own sake, which are latent, in however slight a degree, in most young
minds, but which are commonly so neglected and overlooked that men
learn to hate and dishonour these things, instead of finding in them
their greatest joy. The old classical curriculum, now so rapidly
disappearing, was at any rate based on a right view of what the aim of
education should be; inevitably narrow though is often was, and quite
unsuited to the needs of many minds, it did attempt to impart a genuine
love of letters, and an entirely disinterested knowledge of the nobility
of two great civilisations. It was, as has been said, liberal and humane
in intention, though not always so in result; whereas, both in intention
and result, the curr iculum by which it is now being superseded is
inherently and viciously bad. There has been no more dangerous product
of the war than the agitation in favour of a ' practical' education, by
which is meant not education at all, but simply a rule and thumb training
in the arts of ' efficiency' and ' success.' Men who have never read a
word of Goeth e or listened to a note of Beethoven are hot with
denunciations of German materialism; and meanwhile they read with
enthusiasm a letter appearing in the Times over the signature of a
num ber of influential men, urging that Public School education should
in the future be based on subject wh ich should fit the schoolboy to take
his proper place in modem life, ' whether in science, commerce, or the
forces of th e Crown. ' It is bitterly amus ing to notice the three
occupations that are exclusively considered. The life of the intellect, the
life of the spirit, and the true culture that is fostered by a Jove of great
literature, art, and music- all these are pre-sumably of no account, and
are not even worthy of mention by the side of the money-making pursuit,
and training in tactics and strategy. The science which studies the
relation of man to man, and the art which aims at building up a better
and a juster polity--th ese are the mere day-dreams of visionaries,
unworthy of consideration in ' these strenuous times.· Admiration for

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7he Political Principle 21

Pruss ian methods, and for the Pruss'ian type of mind, is not even thinly
disguised. 'TI1e wonderful efficiency of the Gennans, both in science
and languages,' we are told, 'points to the fact that their schools and
universities answer these two vital requirements better than do ours.'
In other words, we are to bow down and do worship before that splendid
idol of Kultur which we passionately denounced three years ago, when
we made up our minds to take part in a fearfu l war sooner than allow a
hopelessly false ideal, if ideal it can be called, to be thrust upon the
world. It is bad enough when a British Chancellor of the Exchequer, in
the British House of Commons, proclaims the infamous doctrine of
Bemhardi, that the safety of the State is the highest law; but if our
education is to aim in the future at producing mean and little-minded
hunters after a spurious material efficiency, the Getmans may well laugh
up their sleeve at the victory in the field which will signalise the world's
triumph over the physical, but not the moral, forces of Prussianism. Yet
the moral victory may still be won; and it is because we see in the Public
Schools one of the few remaining weapons with which to win it, that
we have called their preservation a matter of the supremest moment.
They must learn to tum out men who are splendidly free in mind and
spirit: their liberalism must be, not destroyed, but fulfilled . Better a
thousand times the study of Homer and Plato, even if it involves hours
of tedious prosing about the digamma and vowel gradations, than a
steady pressure towards short-h~nd and book-keeping.
For all that. the classics, as the staple diet of education, are
doomed. For many young minds a purely literary education is quite
unsuitable; they see no connection bel\veen the \Vritten word and the
living actualities around them, and ' work' appears in the light of a
meaningless but apparemly necessary piece of unpleasantness. Others
instinctively understand the hannony of life and literature; but they find
the path of approach too difficult, and the interest which they would
otherwise feel in their subject is extinguished in the boredom of irregular
verbs. The case of the grown man who takes up the study of an
unfamiliar language is of course altogether different. The end in view
casts its light back over the unattractive means; and the mature mind
will take positive pleasure in overcoming the obstacles which bar its
progress. It is true that some boys are capable of feeling this intellectual
pleasure: but. save in the rarest cases, only when the intense personal
fascination of the object to be attained is however vaguely and
imperfectly. unp<!rStood.

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22 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

An additional point is gained if the successive means arc so many

ends in themselves- ends the full significance of which is realised only
when the final end is reached. School education should resembk. not a
journey through a dark tunnel to a scene of beauty (as is usually the
case with classical education), but progress up slope every stage of which
is lovely- the aim being to see this very slope, and many hidden features
of the landscape with a new vision from the summit. And in the one
case, if the train breaks down (as it so often does), time has been at
best wasted; in the other, wherever the traveller stops his life has been
enriched.
We believe that there is one great reform which will fulfil the
intention of the old curriculum and at the same time free us from its
drawbacks- the substitution of political for classical education. It is an
appalling thought that the best educated members of the most powerful
Em pire in the world should leave school without ever having been
trained to consider seriously the realities of the world about them, and
the true nature of the responsibil ity which they bear. Some indeed go
on to Oxford and Cambridge; a few take the Greats of History school
there, and with minds already hardened, commonly use their new found
knowledge to make a brilliant defence of an inherited point of view,
instead of relentlessly forging out a point of view for themselves in the
light of truth. But many have no University course before them; they
go straight into a chosen business or profession, and without the
equipment which would enable them to sift evidence and see through
shams, rely for their knowledge of affairs on the partisan notions which
the reader of only one newspaper inevitably acquires. It will, no doubt,
be said that the whole manner of life at a Public School in itself
constitutes a political training, and that the mind is habituated by
environment to good citizenship. As a matter of fact, the habit of mind
produced is at rare worst that of the brutal tyrant, at best that of the
perfect ruler. The crying need of the world to-day is neither for bullies
nor for governors, but for a race of men who, equipped with knowledge,
imagination, and constructive skill, will be able to build a new national
and international order of which th e foundation is reverence for
personality and the keystone brotherhood.
We lay ourselves open here, no doubt, to the formal charge of
begging the formal charge of begging the question. 'Socialism will be
the salvation of the World: therefore preach Socialism in the Public
Schools.' Provided that the exploded State variety is not meant, we plead

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The Political Principle 23

guilty to a belief in the first half of the proposition. 13ut "c do not say
·Preach Socialism'; '~say 'Teach Politics.' .It• is only necessary that
the vital issues should be honestly raised; the young and free mind may
be confidently reckoned on to do the rest. Or so at least those will think
who believe on the one hand in the original virtue of the unspoiled
intelligence, and one the other, in the inhere:1t righteousness of their
own cause. It is not propaganda that is desired, but the creation to
thought on the debatable question; and although brilliant men will
always be found who adhere to the Tory position, no man of honour
could find it desirable that this position should be accepted without
thought and without understanding. If the Conservative principle is
ultimately moral, Tories will have nothing to tear form the presentation
of arguments for and against: if its acceptance is due to ignorance,
selfishness, or mental and spiritual lethargy, they had better cast aside
their Toryism and save their souls.
It is not, however, as an agent of democracy that the study of
Politics is chiefly urged, but as a unique educational instrument. The
word is used, of course. in the good Greek sense, so as to include History
and cover the whole life of man in society. Ethics are of its essence,
nor indeed can metaphysics be separated from it. Here is a subject which
satisfies every possible criterion . It is intensely ' liberal' and yet strike
almost every boy as of great personal mtcrest and moment; the technique
necessary for its mastery is acquired pari passu with knowledge of its
subject matter; and its adoption would put an end once for all to that
hateful divorce of school work from the realities of life which makes
so many class-rooms little hells of boredom. The inexi>erienced layman
may urge that such meat is too strong for the ' immature' mind. A lot
of nonsense is talked on this subject. The boy of from seventeen to
nineteen is perfectly capable of understanding the connection between
capital and diplomacy in the nineteenth century, of criticising Plato's
republic, and of forming a judgment as to the respective merits of
Christian and Nietzhean ethics; and very much younger boys can grasp
the meaning of social and ethical princi~J ies when expressed in their
simplest forms. Even economics, which grown men find so boring,
exercise over many boys an intense fascination (in which respect they
ma} be usefully compared with pure mathematics), for they give an
attractive insight into the working of one part of the world's machinery.
It will be well to meet at this point three objections which will be
raised. The first and most serious is concerned with the pure theory of

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24 Modern Methods a/Teaching Political Science

pedagogics. The true aim of education, it is often said, is to discipline

the mind. Accord ingly, subjects must be chosen which are distasteful
to the pupil, so that, being compelled to work his way through them,
he may acqu ire a certai n unswerving sternness of intellect that will fit
him for the battle of life. Latin grammar is to be learnt, not in spite,
but by reason of its upleasantness. A more suicidal policy could not well
be imagined. It is not questioned that a fine intelligence can ra rely
emerge save from continual conflict with difficulties. But in no
conceivable sense can it be called more ' difficult' for a boy to master,
say, the eccentricities of Homeric grammar th an to understand the
meaning of shelley's Prometheus Unbound or criticise the ideas of the
Sophists. By compelling him (in so far as compulsion is possible) to
get through an unsa'loury task, you produce at best a highly efficient
intellectual slave, calculated to perform unquestioningly the allotted ta~k,
and at worst a man hopelessly bored with things of the mind; but by
creating such an atmosphere that the boy wi ll leap at difficulties of his
own free will and grapple with them till he solve them because for his
own sake he dare not let them go, you produce a master, instinct with
intellectual joy and passion. Save in the rarest cases of intense mental
vitality on the part of alike of t.:acher and puil, this atmosphere cannot
be created by the teaching of tedious subjects.
The second objection is of a more practical nature. One of the
commonest ways of checking progress is to suggest that a particular
reform is highly admirable, but must come from some other quarter first.
Everything depcn~s on eve1ything else, and so the vicious circle remains
unbroken. Here it is the Un iversities that are the difficulty. Many boys
on the classical side of a Public School try for scholarships at Oxford
or Cambridge, and are entered by their parents with this object; and it
would be fata l to compromise their chances. It may be answered that,
in the first place, the Universities will certainly make no move until
pressure is put on them from below; and secondly that the surest way
to get a scholarship even now, at any rate at Oxford, is to write a good
essay and general paper. Few colleges can resist the lure of a probable
first in Greats. Without desiring to underestimate the difficulties here
involved and the necessity for proceeding warily, one may say with some
confidence that pressure from a number of schools, combined with the
movement of opinion effected by the war, might well result in making
abi li ty in elementary Greats work the chief criterion both for admission
to the Universities and for scholarships.

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The Political Principle 25

The third and final objection is that contained in the old

reactionary cry against all advance-it is not ' Practical. ' At one of the
old Public Schools several experiments have during the last two years
been successively made, which go far to show that this particular refonn
is not only practical but in practice works. As far as the classical sixth
is concerned, a beginning was made by impressing many of the ordinary
classical hour, and using them (as is no doubt the practice in many
schools) for lectures on various aspects of Greek life- the development
of religi >us and philosophic thought, the history of the drama. and the
like. Meanwhile the weekly essay hour was expanded, and used as a
vehicle for the discussion of current political problems. Interest in
Politics and Sociology steadily grew; and eventually a ' Politics Class'
was established for older boys from every part of the school. In the
meantime the work of the Classical Sixth was being extended to include
such subjects as political Science and Elementary Economics. Finally,
th movement of intellectual interest and excitement produced by these
refonns culminated in the publication of a serious political and literary
review, founded, edited, and writer by boys. These things are described
in detail in our third chapter.
The greater difficulty, no doubt, arises when one passes from such
experime.1ts as._.!Jese to the task of evolving a curriculum suitable for
every successive stage in the school a curriculum at once simple and
vitally interesting. It is obvious that a detailed scheme, if it is to be of
any value, must gradually issue from a careful consideration of results.
But experience of essay work with small boys shows one thing to be
certain: that it is not by any thing to be certain: that it is not by any
means beyond the power of human ingenuity to adapt political education
to the needs of junior fonns, in such a way as to make it far more
stim ulation than any fare which is provided for them at present. To tell
a boy to describe a tea-party (a practice still curiously favoured in the
low fonns of many well-known schools) is to lead him nowhere, except
possibly to a pitying contempt of schoolmasters; but to make him think
about liberty and discipline (or even the Christianity which few men
dare to face) is to do something towards producing neither a dullard
nor a prig, but a intelligent citizen of his country and the world. The
trouble with most men in not that they are brainless, but that they have
been so ha_bituated from early youth to apply their brains only to one or
two particular spheres-literature, miuhematics, science, or their future
profession-.that when they come to maturity politics are the natural
object ofthoi,Jghtlessness and prejudice. The sooner a boy learns to apply

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26 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

his thought directly to the affai rs of the world and the principles which
should govern them, the better for him and his fellows. Even without
any change of curriculum, a great deal may be done by revised methods
of teaching. It is the fashion to treat of most subjects from the
antiquarian point of view; in the vast majority of cases they can, and
should be taught from the political.
The place of Classics in a reformed time-table affords on difficulty.
As soon as a boy comes to a public school any master of reasonable
ability can tell whether he has or is likely to develop any aptitude for
the subject. If he has, he should be placed in a classical 'set,' to divide
his time between it and the ordinary form work; if he has not, it is
grotesque that he should be coerced into a meaning less and soul-
destroying grind. Sets should be weeded out terminally, as it became
apparent that particular boys were deriving no further benefit from this
part of their work; and at the top of the school there should be a small
special classical form, corresponding to the present History special
(which would then, in its remodelled shape, become the regular Upp:r
sixth). But even these maturer specialists should devote many hours to
the subjects studied by the ordinary rank and file. In this way any boy
whose mind would develop best under the stimulus of the. more literary
side of classical education, would have the chance of becoming a sound
scholar. No doubt the time given to other subjects would prevent him
from writing verses with the elegance of a Munro: possible this last
refinement will have its place again when a new social system, brought
into being through political education, has made the enjoyment of more
normal literature possible for all.

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 The Political Method

In the previous chapter we suggested that Classics, in spite of its man y

merits, was doomed as the basis of a liberal education. We suggested
Politics as its rightful successor, and put forward our general arguments
in favour of this suggestion. But we were mainly concerned in that
chapter with general principles. In speaking of the curriculum, we
contented ourselves with saying that a great deal might be done by
revised methods of teaching, which would treat subjects already figuring
on the orthodox time-table in a political rather than an antiquarian spirit.
The aim of the present chapter is to expand that suggestion, taking in
tum four subjects- Classics. History, English Literature and Divinity.

I. CLASSICS
Classics owes its place in our time table to the Renascence, and it is
worth while going back for a moment to the history of that movement,
in order to discover what the Renascence scholars and schoolmasters
really meant by ·c lassics' and what they sought to get out of it. The
home of the movement was the city states of fourteenth and fifteenth
century Italy. These cities had achieved a virtual independence, and their
very existence and their whole organisation were a standing protest
against the theocratic and feudal ideas on which the medieval world
was based. In classical Greece they discovered a far away world that
had been apparently all that they themselves wished to be. Men studied
and taught Greek that they and their pupils might become not merely
scholars but ' Grecians.' Pericles, Plato, Phidias, and the rest were
studied not merely as the masters of an old world but the models for a
new one. In fine. Renascence 'Classics' was fundamentally political.

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28 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

Of this great movement much came. Florence produced its

Lorenzo, a new Pericles; its Machiavelli, a new Plato; its Michelangelo,
a new Phidias; and a score of othe rs. But the new Greece was as
tran:;itory as the old. Philip of Hapsburg and his father played the part '
of extinguisher far more completely than Philip of Macedon and his
son. For an imitation never has quite the vitality of its model. Meanwhile
' Greece crossed the Alps' as the old saying was, and entered larger and
less intense societies, to which the real life of ancient Athens was some-
thing infinitely more remote. The new learning ceased to be political
and became antiquarian and purely literary. Politics moved into other
channels-Calvinism, Jesuitism, Ocean trade. But the school-master had
got hold of his text-books an he ~tuck to them. l.lte nineteenth century
antiquarian classics of the school stand in outline already before us; -
the minute reading of traditional test, selected for style more than maner
(Plutarch, for example, one of the biggest influ ences of the real
Renascence, is rejected by the ' antiquarians' because he wrote late
Ureek), the cult of composition, and the perfunctory study of superficial
history crowded into a spare hour.
What we want, then, is not to repudiate the ideal of the Renascence
but to return to it. The root of the Classics is the life of the Classical
peoples. Their literature is of value as the embodiment of that life. Their
languages are of value as the keys to that literature. Detailed imitation
of the city state is of course not for us, any more than detailed imitation
of Aeschlus is to be recommended to our theatres or our churches,
whichever of the two should chance to claim him. But in politics, art,
and re ligion, the Greeks and Romans raise nearly all the great problems
in their simplest forms. They are the sc hool-masters of Europe, not
because they taught her Greek grammar and Ciceronian prose, but
because they taught her politics, and it is for this that we shall have to
go to them, even if we no longer go to them for their grammar and
the ir prose.
To descend now to practical detail:- it is to be assumed that all
public school-boys will come having learnt some Latin. Those who are
proficient will have learnt some Greek. Those few whose real bent seems
to lie in the direction of these languages will continue to study them,
and they, of course, will get far more from Classics than their less gifted
fe llows. Even in the matter of studying the languages there are degrees.
There are many who can get some distance in translation into English,
who wi ll get no real profit from composition, after the very early stages

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The Political Method 29

are past. Others can get much from general read ing assisted by 'cribs.'
who will get nothing from a detailed and intensive study which
emphasises points of style. But let us take the case of the boy whose
Classics are what the present-day Classical master calls 'hopeless.' This
boy is often a really vital personality, a keen student of the great poets
and an ' authority' on Man and Superman and God the Invisible King.
Have Thucydides and Plato no message for him, even though it be in
the language of Jowett? and Euripides, in the verse of Gil bert Murray?
(Would that we had other classical poets translated with the same
courageous freedom). Our only attempt to teach him 'C lassics without
tears ' -without syntax and accidence-has been in Greek and Roman
History. But what history! a maze of niggling military details and
diplomatic dishonesties, histories where Lysander occupies five times
as much space as Socrates, and Marius fifteen times as much space as
Lucretius. What is wanted is not 'politics' in this worst of senses but a
study of Greek and Roman polity. Even in the narrower sense of
' politics,' interest has been killed by anti-quarianism. One of the present
writers happened to wish to interest a good classical sixth fom1 boy in
the British Empire, an handed him The commonwealth of Nations. The
first chapter, it will be remembered, is wholl y devoted to Greece and
Rome, tracing the Athenian. MaC'cdonian, and Roman cxpcrir.1ents in
Imperialism as a prelude to the study of the British. One reaching the
end of that long chapter, the boy remarked, ' I never dreamt that Greek
and Romau history were so wildly interesting.' What we want is Greek
history on these lines, and Roman history, especially history of the
Roman Empire (at present almost entirely neglected to make room for
Brennus and Camillus), treated on the lines of Lord Cromer' s Ancient
and Modern Imperialism.

2. HISTORY
History, other than Classical History, is a comparatively new subject in
our time-table, but (as is not the case with other new subjects such as
the natural sciences) its teaching has been mainly in the hands of
classical masters, imbued with the antiquarian rather than the political
spirit. Just as in Roman history we have been very zealous to begin at
the begin ning but not at all zealous to get to the end, to mark out in
broad outline the general contribution of the Roman Empire to modem
civilisation, so in English history we arc much more conscientious in
our study of the growth of the Manor than in our study of the growth

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30 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

of the Trade Union. For a thousand boys who could ' write a short note'
on Surajah Dowlah, there will not will not be found one who has even
heard of Mr. Gokhale. The present writer teaches on a three years
syllabus of English History. He gives his entire third year to the French
Revolution and after, carrying down to 1914 with a scramble. But he is
uneasily conscious of the whole thing as a long meandering tale,
interesting by fragments perhaps, but essentially in vertebrate, pointless,
signifying nothing. Not doubt the knowledge gained, in so far as it is
gained, has a bigger cultural value than the knowledge of Greek and
Latin grammar. Mere disconnected items of knowledge as to the why
and the when of Anselm, WyclifTe, 3wift, and Burke is something. But
can we do nothing more than that?
History, Hke every other really educational subject, should teach
the pupil to think,-and to think about politics. History is past politics:
Politics is contemporary history. We want to make our boys envisage
the problems that confronted bygone statesmen, to see how these
problems arose, to deduce what attitude towards them arose, to deduce
what attitude towards them statesmen of this or that school would be
likely to take up, to verify the fact that they actually did or did not take
up the attitude deduced, to attempt to forecast what consequences would
follow from the pursuit of this or that policy, to discover why one policy
or party made its views prevail rather than another, to verify from the
facts that t11e consequences of this policy, as deduced, did (or, again,
did not) follow. And if not, why not? The first step, then, in 'political'
history teaching is an exercise of the imagination. Instead of focusing
ou r antiquarian spy-glass, we must get ourselves back in imagination
into the period we are dealing with. There are various devices for doing
th is. Get the boys to construct a dialogue between two or three leading
actors in the period, carefully dating the dialogue of course, and
encouraging the attempt at ' forecasts, ' intelligent but inevitably
inaccurate as such will be. Another plan is to get the boys to compose
a speech for a famous statesman in defence of a piece of policy,
Cromwell, for instance, introducing the idea of the New Model Army
in the Long Parliament. Much is often said, and rightly, of the value of
'sources'. the stimulus boys will get from being introduced to
contemporary documents, such as, in th is case, the three preserved
fragments of Cromwell's speeches on the subject. In our opinion it is
even more important that they should write a speech for Cromwell than
that they should read Cromwell's speech. In any case, Cromwell' s

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The Political Method 31

authentic speech will have a far greater value when the real article can
be set beside two dozen home-made imitations.
But the best device we know of is 'the Newspaper.' You begin by
assuming that our present day press, with its telegraphic news, existed
at the period in question. It is then necessary to give some idea of the
composition of a newspaper, and in days like these when democracy is
being throttled by a pseudo-democratic capitalist press, no lesson could
be more salutary. The ordinary middle-form boy hardly realises, till the
matter is put to him, in any newspaper there are, apart from
advertisements, two distinct parts, news and comment; that the latter
is a sem1on on the text of the former; that the object of th·e sermon is
to tell the public what to think about the text; that the text selected is
that which will, from the point of view ofthe policy of the paper, make
the best sermon. Then take an event, say the publication of the Treaty
of Amiens or the attempted a rest of the Five Members of the Long
Parliament and consider the production of the next day's morning
pepper. It is most important to fix the name of your pear, for the name
will indicate its policy and so the character of its leading article. Is it
to be 'The Puritan Times,' supporting Pym; or ' The Constitutional
Gazette' supporting Hyde; or 'The Throne and Sceptre' Standing for
Divine Right? If time allowed it would be no bad exercise to get the
form to compose the leading articles for all these three journals.
So much for political treatment of the past. But the deepest
political interest of the problems of the past is the light they throw on
the present. Take, for example, that most unpromising tract of history,
the Hundred Years War. What is the traditional treatment of that
subject?' - causes of the war' analysed under five antiquarian headings,
followed by a good deal of unscientific and 'sp011ing' military history.
Not names are better known or more highly honoured than our victories:
none more obscure than our defeats except for the transient moment
when the career of Joan of Arc transfers our sentimental sympathies to
'the weaker side' . We were beaten of course, in the end, and the Jess
said about all that the better. Besides we are getting near the end of the
term, and there's still the Wars of the Roses to be done .... Before 1914
the present write was at loss to know what to make of this subject, surely
it is easier now. England was the first of the European peoples to obtain
a national consciousness and vitality. Nationalism overflows into
aggressive lmperialism-·Prussianism . Henry V. with his narrow
orthodoxy, his old baronial outlook, his worship of war, stands for our

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32 . Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

first and worst attack of the Prussian distemper. Orleans is like unto
Ypres. This leads us straight from the fifteenth to the twentieth century;
and the teacher will be take seriously, perhaps for the first time. The
Hundred Years War is no doubt and 'old unhappy far-off thing.' It can,
however, be used to apply the political warning-that Militarism was
heard of before the days of modern Germany, and that the disease is
still infectious.
The best problems of history are the problems that are still alive,
still current politics. That is why the relations of England and Ireland,
pushed into a comer by the antiquarian tradition, are such very vital
stuff for teaching. The constitution of 1782, which tried and failed, and
the constitution of 1914 which fortunately was not tried; the United
Irishmen and Sinn Fein; Tone and Casement; '98 and 'Easter Week' ;
the Union and the Convention;- these provide a most fascinating series
of parallels, the fascination lying in the fact, of course, that one series
is complete and the other (Nov. 1917) is not. To take another example,
what does antiquarianism make of the history of British India under
Warren Hastings?- the sad case of Nuncomar, Cheyte Singh, the
motives of Philip Francis (who may have been the author of the Letters
of' Junius,') and the rest of it. What matters here is that battle was then
first engaged between the more and the less decent conception of
Imperialism, and that, in spite of much blundering and injustice by the
way-injustice above all to Warren Hastings, who was a more
honourable man than any of his prosecutors, Burke included-the more
decent conception won the day. It matters little that boys should know
about Nuncomar; it matters much that they should know some of the
general principles of Imperialism, both as stated in an anti-Imperialism,
book like Mr. Brailsford's The War of Steel and Gold, an also as stated
in Mr. Curtis's The Commonwealth of Nations.
Take any period of history for a term's work and the vital parts
will usually be those that strike chords vibrating in sympathy with living
political issues, and what these parts will be varies curiously from year
to year. Our three years' cycle aforementioned brought us to the middle
of the eighteenth century in the summer of 1914, and again in the
summer of 1917. In the summer of 1914 Mr. Asquith's government was
confronted with the lrish problem. Should they force upon Ireland at
the point of the sword a policy they believed in? Walpole's Excise
scheme raised much the same ethical issue. In 191 1, so far as I
remember, the Peerage Bill was a leading feature! But in 1917, nothing

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The Political Method 33

much mattered till we had got to the great wars, and the parallels of
Chatham, Chamberlain and Lloyd George.
We incline to think that in an ideal scheme history would be no
longer taught by 'periods' but by 'subjects' ; and the subjects would not
be mapped out in advance in a rigid syllabus, but chosen each term (or
for convenience. at the end of the preceding term), on grounds of
political suitability. Probably most history teachers, when schools
reassembled in September 1914, forsook the traditional round if only
for a week or two, and delivered themselves upon the causes of the war
as then understood. They were entirely right, and what was the exception
ought perhaps to be the rule. Here two difficulties arise. All sense of
continuity will be lost, says the critic; and again, where will you get
your text-books? The only answer I can find is to suggest that side by
side with such teaching of 'subjects,' there should be carried on from
term to term a brief out-line of English History, with a text-book. For
the special subjects no text-books would be needed. Indeed at present
the text-book is the enemy rather than the friend of history teaching as
the present writers understand it.

3. ENGLISH LITERATURE
There is an old story to the effect that some one once tried to evoke
Mr. Balfour's indignation by bringing to his notice the fact that no
English Literature was taught in our Public· Schools. 'Then thank
goodness' , said Mr. Balfour, ' that on that subject at least the
schoolmaster has not yet laid his blighting hand!' But that was long
ago, and to-day English Literature is as well established in the time-
table as English History. and there could be no more singular example
of the influence of the Classical tradition on the teaching of a new
subject. Classical texts are edited for school use with notes and
introductions; therefore English texts have been treated in the same
manner. Classical texts, for the ordinary boy, are difficult and require
detatled verbal study; therefore in English texts difficulties must be
cultivated and obtruded. The pace is slowed down for the sake of
comment, and the most abstruse (which, incidentally, are generally the
worst) passages receive the fullest attention. But the only justification
of ' teaching' English Literature is to make the boys love it for
themselves. If we can only make them hate it. as we undoubtedly often
do, we had much better leave it alone. It is better that a boy should
never have read Paradise Lost and believe it to be grand and beautiful,

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34 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

than that he should be able to pass an examination in it, and consider

it ' awful rot. ' If the master spends a term over one book of it, sets
exacting preparations, and demands a knowledge of all Mr. Verity's
notes, the boy will regard it as 'awful rot.' And why should he not?
Under such a system it is more than likely that he will never 'hear' the
poetry at all. But if the master provides a plain text, bearing no
resemblance to a school book, gets through the whole epic in a tenn,
by the device of cutting out about half of it, leaving the poetry to make,
for the most part, its own appeal by means of the best available reading
aloud, his won, presumably, and that of the more capable members of
the fonn, then the boy will very likely think quite otherwise. He has
been known, in fact of take it home tor the holidays, and not only re-
read it but make his obedient parents do the like!
I select Paradise Lost because it generally passes for a somewhat
frigid and inhuman masterpiece. As a matter of fact, it is a good class-
room book. The story is amusing, the imagery simple and concrete, and
the music of the verse indestructibly magnificent. There is, on the other
hand, much poetry, especially lyric poetry, that must be handled very
cautiously in the class-room. Once create the impression that 'work' is
afoot, and you will probably do more hann th11n good. In the case of
the responsive boy more English Literature can be taught out of the
class-room tan ever will be taught inside it. But we think every boy
should have a volume of Lyric Poetry with him in school now and then,
for use in odd half hours when sterner subjects pall. Let the reading o·f
Shelley, Rupert Brooke, or whom you will be an act of truancy on the
part of master and fonn alike. That is perhaps the nearest way to the
sympathetic atmosphere. And let the boys, as soon as they know a little,
choose their authors and pieces, in part at least, for themselves.
The classical tradition shows its character most strongly, however,
in the timidity with which it clings to standard authors of the past, to
'classics' as we call them in the looser sense. These writers are 'safe.'
If they are not, they can be expurgated. They raise no controversial
questions, or if they do, as is more probable, they raise them in an
obsolete fonn, such as no longer cries out for an answer. Also, being
written for a bygone generation, they abound in those easy 'difficulties'
allusions requiring historical explanation, obsolete words, and the like,
which are the opportunity of the pedant and the burden of the boy. We
would say nothing against Shakespeare. He wrote what are perhaps the
very best school-books in the world. and the best school edition is The

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The Political Method 35

Temple Shakespeare, which was made for the drawing room, not the
class-room, and where the notes are insignificant and can be ignored.
We would say nothing against Shakespeare, but we would say a great
deal in favour of Bernard Shaw. Shaw himself once raised the question
'Better th an Shakespeare?' Well, in some respects, from the
schoolmaster's point of view, he is not as good, of course; but in others
he is better, beyond a doubt. More boys will really l!njoy him. There is
no better training in quick-wittedness than one of Shaw' s plays, read
in pan s of course. with the minimum of comment between the acts.
Shakespeare exalts the tragic passions, and we may be thankful that
not all boys can enter very fully into these. For many boys above the
middle of the school, Macbeth will be wonderful poetry and wonderful
melodrama, but hardly more. Shaw exalts quick-wittedness, open-
m indedness, humour, and generosity. The average boy can understand
these qualities, and he is not likely to err by excess of any of them; so
he can learn much from ' The Waiter' in t'ou Never Can Tell, from
Caesar, Dick Dudgeon, Lady Cicely, and, as he grows older, from Peter
Keegan and Blanco Posnet. The modem school of drama, if we omit
the obviously unsuitable play- for some are quite unsuit<!d to middle
forms, though hardly any to sixth forms-supplies material for really
vital Eng lish Literature work in school. And when boys have read a
play or two in school, they will go back to their houses and form
' Literary Societies' and meet in a ~tudy on Saturday nights to read more
plays for themselves, assisted by lemonade and ginger breads. When
this has happened the schoolmaster may recall Mr. Balfour' s reproach
with withers unwrung.
We have said nothing of politics in this section, and it is plain
that in the matter of English Literature politics will only come in by
the way. Still, there is no better introduction to modem labour problems
than Mr. Galsworthy's play Strife, and that because it is not a piece of
Socialist propaganda but a concrete presentation, aloof yet pass ionate,
of a problem seemingly insoluble. As a Head-master once said when
presiding at a school prize-giving, to only questions worth asking are
those which cannot get a definite answer. And other plays ask other
questions equally well worth asking.

4. DIVINITY
In dealing with English Literature, we only touched on politics by the
way, but here we are at th e very centre of them again . For the

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36 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

fundamental question in all politics to-day is, are we going to apply

Christianity to social and international problems or are we not? It is
the ignoring of that question that has brought the Church, and with it
school ' Divinity', into its present sad state.
The difficulty here has not been the Classical tradition but the
Protestant tradition. When Northern Europe broke the fetters of
priestcraft, it set up the Bible in place of the Church as the source of
infallible authority. Much was gained; but much was lost. For a church
can live, and grow better, just as it can grow worse. But the Bible is
fmished and complete. For school purposes, ' Divinity' and ' Bible-work'
have come to be almost interchangeable tenns.
Now ' God moves in a mysterious way', and for the plain man
that is usually equiva lent to saying that he does not ' move' at all. The
problem of miracles reveals our difficulty in an acute fonn. The Catholic
tradition accepts the continuity of miracles in the Church through the
ages of the saints and down to to-day; and this tradition unquestionably
has its seamy side. It is conceivable that at some future date a modem
Christianity will reject all miracles from the gospel narrative as
decisively as Christian opinion to-day rejects the story of Jonah. But
these things are not yet. Meanwhile our Protestant tradition accepts as
a whole the Biblical miracles and rejects as a whole all reputed miracles
of later date. In face of this fact, no amount of teaching to the contrary
will convjnce the ordinary boy that in the Bible we have a picture of
how God works in the world to-day. To him the whole thing is irrelevant,
and a religion based on the Bible alone is a religion out of touch with
the modem world.
Of course, the Bible must have a very important place in the new
'Divinity' teach ing, as we conceive it. But room must be left for other
and more modern things, for 'the growth of Christianity and its
influence on the World.' 'Church History' in the common acceptation
ofthe tenn, we would not encourage. Much of the history of the Church,
with its theological dissensions and political sins, is far from edifying
and quite as remote from modem religion as Gideon and Jehu. What
we want taught is not so much the history of the Church as an
institution, for as an institution it has seldom been Christian. We are
thinking of Christianity as an idea, constantly asserting the mind of man
throughout the ages and engendering in him as explosive and rebellious
energy which has refashioned society here or there for the time. The

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1'l1e Political Method 37

only experiment hitherto made in this direction of which we know was

undertaken with The Evangelical Movement by G.R. Balleine as text-
book. It was a great success. Here was a body of men, the early friends
of Wisely, living in the cold daylight of Walpole' s England, who yet
knew the spiritual glories and terrors of the disciples of the first century.
But that is the least important part of the matter. Out of these ecstacies
grew and broadened a movement that first created the modern
conct:ption of the devoted parish parish; and finally, rising to national
politics, abolished the Slave Trade and started Factory Reform. ll1is is
clearly only one among many possible subjects. The Franciscan
movement might be treated in the same way. But it is still more
important that 'Divinity' should come down to the present day, and
boldly grapple with the relations of Christianity to Capitalism, and
Imperialism and War. Christian believers in the rightness of all three
modem institutions would presumably have no fear of the results of such
study. To take a concrete example, it seems to us absurd that school
'Divinity' has never made an attempt to state the case for and against
the conscientious objector. Every ordinary boy despises the C.O., but is
totally unable to answer the simplest and crudest statement of the C.O.'s
case, except by the method of repudiating Christianity as a guide to
conduct, a course he adopts with distressing lightheartedness. This
should surely not be so.
A common objection to suggestions of this sort is that they are
dangerous; they will shake the boy's faith. And here we might quote a
couplet from In Memoriam about 'half the creeds', were it not altogether
too hackneyed. For the merits of the case tum on the question, what
faith shall we be shaking? Is it a lively and an active faith, taking Christ
as the pattern of mankind, and judging every problem of school life by
the standard of His gospel? Such a faith need not fear any such teaching
as is here suggested. It will not be shaken but confirmed. What will be
shaken, and one hopes fatally shaken, is the lazy inconsistency of the
conventional attitude of mind that pays a lip-service to Christianity and
ignore it in every moment of life. But what outside persons hardly
realise, perhaps, is that this convention is already shaken to its
foundations. It is not for nothing that the National Mission cried aloud.
The Church is a failure! ' That part at least of its message has not fa llen
on deaf ears. Crude criticism of a sort is common among the abler boys
themselves, and in so far as this criticism is undesirable, the cure for it
is in honest teaching and not in the silence of hypocrisy.

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38 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

We have said little or nothing on the actual treatment of the Bible

in those ' Divinity' lessons which are still retained for ' Bible teaching.'
And here we must distinguish between the Testaments. The O ld
Testament, wrongly treated, has in the past been the worst enemy of
Christian ity. But it remains the greatest thing in our literature, greater
than Shakespeare, not so much as pure achievement but as a popular
heritage. The worst thing to do with the Old Testament is to put it on
the shelf and substitute an 'Old Testament History' book in the dialect
of the Daily Telgraph. The Old Testament should be treated as great
literature, as the storehouse of our national folk-lore; for such it is. Alone
among books it is for us what Ho~er was for the Athenians. Some of
the best books Job, for instance, and a selection for Isaiah, can be made
a success in school with a good deal of general comment. Others can
be read in large stretches with very little comment indeed. We honour
the Bible, presumably, above all other books, but we treat it much worse.
What should we make of Shakespeare of Scott if we read them almost
exclusively in fragments of a page or a paragraph? A form can easily
read half a book of Samuel or Kings at a siting, and arise from the
undertaking quite astonished by the interest of the narrative.
When we approach the New Testament we are on more difficult
ground. We would press only two points. In the first place, we would
emphasise all that part of Christ's teaching which is most directly
applicable to modem social problems; his attitude to wealth and poverty,
his attitude to justice and revenge, his attitude to Pharisees and
Pubfjcans. In the second place, we hold that the writers of the Epistles
are not the only available commentators on the Gospels, nor, for middle-
form purposes, necessarily the best. A middle form will get less from
the Epistle to the Romans than from Donald Hankey's little book, The
Lord of all Good Life.
Before leaving the subjects dealt with in this chapter, we would
meet one general criticism. ' Much of what you suggest,' we can imagine
a friendly reader saying, 'is sensible enough; but who will you get to
teach these things? The schoolmaster, as we know him, could not do
it, even if he wanted to,-even if he were ordered to.' Now, parts of
what we describe above are already practiced, inadequately enough, no
doubt. But much is still in the sphere of the ideal, and so the criticism
must be met, and we would meet it as follows.
The difficulties in the way of adequate teaching on the lines we
suggest are admittedly great, but they are far from insuperable. They

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The Political Method 39

are due to bad organisation of teaching, as much as to natural defects

of individual schoolmasters. Of course, the schoolmaster as a rule is
no genius. Geniuses are not common in any walk of life, not even where
four and five-figure incomes prevail. It is no use crying to the moon
for geniuses. But an immense amount could be done to raise the standard
of the teaching of any existing staff, simply by organised co-operation.
No profession is so insanely individualistic in its methods as ours. The
young master comes, as a rule untrained: he is given his time-table and
sets to work according to his lights. He gets no systematic inspection
form the head of his department; he has no arranged opportunities for
watching the teaching of his colleagues, and thus learning to avoid faults
copy good points. and generally co-ordinate his methods with theirs;
finally, there are no regular 'committees' of the masters teaching a
particular subject, for the discussion of methods and aims. The very last
thing a 'Masters' Meeting' of the whole staff discusses is teaching. With
such a system or lack of system, efficiency could only be a glorious
accident. It will only be after real co-operation has been tried that the
possibilities of our despised profession can fairly be estimated.

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 Two Experiments in Teaching
Political Science

What follows is a plain history of nvo practical experiments which we

have been permitted to make. We call them experiments, for the earlier
of them is at the time of writing only just a year old. They are all thriving
with tbe vigour of youth, and we like to th ink of them as permanent
institutions. But they sill await the test of time, always a severe test in
a school; for schoolboys, in spite of their traditional conservatism, are
not unlike St Paul' s Athenians, and 'some new thing' provided it is
not palpably absurd, has all the attractions of a new toy.
The present chapter is placed third, for that seems its logical
position; but as a matter of history it should no doubt have come first.
In the practical business of life, things seldom arrange themselves
according to the pattern of deductive logic. Had we been deductive
machines, we should no doubt have begun by evolving from our inner
consciousness the general theory of 'political education,' and then asked
permission to put it into practice. As a matter of fact, it is largely the
working of the following experiments, arising haphazard to suit the
needs of the moment, that has led us to overhaul our educational ideas
and find the theory that fitted our practice. Such a line of development
is often described as ' typically English.' Probably it is typically human.

l. THE POLITICS CLASS

Towards the end of the autumn term I 916, a demand arose for some
systematic teaching on questions of the day. In the world at large, the
indefinite prolongation of the war was bringing home to all thoughtful

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Two Experiments in Teaching Political Science 4f

people the fact that ' reconstmction' was not a matter to be left till after
the war was over, as seemed natural in the earlier hopeful days.
Reconstmction, for good or for evil, tml y began with the beginning of
August 1914; it began when the war itself rendered an o ld order
obsolete. Reconstruction, in fact, was the problem of the world, and the
war was itself but a part of Reconstmction, or so at least it was hoped.
Just as the O.T.C. trained our members to fight for the creation of a
' new world,' so some institution was needed to train some of them at
least to t.hink intelligently about that creation. Some masters, no doubt,
had occasionally taken a holiday from Latin and Greek during school
hours, and discussed a particularly interesting morning's newspaper.
Such small beginnings created a demand for more both from master
and boy. Other boys, who did not hear these th ings discussed in the
class-room felt they were being defrauded of their rights. Th~: history
of Natural Science shows by many examples how inevitable discoveries
are simultaneously made by independent researchers. Such was the case
in our own small society. The week in which we first approached the
Headmaster with our plan brought a letter to the school magazine from
a boy, urging ' the authorities' to do just what they were at that very
moment considering.
The first difficulty was to find a school hour that could be spared
for the new subject, out of Classical Sixth time-table. Considering how
completely that time-table was turned inside out only six months later,
it seems ;trange in the retrospect that there should have been any
difficulty. But it was well that it was so. Had the difficulty not arisen,
the Politics Class as it now exists might never have come into being.
repulsed from ordinary school hours by the claims of Classics, the
Politics Class sought and found a space for itself on a half holiday
evening. And therein lay its opportunity. All that we had thought of
hitherto was the new use of a school hour for a particular form, the .
Classical Sixth with the addition of the History Specialists. somewhat
less than two dozen in all. But if the class was held on a half holiday
evening, it might be open to all that our largest cla5s-room would hold.
At the beginning of the Easter term 1917, a notice was sent round
inviting volunteers to join th class. Once under-taken membership was
to be compulsory for the term. The lectures were to last about an hour.
Members were to bring note-books. No evening ' prep' was officiall y
excused; members were left to make whatever arrangements, if any, their
taskmasters would consent to. Such was the offer. About thirty-dght

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42 Modem Methods of Teaching Political Science

applied, of whom we rejected half a dozen on the score of youth. In the

two following terms the membership was over forty, which was as many
as the class-room would comfortably hold.
The first lecture was devoted to a general survey of the problems,
Domestic, Imperial, and Foreign, that would lie within the scope of the
class. The second laid down fundamental principles, Freedom and
Fellowship, on which, it was suggested, all reconstruction ought to
proceed. Shortly after.vards the following quite unsolicited testimonial
from a boy's pen appeared as an 'editorial' in the school magazine.
"The positive purpose of tihe aristocratic educationists is to turn
out gentlemen," says Mr. Chesterton; adding, with characteristic
generosity, "and they do turn out gentlemen, even when they expel
them." These somewhat cynical words are followed by a statement as
to the supposed purpose of popu Jar educationists-nantely, to tum out
citizens. There can be no doubt as to which of the two is the nobler
ideal, and, unfortunately, there is hardly less doubt that the public
schools do to a large extent Jay themselves open to this unenviable
comparison.
'It is mainly the consideration of this defect in QUr public-school
system which has led to the formation in this school of a voluntary
"Politics Class." The main principles in the minds of those who are
managing this class are that since, in our present system of democracy,
virtually every man has a vote, each man ought to learn Politics as a
part of his education, so that he may be competent to bear his share of
responsibility as being an integral part of an Empire, the improvement
of whose organisation becomes daily more imperative.
' With this end in view, a series of weekly lectures on the main
problems-Home, Imperial, and lnternationa~f the day is attended
by the class, the object of the. lectures being not so much to advocate
any one particular remedy of any given problem as to lay before the
class the problems themselves and the principal reforms which have
been and are being suggested, so that our powers of thought and
uiticism may have full scope for exercise.
' We hope that this new enterprise will prove as great a success
as its first popularity would warrant. One general consideration.on the
,ubject suggests itself. It may be represented as the hope that members
ol the class will exercise "the long view." and realise that the new ideas
;h.; y receive. so far from being a pleasant and ephemeral diversion from

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Two Experimeflls in Teaching Political Science 43

the trivial round. do, in fact. constitute the genns of a permanent

interest, which can must be acted. upon all through life, in the many
difficulties, intensified or created by the War, that lie before the nation.'
It is always difficult for masters to get really candid criticism from
boys. As a rule they must proceed on the assumption that the test of
the puddin~ is in the eating. We have not heard much useful criticism
of the class. In the early days, some apparently expected rather more of
a Club and less of a class. The desks were a little hard; the class-room
atmosphere a little ungenial; note-books made it a little too like ordinary
work. It will be remembered that the Easter term in which the class
began was the coldest within the memory of the young, and our system
of radiators may be adequate but is hardly festive. This type of criticism
died down, apparently, when it was realised that if boys wanted to learn,
they must be taught, and if they wanted to remember, they must make
notes. Teaching, in fact, demands a class, and precludes a club. But a
class need not be lifeless, and indeed the Politics Class was not. The
best answer to the criticism was given by the critics themselves, when
they rejoined the next term.
Lectures have been given on the followi ng subjects: Introductory
(two lectures), Parliamentary Refomt (two lectures), Parliamentary
Refonn (two lectures), the Position of Women (three lectures), the Future
of the empire (three lectures), Trade Unions (one lecture), Individualism
and Co-operation in Industry (four lectures), the Organisation of Peace
and a League of Nations (three lectures), Conservatism (two lectures),
Liberalism (one lecture), Modern Ireland (three lectures), Alsace-
Lorraine (one lecture), the Russian Revolution (four lectures). Most of
them follow the same general plan. They start of on a basis of history,
mostly very recent history, and end on the verge of the future with a
note of interrogation.
This teaching of 'Politics' should not be confused with what in
one case at least has passed under the name of 'Civics.' This name wa
in vogue at Clifton ten years ago. and is, of course, employed in many
American schools. But so far as we know--and it is amazing how little
Public Schools know about each other- Civics has always meant ·the
study of institutions-cabinet government, parliamentary procedure,
local government. revenue and taxation, administration and justice,
elementary legal principles and the like. Such knowledge is very
valuable, and the ordinary boy's ignorance of all these things is
grotesque. It reflects discredit, not on him, but on the educational system

Copynghled malcria
44 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science>

of which he is the victim. But the Politics Class has hardly touched on
these things, for at the moment, we believe, other matters are vastly
more important, namely the great ideas, the great movements, which
are battling for mastery in the world to-day- true and false conceptions
of Empire; Militarism and the idea of a League of Nations; Capitalism,
and Socialism; competition and co-operation. It is these to which we
have devoted our attention, treating of them sometimes in the abstract
and sometimes by the concrete examples furnished by contemporary
politics. These are the real living interests, and it is by treating of them
that one may hope to stir that enthusiasm for knowledge which, in the
young, is even more important than knowledge itself.
But contemporary politics, we have often been told, is dangerous
stuff to handle, especially in these days when any departure from
Northcliffian orthodoxy raises cries of ' Pacifism' and ' Bolo.' Well, there
perhaps are worse things than a little over-excitement about politics.
The alternat ive too often is not a generous tolerance but a stagnant
prejudice, that only appears good-natured because it is so stupid as to
th ink that nothing in the world can ever come to disturb it.
The present writers differ on several subjects in politics, but they
both belong to what can most easily described as the rad ical party. They
have tried, however, to remember that their work is to teach rather than
to preach, to raise questions rather than to solve them. Sometimes they
have been fain to admire their own self-control, when they have put
forward as ' alternative views,' side by side, what they hold to be truth
and what they hold to be falsehood. Home influence and the Daily Mai/
may be fairly counted on to redress the balance against the private
politics of the lecturers.
Before leaving the subject of the Politics Class, it may be worth
while indicating how far the work of the class is supported by work
done in the ordinary Sixth Form curriculum. This is the more worth
doing, in so far as many critics of Public Schools seem to base their
criticisms on recollections, possibly in themselves somewhat hazy, of
the school-work of a by-gone day. The Sixth Form time-table now
includes, in addition to classics, Political Science and Economics (three
hours), Modem History (two hours), Outlines of World History (one
hour). General Principles of Science (one hour). These classes are not
limited to the Classical Sixth and History Special Class, but contain
members of th e Modern Sixth. and specialists in Science and
Mathematics. The un ion of all the top classes of the school for the siUdy

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7\n; J::xperiments in Teaching Political Science 45

of certain general subjects seems to us valuable as a practical reminder

of the fact that, over and above all specialisation, these subjects are the
common concern of all educated men.
This is all to the good and we should ourselves be glad to see
certain further changes in the same direction. At present the classical
boy's work seems to fall too obviously into contrasted halves- modem
subjects on modem lines, and classics on antiquarian lines,-and there
is a real danger of interest in Classics being lost altogether. Now, it is
part of our argument that eventually Classics will vanish !Tom the time-
table of all older boys except a few specialists, but in the transitional
period some Classics will vanish from the time-table of all older boys
except a few specialists, but in the transitional period some Classics
must rein, and it is in the general educational interest a that all subjects
which are taught at all should be taught in a stimulating way. We should
welcome, therefrom the setting aside two or three hours a week for the
rapid reading of Classical literature with the help of 'cribs,' and also a
greatly extended system of lectures on various aspects of Classical
civilisation; the history of Greek religion, for example, the simplified
metaphysics of Plato and Aristotle, and the system of government in
the Roman Empire.

2. 'THE SCHOOL OBSERVER'

In the case of the Politics Class the initiative came from above. In the
case of the strange periodical about to be described, the initiative came
from a small group of boys. The School Observer can trace its origin
to two distinct sources. On the one hand, it was an attempt on the part
of boys to express in the form of an imitation of the best ' weekly'
journalism, their new-found interest in politics. On the other hand, it
was the heir of a very different paper, The Gadfly. The Gadfly was one
of a tribe well-known in schools and universities, a journalistic free-
lance. Its writers were not particularly occupied in 'observing' the world:
they observed each other,-and some of the masters. The keynote of its
prose and verse alike was a cheery vigorous impudence. This paper met
with the suppression it had long courted shortly before Easter 1917.
Early in the summer term, a sixth form boy, hereinafter referred to as
'the Editor,' conceived the plan of utilising the energy that had gone to
make The Gadfly, by turning it into the channels opened up by the
Pol itics Class. A committee of six soon got to work on the idea,
consisting of the Editor. who was the leading spirit throughout, our two

Copynqhled malcria
46 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

selves, and three boys, friends of the Editor. Of these, M. was an

accomplished classical scholar and historian; L. was a dainty man of
letters, whom compete indifference to the school curriculum had long
detained in the Middle Fifth; J. must be called a dual personality,-Dr.
Jekyll was a dreaming violinist, Mr. Hyde was the ex-editor of The
Gadfly, a man thoroughly proficient in all the lowest arts of commercial
journalism. His department was the advertisements, and it is the only
department that no one has ever ventured to criticise.
The paper was modelled on such weeklies as The Spectator and
The Nation. with the difference that it comes out twice a term instead
of once a week, and contains only about nine pages of print The tables
of contents of the first four nul:'lbers will give a fair idea of its character.
Vol., I. No. I June, 1917.

CONTENTS
Notes on Current Affairs.
• The School Observer.'
The Future of single Democracy. By J.D.H.
• Armenia lrredenta. By Z.M.
Prospects of Educational Reform.
Education and the Future. By B.W.L.
Voluntary Religion.
A Plea for Talk.
Poetry:-
The Reaping. By G.C.
To an Unknown God. By Z. M.
The Cinema. By X.
Review ofBooks: -
Lollingdon Downs. By John Masefield.
A Student in Arms. By Donald Hankey.
Sonia. By Stephen McKenna.
Vol. I. No.2 July, 1917

CONTENTS
Notes on Current Events.
Revolution. By Z.M.

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Two Experiments in Teaching Political Science 47

Public Schools after the War. By R.F.A.

Psychology and Politics, By D.A.R.
Sin. ByY.
' No annexations... ' By B.W.L.
* Taste. By R.L.H.
Oxford after the War.
Poetry:-
Warwickshire. By A.E.M.
Books Recommended for the Study of Contemporary
Affairs:-
!. The Military Situation.
II. The Internationa l Situation.
III. Reconstruction.
Reviews of Books:-
The Rhymes of a Red Cross Man. By Robert W. Service.
The National Being. By A.E.
Commemoration Sermon. By the Headmaster.
Vol. I. No.3. November, 1-917.

CONTENTS

Notes on Current Events.

* The Policy of 'State Your Terms.' By D.A.R.
Patriotism. By J.R.D.
Idealism and Education. By Z.M.
* The Best Life. By D.A.R.
The Church. The Question of Continuation. By G.A.F.B.
Poetry:-
Dawn by the Sea. By A.E.M.
Oxford, 19 14. By X.
The Young Dead. By D. MeL. I
Reviews ofbooks:-
The Making of Women. By Victor Gollancz.
Reviewed by D.C.S.
A Companion to Palgrave' s Golden Treasury. By David
Somcrvell. Reviewed by V.SG.
* God the Invisible king. By H. G. Wells. Reviewed by

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48 Modern Methods ofTeaching Political Science

D.A.R.
Correspondence.
Vol., I. No.4. December, 1917.

CONTENTS

Notes of Current Events.

Editorial: the Paper and its Critics.
• ' The Progress of Poesy.' By A.F.G.A.
Land Nationalisation. By D.A.R.
The British Army in the War: a Retrospect. By E.R.G.C.
Poetry:-
Beauty. By A.E.M.
Reviews of Books:-
The Loom of Youth. By Alec Waugh.
I. By a boy.
II. By an old boy.
Ill. By two masters.
A Short History of England. By G.K. Chesterton.
Correspondence.
The articles marked with an asterisk are reprinted in the Appendix.

The first number contained three articles by outsiders, and the boys
at first viewed that line of development with great enthusiasm. Some
of the leading men of letters of the day were about to be approached.
Mr. H.G. Wells was actually invited to contribute, and in his kindly letter
of refusal told us to 'go ahead and reform the world.' But the
Headmaster very wisely discouraged this line, and since the first number
all the articles but one, all the poems but one, most of the reviews, and
one-third of the notes on current events, have been the work either of
boys or old boys very recently left. It is sometimes assumed that the
articles have been extensively doctored by us. As a matter of fact the
best articles are virtually untouched. Some of those of less experienced
hands contain an occasio,tal sentence where the master's pen has pruned
or strengthened the style, or softened a crude expression of opinion. The
actual views of the contributors we have never tampered with. The only
case of such tampering was in a m~ter's contribution to the ' Notes on
Current Events' which was retumcd to him by the editor because he

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Two Experiments in Teaching Political Science 49

disapproved of its policy. The editor, in fact, was not a mar. to trifle
with.
After the appearance of the first two numbers, the editor left, and
so did M. and J. A new generation have taken their places and carry
on with the same enthusiasm. We are bound hy our contract with our
advertisers (a generous community to whom all gratitude is due) to
produce six issues. After that we hope to begin again with 'volume two.'
The Headmaster has now arranged that for the fifth and future issues
there are to be two editors and two editorials, presenting alternative
views of questions of the day. This change may well increase the interest
taken in the paper.
The business-like reader may already have begun wondering about
our finances. We sell at present something over three hundred copies
of each issue, and that just about suffices to pay our way. At the
beginning we were possessed with more glorious visions, and our
fabulous profits were going to found an annual prize ' for an English
essay on a subject of contemporary political importance.' The prize has
been founded, but most of the money for it has come from subscriptions,
the paper contributing a modest £3 17s. to make up a round sum.
The educational value of such a paper seems to us to be threefold;
for its readers, for its contributors, and for the body politic in which it
exists. The first two headings require little comment. Its va:ue for its
contributors is obvious an is clearly far greater than its value for its
readers. Still, it is likely enough that some boys have been led to think
seriously on some subject by an article written by a personal friend or
the head of their study, when they would have paid no attention to a
better article on the same subject emanating from Fleet Street. Its value
for the school as a whole is as a symbol of intellectual life. Intellectual
things suffer as compared with athletics owing to their lack of the
dramatic. A victory in a school match, the winning of a House cup are
dramatic events, and carry with them the legitimate pride of co-operative
effort. School work as a rule is all competitive and individual, and the
winning of a scholarship is a somewhat sordid·and mercenary triumph
after all. In the success of a paper such as this those who care at all for
the things of the mind can find a convenient symbol of a school's
intellectual vigour.

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 Training for Teaching
Political Science

I. Complaints are heard from all quarters of Lack of interest on the

part ofteachers in the practical problems of citizenship... Furthermore
they are everywhere found to be inadequately trained in this subject,
which is r.ot yet part of the educational tradition. To obtain results of
any kind from the teaching of civics it is necessary to get away from
routine and find new methodr; in the countries of Europe, teachers are
n<>t ready for this task.
Thus did the Council for Cultural Co-operation of the Council of
Europe draw attention in 1963 to the condition of the study of politics
at the level of teacher training. It was salutary, moreover, that the council
should have drawn attention to the obvious fact that an educational
programme can only be as good as the teachers that service it; and that
teachers are themselves the products of programmes of training. An
understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the present teaching
of Politics in schools and likely future developments must, consequently,
rest in some measure on a knowledge of teacher-training courses.
It is not easy, in fact, to find information about courses in the
training institutions~olleges of education and university departments
of education. A joint report was produced by the Association for
Education in Citizenship and the Association of Teachers in Training
Colleges and Departments of Education in 1948. However, although of
historical interest, it is now quite obsolete in its infonnation and frames
of reference. Printed syllabuses give an overall impression of what is
being taught, but in the most skeletal fonn. Because of these difficulties,

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Training for Teaching Political Science 51

the present writer undertook a partial survey in 1966-7 in order to

discover the kind of facilities that exist for the would-be teacher of
political topics, and the present chapter is based largely on the
information thus gleaned.
Before discussing the courses available at colleges and university
departments of education it will be convenient to distinguish the various
levels of work which these institutions provide. Courses of initial
training for teachers are the responsibility of university institutes of
education. Each university involved in this work has a university
department of education (UDE) engaged in postgraduate professional
training and educational research, and a group of colleges of education
which are constituent members of the institute. The initial course of
training provided by the UDEs, with few exceptions, of one-year
duration and is designed for students who already possess a university
degree. (A few college of education also run one-year postgraduate
courses on the same pattern as the UDE courses). Colleges of education,
on the other hand, combine both academic and professional education
for their students in courses which last for three years, or, for the more
able who proved to the BEd degree, for four years. Elements in the
college of education curriculum that are relevant to our present
discussion are of three main kinds. Firstly, some colleges mount courses
of a general nature, analogous-to ~he Liberal Studies courses in colleges
of further education. Secondly, there are the Main Subjects, the academic
hard-core of a student's course: students read one or two such subjects.
Finally, there are the Curriculum or Professional courses designed to
equip the students with specific professional techniques and expertise.
The institutional context of this survey is thus quite complex: in
particular the UDEs and colleges are not presented with identical tasks.
The work of the two kinds of institutions can be distinguished also by
the age and ability levels of the children they are preparing their students
to teach: colleges of education have agreed to concentrate on training
primary-school teachers, and only the so-called 'shortage subjects' (like
Mathematics and Religious Education) can be studied by those wishing
particularly to specialize in secondary teaching.
There is one final difficulty that needs to be expiained in these
preliminary remarks. This relates not to the particular functions of the
institutions we are studying, but rather to the nature and scope of Politics
as a discipline or as teaching material. For the purposes of this chapter
I should like to make a simple operational distinction between ' Political

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52 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

Studies', strictly defined as the study of political theory, behaviour and

institutions; and 'Political Subjects,' by which are meant History,
especially contemporary History, Political Geography and Social
Studies-subj<!cts likely to have a high political content and which may
be used to involve pupils in the process of political education in an
indirect way.
II. In surveying the courses available it will be convenient to start with
the relatively simple one-year postgraduate certificate courses. Our
main concern here is to discover how many graduates in Politics are
entering the teaching profession and what kind of professional
preparation they are being given Exact numbers are, in fact, virtually
impossible to calculate, since by no means all graduates entering
teaching undertake professional training, and also because so many
undergraduate courses. especially in the Social Sciences, are now for
combined rather than singleubject degrees. An investigation of the
records ofthe Graduate Teacher Training Registry revealed that during
the academic year /966-67 //4 students with politics ar an important
component in their degree course were pursuing training courses. (This
figure compares with 713 in History and I 78 in Economics.) It is
interesting to note that a third of this number (39) were pursuing their
courses at the only three UD£s that provided properly planned and
developed courses in Social Studies- namely, Aberystwyth, Leicester
and the Centra/Institute at London.
Since few graduates enter primary schools and only a limited
number of those taking posts in institutions of further education in
practice undertake professional training, it is fair to assume !hat the
bulk of these 114 graduates-in-training were planning to .teach in
secondary schools. A partial survey of a similar group of students
undertaken by the present writer showed indeed that three quarters (76
per cent) had this intention.
What facilities are available in the training institutions to prepare
these specialists for school work? Courses of a specialist nature
comparable with their undergraduate studies do not exist at all; whilst
in 1966 only one lecturer in all the UDEs was sufficiently interested in
politics as a discipline to be a member of the Political Studies
Association. It is therefore necessary to look at the work in the various
Political Subjects to find fragments of courses relevant to the present
discussion.

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Training for Teaching Political Science 53

Let us look first of all at courses in History- the subject

trad itionally most closely associated with political education.
Questionnaire retums from twenty-two tutors suggest that the teaching
of political matters is consider as an incidental part of may History
courses. 'A course of about 14 lectures on methods of teaching history
includes something on the political and modem aspects- not a great
deal,' was typical of the comments received. One tutor, however, showed
more initiative than most in this field: he wrote, ' Local and central
government have not as yet come within the scope of the course, but I
propose to add these to our studies this session. '
Geography tutors in UDEs also introduce political material-but,
as with History, such work is peripheral to the more general
considerations of Geography teaching. The most positive attitude that
emerged from the survey was revealed by the following comment: ' In
the course on the teaching of geography a discussion on syllabus includes
the suggestion that in selecting regions and topics for study those
currently of imponance should be included. The students are also trained
to funher one of the aims of geography teaching in school, that of
helping to produce educated citizens. They are also encouraged to set
up a current affairs board in the Geography room, relating items in the
news to their geographical setting.'
Such programmes of study are clearly of only minor value for
promoting effective teaching of Politics. Even so, it is imponant to
consider them, for courses in History and Geography are, at least, widely
available. In contrast, few UDEs provide courses in Social Studies or
similar cross-disciplinary approaches to teaching. One respondent
revealed panicular enterprise in th!is field, running various seminars-
in History, Social Sciences, and one very widely inter-disciplinary- all
of which contain a cenain political element. Apan from this university,
twelve other training institutions were listed by the Graduate Teacher
Training registry as providing Social Studies courses in 1966-7. Not
all these courses in fact operated. Those that did, appear to have given
rather more attention to political matters than did most History and
Geography courses, though still, inevitably, as minor segments of the
course. As noted above, it was three of these Social Studies courses that
at.racted such a large proponion of the Politics graduates pursuing
professional training. Since 1966 a few more institutions have started
courses in Social Studies, but there is no reason to believe that the basic

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54 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

picture has changed. Finally, in the specific field of International Affairs,

one must notice that London University has established an important
post in this field .
Attitudes of tutors involved in postgraduate training to the
question of the teaching of Politics appear to run the whole gamut from
fears of partizanship in the classroom, through advocacy of the indirect
approach via History and Geography, to concern for more effective and
positive teaching. This lack of a firm sense of direction is a reflection
of the complex school situation, and may go some way to explain the
wastefulness whereby quite large· numbers of graduates in Politics are
entering the teach:ng profession each year without the opportunity of
thinking through the most effective ways of teaching their subject in
the classroom.
The not inconsiderable flow of Politics graduates into the
secondary schools could well lead in the near future to the evolution of
a corps of teachers capable of introducing important changes in this
area of teaching; though their influence might be fairly narrowly
confined since most are likely to be mainly concerned with GCE work.
The great bulk of teachers are the products ofthe colleges of education;
and it is to their courses that we must not tum our attention.
Ill. The extensive use of History and Geography as media for political
education already noticed in the programmes ofpostgraduate training
is reflected also in college of education courses. The Table 5. I
constructed from printed syllabuses and questionP.aire returns in 1966,
is instructive. In 1960, the normal college course was extended from
two to three years; and there is some evidence, both from the
questionnaire survey and form investigations conducted by the
International Committee ofthe Association ofTeachers in Colleges and
Departments of Education and the Parliamentary Group for
Government, that Political Subjects and Studies have benefited from
this development. Courses in Recent World History particularly and in
sociology have been started since 1960 in a number of colleges. In one
college, admittedly an exception, courses in Sociology (with strong
political elements), Political Geography, American Studies and recent
World World History were all started in 1946-5. A handful of colleges
now have courses in area studies (American of European) and they may
l>ecome increasingly popular. One or two colleges are also introducing
International relations.

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Training for Teaching Political Science 55

Table 5.1
No. of References
Political Topics Printed
Syllabuses Questionnaires
Foreign History since 1945 81 19
Geographical Background to
World Affairs 41 7
Political Theory 31 + 7
Political Geography 31 7
Education of Democratic and/or
International Society 25 4
British History since 1945 22 6
British Government 17 5
Political Institutions 12 3
Political Behaviour 8 3

But in trying to provide an overall picture, the emphasis has been

placed squarely on academic, Main Subject, courses. Before dealing with
these in detail, it will be useful to survey other kinds of courses available
at colleges of education. Firstly, the broad foundation or background
courses: some of these are general courses with some political material
for all students; others are operated on an optional basis; while a third
kind are short current courses for all. One college is unique in that it
operates a Contemporary Society programme for all its students
throughout their course (including the fourth year for BEd students).
The programme for the 1966-9 students has been divided into two parts.
The first is entitled 'Communities in Contemporary Britain', which
concludes ' with an examination of the organization of central
government and aspects of the legal system. Visits will be arranged to
a debate in the House of Commons and to the Royal Courts of Justice.
Features of British democracy will be examined with particular reference
to the position of the individual.' The second part is called Values in
Contemporary Society,' and includes 'Political and economic theories'
and ' An emerging world society: A study of movements towards
integration. The United Nations including its functional agencies.'
General courses such as these are for the students' own personal
education and are not geared to the school classroom in either a

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56 Modern Method5 of Teaching Political Science

theoretical or practical way. Some colleges do. however, introduce

political matters into their Theory of Education course, though the
London Institute of Education is alone in specifically listing such su~ject­
matter for all its college in its 1egulations: "Education and democracy-
The nature of democracy and the relation of the individual to democracy.
An examination of such concepts as freedom , equality, authority and
responsibility.' But, although col.lege education departments are
involving themselves in political considerations of this kind, more
attention is being focused on Education for International Understanding.
One large Midland college that is course in the following way:
(I) to extend the students' understanding of the nature and
dynamics of prejudice;
(2) to discuss some related wGrld problems;
(3) to provide some actual intercultural experience;
(4) to consider ways in which the school and its teachers of
various subjects could develop in the pupils a sound
international sentiment.
finally, in this review of general, non-academic courses, we must
consider those specifically designed for practical, professional training.
These would appear to be fairly common: fifteen of the twenty-six
colleges returning questionnaires reported such courses. One that is
particularly well designed, with a fine range of inter-departmental co-
operation. will be used as an example of what can be undertaken. It is
designed for students who wish to teach in secondary schools and runs
at two hours per week for two years. Eight different departments are
involved, a History tutor acting as the co-ordinator. The course is
organized within a framework of fifteen topics, five of which are of a
political nature. These are: international organizations and agencies;
political implications of social, economic and human problems;
comparison of political structures and systems; relationship between
local and central government; ideologies-political and religious. Some
others have political aspects also.
It is fairly clear that a very wide variety of courses involving some
political study at a fairly modest level are available at colleges of
education. But we must now look at the Main Subjects where the
academic level of study is the prime consideration. As with the
postgraduate courses it will be convenient to de tine the various possible
contexts. Firstly, History: it is possible to distinguish four kinds of work

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Training for Teaching Political Science 57

in th is subject-<>utline courses: special periods and topics; advanced,

including BEd, work; and special studies. Contemporary world problems
and the history of political theory are frequent contexts through which
political education is introduced into general History courses. More
detailed study is undertaken e ither through the medium of optional
special periods or by the minority of more able students. An interesting
example of work in this latter category is provided by one lectu rer's
description of his course:
Very detailed studies of political institutions of the undermentioned
countries are made by Year /IIlii Advanced Main and Year II BEd
students:
USA; USSR; USSR; UK; France: Federal German Republic; one
emergent nation-state-if current political situation permits an
academic approach here!
But perhaps the most interesting and demanding work of all are
the special studies written by most college of education students-short
dissertations of anything up to about 20,000 words. The best of these
can be reall y original contributions to historical knowledge and
understar ding. Examples of studies undertaken in one college w ill show
the kind of work possible in th is form . Subjects range from aspects of
the Sino-Soviet quarrel, the Suez crisis of 1956, the Irish Labour Party,
and pressures against New Town developments. Source materials have
included official records of debates (UNO, Dai/ Debates, Hansard.
Council Minutes); newspapers of all kinds; and records of private
organizations.
i
Although, as we have seen, the Geographical Background of
World Affairs and Political Geography are together almost as popular
as Fore ign History since 1945, it is difficult to know in any of these
categories how much emphasis is placed on this particular work. In
Geography syllabus the two kinds of political courses are sometimes
optional. One Geography department at least places vary heavy emphasis
on political questions: they are discussed in courses on world population
problems and in various regional courses on the Soviet Union, North
America, Latin America and the EEC countries. Particularly interesting,
however, is a one-term seminar on plural societies, the aim of wh ich is
stated as being ' to improve the group' s understanding of the political
situation in the area selected.' This is done by posing the fo llowing
questions:

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58 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

HoiV does the plural nawre of society express itself in the political life
ofth state? How numerous are the various groups? How powerful? Who
are the 'second-class citizens;? What type of political organizations
are involved? Does communalism dominate political life? Or do other
groupings cut across communal loyalties? Do outside forces play any
part in the situation? How far is communalism spontaneous. or created
by individual personalities? How do you see the situation developing
in the future? Amelioration or conflict? Assimilation, migration,
partition?
Both History and Geography are well-established subjects and they
are available in almost every general college of education. We must turn
our attention now to the less common subjects of the Social Sciences.
A handful of general colleges offer courses in Economics, Commerce,
Home Economics and Social Biology, all of which provide varying
opportunities for introducing political material. Of all the Social
Sciences taught in colleges of education, however, the most important
is Sociology-because of its professional relevance to teachers and
because of its increasing popularity as a Main Course subject. An
analysis of syllabuses shows eight areas where political material is
introduced. Firstly, Social Philosophy deals with principles, and their
expression by classic writers, that inevitably overlap Political Theory:
Concepts like liberty, equality, natural law and rights and the principles
of the democratic state. Theorists like Hobbes, Rousseau, Tocqueville
and Marx provide suitable texts. Social History and Policy courses
include a study of t11e growth of democracy. Two connected subjects-
Social Structure of Modern Britain and Social Institutions-provide a
number of opportunities for political study. Under these headings
students are involved with such topics as voting behaviour, parties and
pressure groups, bureaucracy, monarchy. Less common subjects of study
are Political Institutions, either British or the comparative study of
government; the interrelationship of societies, including international
relations; Social Psychology, involving topics like prejudice; and the
social function of education, dealing with the development of attitudes,
the creation of political consensus and the provision of political leaders.
But a survey of the range of work tells any part of the story: we also
need to know the proportion of time allocated to such topics. ln many
colleges it appears to be quite a minor part of the course- less than
one tenth in one large Sociology department. A contrary emphasis can,
however. be found in one college where all students pursuing Social
Studies (as the course is called) take a 'Thread' course on the Social

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Training for Teaching Political Science 59

Structure of Great Britain together with a basic course in Sociology,

including some Political Sociology. Against this background various
detailed topics are studied for a total of fifty-five one-and-a-half hour
sessions. Of these, thirty are devoted to Government and Social and
Political Theory.
Up to this point the anonymity of the training institutions referred
to has been preserved because the original survey was conducted on this
condition. However, before leaving this section on course descriptions,
it will be useful to indicate the range of political teaching undertaken
at Didsbury College of Education- a college that has a particularly rich
variety of contexts for political study. Five separate courses may be
identified: International Relations, as an option in the History course
(established in 1965); American Studies (established in 1967); Modem
Studies (established as a subsidiary subject in 1967); Sociology
(established in 1968); European Studies (being negotiated at the time
of writing). Only certain elements of these courses are, of course,
relevant to the present survey. However, the vast bulk of the syllabus
on International Relations and Organizations since 1945 is directly
relevant and worth describing. The course is conducted in six major
parts, starting with an introduction to the theory of international
relations. There are four fairly coherent areas of study, namely the Cold-
war conflict, nationalism, intemati.onalism and supranationalism, and
Britain in the post-war world. Finally, time is also devoted to the study
of a medley of problems of the pO·St-war world, ranging from nuclear
weapons to crime and delinquency.
As might be expected from the wide varieties of course available,
there is no really firm pattern to be discerned of attitude to the problem
of political education among the principals and tutors. It would appear
that few are particularly satisfied with the present situation, and most
feel that traditional subjects like History are the most suitable media
for teaching political materiaL Relegation of such study to student
societies or reliance on the mass media, while superficially attractive,
would appear to be ineffective: such methods neither involve the bulk
of the students nor provide the necessary intellectual rigour for the few.
It is necessary at this point to sum marize the present situation in
training institutions before discussing the implication of our findings .
The most obvious point must be made first, namely, that there is not
available a single course in any training institution for the specialist
teacher of politics. The bulk of teachers-in-training undertaking any

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60 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

detailed work in the political field are those studying History or, to a
lesser extent, Geography.
However, since about 1960 various facilities for political education
in the training institutions have expanded. A variety of factors have had
an influence in this direction. In the first place, one must take account
of the steady development of interest in both Contemporary History and
Sociology throughout the educational system from secondary school to
university: the training institutions have inevitably been caught up in
this movement. Secondly, in college s of education particularly we must
note the change of personnel in recent years in two respects: namely,
the increasing influx (although still in comparatively small numbers)
into the ranks of the lecturing staff of graduates in the Social Sciences,
including Politics, as a result of the expansion of these studies in the
universities since 1945; and also the increasing proportion of men, both
as staff and students, who tend to be more interested in political matters
than their female counterparts. The fmal pair of influences again concern
the colleges rather than the UDEs and are the result of the expansion
of colleges. Of particular importance have been the extension of the
normal training course from two to three years, and more recently the .
establishment of degree courses for the more able. These changes have
not only afforded the opportunity of extra time so that extra topics could
be interpolated into the syllabuses, but they have meant that the students
in the final stages of their course are more mature and therefore capable
of handling more sophisticated material. But colleges have expanded
beyond the immediate needs of absorbing the extra year of study; and
as they have increased in size so that a diversification of teaching has
become possible while still retaining viable teaching groups.
Training institutions are placed in a peculiarly ambiva lent
position, m idway between universities and schools. It is therefore
instructive to compare the ir approaches to Politics. Although it is
important not to exaggerate the differences of approach to political
education by universities and schools, there is a tendency for university
courses to become increasingly sociological and objective in their
handling of the subject, while schools, particularly at the junior and
secondary-modem levels, emphasize a little more the socialization of
their pupils in the received political purposes and values of their society,
namely democratic governm ent and internat ional understanding.
Furthermore, it is common in schools for political education to be
mediated through other subjects like History or Social Studies rather

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Training for Teaching Political Science 61

than by the direct teaching of Politics. If we use this approximate

distinction, we see that the training institutions' courses relate more
closely to the school than to the university programmes of Political
Studies. In terms of actual courses being run, we have seen that with
few exceptions they use the indirect school approach of teaching political
material through the medium of other subjects. This closer relationship
with the school than the university pattern of study is, perhaps, not
surprising when one realizes that, although the training institutions
should be generation new ideas, their products must never be too far
removed from classroom realities. Moreover, most teachers of Politics
in schools, colleges and university departments of education are still
those who were initially trained in the traditional disciplines like
Geography and particularly History. We have already noticed the
popularity of contemporary History as a medium for political education
in the colleges; we might also note here that many influential History
teachers believe that their subjects is the proper medium for this kind
of work. The questions remain whether such a condition is likely to
continue in the immediately foreseeable future and whether it i~ right
that it should.
IV. Let us take the second question first. What are the objections to
the indirect approach to political education. using History and Social
Swdies. for example? One of the major reasons for the current revival
of Social Studies is the popularity of the inter-disciplinary, 'topic '
approach to study. This development has certainly led to much livelier
learning situations. Nevertheless, cogent criticisms ht.ll!e been levelled
at teachers' attempts 'to return to a state of undifferentiated innocence',
and clearly this teaching method needs skilful handling. It is important
to train the pupils in the use of the disciplines and skills necessary for
whatever particular task is confronting them-a combined operation
that might well be most effectively undertaken on a team-teaching basis.
Will the importance of political education be recognized in such a
programme unless a specific teacher sees it as his responsibility? It is
often assumed that the History teacher will play this role. Yet the
research ofDr. D.C. Smith shows that one should not too readily assume
this: [elver than a third of the secondary-school History teachers he
interviewed (67 olll of 234) considered the aim of their subject to be
either 'to give citizenship,' or 'to promote world understanding.
There is uncertainty in the schools concerning the most
appropriate mode of responsibility for political education, and a

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62 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

consequence might be that this area of work be given insufficient

attention. Would it, therefore, be advantageous to have some specialist-
trained Politics teachers in the schools? It is outside the scope of the
present chapter to argue this case in detail. What must be done here is
to look at the possibility of making such teachers available from the
point-view of the training institutions.
Firstly, let us look at the question of supply. Can the universities
supply the UDEs with appropriately qualified graduates? Can the sixth
forms supply the colleges with appropriately qualified student.s? The
answer at both levels is 'yes.' We have already seen that a substantial
number of graduates in Politics are entering teaching. Moreover, it is a
subject increasing in popularity in the universities: there were sixteen
Chairs in English and Welsh universities in 1960; these had increased
to thirty-eight by 1966. At the level of college entrance, A-level entries
in British Constitution of Government , although still nowhere
approaching the popularity of History, reveal a significant upwards trend.
For example, the Joint Matriculation Board had 1,089 entries in 1966
compared with thirty-nine in 1957.
But, looking now specifically at the colleges of education-would
Politics be an appropriate Main Course subject? The function of the
Main Course is said to be the ' personal development' of the student:
professional relevance for classroom application is only a secondary
consideration. Subjects should therefore be either academically
respectable (e.g. History, Mathematics) or effective in developing
aesthetic judgment and skills (e.g. Art, Physical Education). At the same
time they should not be too esoteri~. Politics has at last emerged as an
acceptable university d iscipline and yet it is not narrowly 'academic',
employing as it does a wide range of studies and demanding a variety
of ways of thought-historical, philosophical and sociological.
If the argument has been sound so far it would appear that Politics
is a subject admirably suited or inclusion in a college of education
curriculum. Yet, not a single college offers the SJ.Jbject. Why is this? It
is possible, of course, that since the subject has only recently been firmly
established at the university level, it will take time to be translated into
the colleges. It is possible, therefore that developments will take place
in the subject in the near future. And yet the experience of the parallel
subject of Economics would suggest that time is not the only factor:
Economics is a well-established university discipline, yet only a handful
of colleges offer courses. More important, indeed, is the confusion over

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Training for Teaching Political Science 63

the conceived purpose of Main Courses. In practice the professional,

classroom value of the subject is a more powerful consideration with
college authorities than the ' personal development' formula wou ld
suggest. Thus, if a girl is training for primary-school work, it is
acceptable that she should study Music, since th is is a subject with an
important carry-over value for the infant or junior classroom. Now, by
the Balance of Training Agreement of 1960, colleges of education
undertook to concentrate their efforts on training primary-school
teachers. It was hoped, indeed, that as many as 85 per cent of their
students would teach, at least initially, in primary schools. It is, further,
widely assumed (despite the evidence about the early establishment of
political socialization panems) that programmes of political education
are more appropriately introduced at the secondary than the primary
age-level. And the strict operation of the Balance on·raining Agreement
would mean that graduates will be undertaking almost all this secondary
teaching.
Is the graduate the right kind of teacher for this task? For GCE
courses undoubtedly he is. But the Newsom Committee were 'unanimous
in our opinion that an intending teacher whose personal and professional
training are carried on together over a span of at least three years is
much more likely to become a successful teacher of less able children
than one who completes a degree,.course in a special subject and follows
it with a year of training.' And if 'Half our future' should be taught by
college-trained teachers, it must be remembered also that they would
be teaching half our future electorate. It would appear, therefore, that
the colleges of education have a heavy burden of responsibility if this
count£¥ is to develop into a properly politically literate sor.iety. It is clear
that the colleges of education ought to be doing more. And it comes as
something of a shock to realize d1at a quarter of a century ago the
McNair Committee made a perfectly practical, if rather modest,
suggestion to meet this need when declared that,
we realize the value to a school or college of having on its staff some
teachers who have made a special study of the social services and of
the machinery of government, both central and local; and in each area
there should be one or more training instillltions which include these
matters in their curricula as an optional subject under the name of
social studies. public administration or similar title.
There is, moreover, recent evidence that the lecturing staff of the
colleges of education are anxious to take up this challenge, now

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64 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

translated into 'Newsom' terms and given urgency by the forthcoming

raising of the school-leaving age. Yet they are frustrated by the Balance
of Training Agreement. It can be argued, of course, that under curricular
arrangements at present in vogue specialists in Politics could not be
given a full timetable teaching their own subject. Although this should
not be true of the larger comprehensive schools, it would probably be
frequently necessary for the Politics specialist to spend part of his time
teaching his subsidiary subject, which might well be History.
The teaching of Politics at the school level is at the same time
the most difficult, challenging and vital for the profession to undertake.
Yet at the moment neither responsibility nor method is clear. The
training institutions are placed in a crucial position with opportunities
to investigate the most appropriate methods and to train a body of
teachers in these principles so that they wHl assume responsibility when
they enter the schools. If even a single UDE and half-a-dozen colleges
were to seize these opportunities, a sense of direction could develop to
dispel the present confusion, and the way be opened up to the education
of a politically literate citizenry. Duty, challenge and opportunity are
all clear; only the response is awaited.

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 Organizations and Teaching of
Political Science

NALGO

J ames Hanlay
The National and Local Government Officers Association,
approximately 380,000 strong and with branch membership in every
Count Council, County and Municipal Borough, Urban and Rural
District and Parish Council Office, has been actively pursuing and
encouraging the teaching of Civics in schools for many years through
its Public relations and Education Committees. At its annual conferences
this educational work has been established as national policy, and has
been implemented by branches and districts throughout the length and
breadth of the country at an ever-increasing pace. Through the complete
co-operation of the separate employing authorities it has been made
possible for individual NALGO branches to co-ordinate the supply of
authoritative information, particularly on local affairs. Each officer
knows that there is, at the moment, no set pattern for the teaching of
Civics by the education authorities or schools; the style and method
adopted is therefore entirely the prerogative of the individual teacher
and officer. Nevertheless, valuable advances have been made through a
policy of close co-operation between teachers' consultative groups and
officers of the Association in many areas to develop a consistent
approach.
The natural evolution of the child of today into the adult citizen
of tomorrow provides the justification for NALGO's desire to enter the

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Organizations and Teaching of Political Science 66

field of education. The objective, already approved by the Association' s

members, is to endeavour to create an understanding of the basic
principles of government, British institutions, public and social services.
NALGO thus assists in the development of the pupil's acceptance of
his personal responsibilities towards the community at large, but also
of his individual rights and privileges as a citizen.
There is no doubt that 'Civics' is an uninspiring title which
conjures up in the minds of the young (and the not-so-young) a
Dickensian picture in which it is assumed that pomp and splendour go
hand-in-hand with authority and restriction. Civics is a vast subject,
involving the study of every facet of human existence, from 'cradle to
grave,' and of civic institutions developing over the years from their
inception 1in Saxon times. Each successive generation has added to or
amended institutions and procedures as national and local circumstances
demanded. Because the subject-matter is so complex, it is of the utmost
importance for the teaching to be interesting in its impact as well as
permanently instructive. In this context it is imperative for the officer
to recognize and acknowledge the skilled profession of teaching; for
him to ' show' and not to 'teach' will lead to the desirable fusion of the
teacher's skill and the officer's skill and the officer's knowledge and
experience.
Preliminary investigations by NALGO about teaching methods
over the entire country produced many surprising conclusions. For
example, certain school using films as a medium of instruction preferred
a straight-forward documentary in simple language, whereas many cast
their vote for the amusing cartoon-type film, containing similar factual
material but with alleged easier understanding and greater retention of
subject-matter. In order to encourage easier learning, NALGO has
gathered together a library of films, books, booklets, pictorial wall-
panels, pamphlets and other associated literature which is easily
accessible on loan from NALGO Headquarters in London, through the
local branch secretary. Many local branches have themselves produced
their own visual aids, film strips, colour transparencies, tape-recordings,
flannel-boards, teaching charts, student ' hand-outs' and teachers' notes.
The effective impact of each of these particular aids does vary according
to areas and the individual teacher, but an approach through the local
secretary for additional specified assistance from branch, district or
Headquarters can prove very valuable.

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Organizations and Teaching of Political Science 67

Explanatory leaflets have been published and issued by many of

the larger local authorities, containi11g data which is not only of specific
local interest but has a national relevance. Further valuable material is
published by the Local Government Information Office (36, Old Queen
Street, Westminster, London, SW I), describing the dut ies and
respons ibilities of councillors (elected members) and the appointed
specialist officers, together with useful information on the council and
comminee systems.
Instructional films have already been mentioned, but whereas
many of those contained within the NALGO library are of professional
standard, amateur film-making is fast becoming an accepted mode. At
the present time there are at least three branches and schools co-
operating in producing short colou r films of ten to twenty minutes'
duration. In some instances the narration is ' dubbed,' in others the
voices of the pupils form part of the sound-track. The realization that
this type of film has been created by fellow students, and well within
thei r own ambit, often acts as a spur to similar productions beings
anempted. In many instances the finished article is extremely good, and
has not only aroused and maintained the pupils' interest but resulted
in permanent learning. Costs vary, according to content and duration,
but this factor should not restrict any genuine des ire to participate;
education authorities, local government offices, together with NAGO
branches and districts, are extremely approachable and prepared to
advise, provide materials, services, and in certain genuine instances,
financial assistance to the best of their ability.
Experience has proved conclusively the permanent value of pupil
participation and involvement, and th is trend may be seen in the
majority of projects advocated by NALGO and accepted and adopted
by members of the teaching profession. Many teachers have reinforct:d
their theoretical teaching with the more practical approach of organized
attendances at municipal offices, council meetings, sites and works.
Likewise, visits during courses of lectures arranged for example by
health departments, wou ld include da iries, bakeries and slaughter-
houses. The pupil is also encouraged actively to participate not only in
the duties and responsibil ities of techn ician and professional officer, but
also, by being allocated special time at council meetings, in actual
debates, by asking of the elected members pertinent and re levant
questions on the local aspect of Civics.

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68 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

A familiar pattern, well established, is the willingness of chief

and senior officers of local authorities to lecture to pupils on the duties
and responsibilities concerned with thei.r profession, and the application
of the former to the work of the council. Essay competitions have been
instituted in junior schools, and several NALGO branches have accepted
the responsibility of judging these entries and awarding prizes. The
inclusion of Civics as a subject in the Certificate of Secondary Education
was received with intense satisfaction by both the local Authorities
Association and NALOG, who, in conjunction with the Local
Government Employers, are available to offer advice in the formulation
of any appropriate syllabus and in er.deavouring to meet the teachers'
specific needs, including the obtaining of detailed information and the
programming of series of lectures over agreed peri~ds. Furtht:.r
developments include the provision of discussion groups in the context
of •Newsom' work. Local government officers lead the debates at regu Jar
seminars, extending over a twelve-month cycle.
Depending upon the age-group of the pupil, the method and
content of the teaching are varied. A viable alternative to the actual
personal involvement of the local government, officer is the quiz,
sponsored by NALGO branches on an extensive scale and being rapidly
extended in its use. Specimen lists of questions and answers are available
to the teacher, who uses these as background material in the overall
study of the subject. The competitive element is introduced as a stimulus
and is attained by the organization of matches between schools within
the district. Such an event, culminating in a final competition for the
overall winners, is normally accepted as a civic function, including the
presence of the civic heads and the added attraction of a well-known
personality as ' quiz-master.' NALGO branches, organizing these
competitions on a voluntary basis, provide suitable prizes for the winners
and consolation gifts for the runners-up. This expenditure is authorized
and encouraged at district and national level of the Association. There
is every reason to hope that this manner of examining the learning of
factual material will eventually become of nationwide interest, with the
attendance of television and radio, thus fulfilling by modem methods
of publicity the urgent need for civic learning in all educational
establishments.
The election of a council with its mayor, or chairman, aldermen
and councillors, and the appointments of chief officers of departments
and their supponing staff, is quite often a complete mystery to many

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Organizations and Teaching of Pol.itical Science 69

citizens, let alone the school child. A scheme, which has proved
successful, to simplify the apparent intricacies of this age-old democratic
structure, has been devised, proved and adopted in certain junior schools.
Candidates are elected by their fellow pupils and fom1 t.'le junior council.
This body of representatives, in tum, elect their civic head and specialist
committees with chairmen; they formulate policy and appoin t
supervisory chief officers of departments. The election, council meetings
and committee procedures are therefore simply enacted by 'role playing'
and the chief officer of each department is asked to submit his report
at the appropriate meeting of the 'committee.' There are many different
ways of allocating the precise duties of such a 'junior chief officer,'
depending entirely on local circumstances, but it is common for the
engineer and surveyor to list amongst his responsibilities the school
playground, adjacent buildings, water supply to basins, etc., whilst the
treasurer may be involved in the collection of monies for school milk
or dinners or in the levying of a rate for the upkeep of the community
sports equipment not provided by the school authorities. The clerk of
the council is normally the teacher, proffering the advice expected of
that officer.
An appraisal of this scheme conducted by one school showed that
the pupils gained in sense of responsibiiity through an obvious
appreciation of their future place in the community and in greater
understanding of that type of work carried out in their own
neighbourhood and duplicated throughout the country. In a s imilar
participatory vein, one-act plays have been written and are available to
schools, thus combining the teaching of Civics with other accepted
elements of the syllabus such as Spoken English, Social Studies and
History. Close-circuit television and radio are also used. The value of
radio has been broadened by the introduction of local sound
broadcasting, through which NALGO is endeavouring to enlarge and
improve the already existing programmes to schools by the inclusion
of Civics material.
Although NALGO has not as yet progressed in any depth into
the realms of adult further education, some branches have interested
their employing authorities in acknowledging the importance of the
embryo citizen. The project ' Welcome to Citizenship' is a well-
established activity in many towns and cities and caters for those
inhabitants of the town who have attained the age of majority. A civic

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70 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

reception , complete with regalia, a tour of local government

establishments, brief but illuminating talks w!th elected members and
officers, terminating in the presentation of a souvenir ' scroll of
admittance' to citizenship and civic ball, ensures a suitable mixture of
duty and social entertainment.
Over the past decade, NALGO members and their officers,
throughout the British ISles, have carried out extensive and searching
investigations, some at national instigation, others at district and branch
levels, into the knowledge of Civics possessed by the general public and
students of all ages. The resultant summary of surveys has been
scrutinized by teachers' consultative panels, education officer and the
Association. Their findings are in complete agreement: the utter lack
of any desire to Jearn the fundamentals of either central or local
government in its most s imple form is depressingly widespread. This
void must be filled and it is crus:ial that the forthcoming generation be
well informed and acutely aware of the value of the democratic society
in which they are such a vital component. Local government, in all its
aspects, is more than anxious to play its part and this essential need,
fully recognized by NALGO, warrants the high priority it has been
accorded.

HANSARD SOCIETY

David Pring
One day in 1940 Commander King-Hall, then the Independent
Member for Ormskirk, saw the Prime Minister (Mr. Churchill) and the
Deputy Prime Minister (Mr. Attlee) seated together on a sofa in the
Members' Smoking Room. On an impulse he went over to ask their
support for an enterprise in which he had recently tried to interest his
fellow-members. His idea was to found an association, called the Friends
of Hansard, designed to encourage the reading of Hansard at home and
abroad; there was no better way, he argued, of showing that the British
Parliament continued to control the executive and represent the people,
even under the stresses of total war.
The two men listened, and then Churchill asked how much was
needed to start the association.
' One pound from each of you.'
The money was handed over there and then.

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Organizations and Teaching of Political Science 71

The anecdote tells us much about the character of the Friends of

Hansard: its high patronage; its ideo logical basis; the zeal of its founder;
and not least, its perennial lack of funds. The same attributes are still
visible in the Hansard Society (into which the f riends of Hansard
evolved) but the basis of the new Society was broadened considerably
in 1944; it was no longer alone, but wherever it could be found ; it was
henceforward to be international. The ex-President of the French
Republic, the Speakers of the Bundestag and of the Lok Sabha. and an
American Senator were among those who accepted vice-presidencies.
The governments of the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland
Commissioned the Society to publish books (in English) on their
parliaments. A conference was held at Oxford on the problems of
legislatures in West Africa. The Society began to organize lectures on
the comparative study of British and American Government.
In many of the multiform activities of the young Society one can
discern the guiding hand of its founder . One of the last of the
Independent MPs (and one of the very few at that time to rcp;esent a
constituency), King-Hall was always alive to the need for parliaments
to maintain their independence of governments. A director of a large
insurance company, he was indefatigable in his attempts to raise money
for the Society, to invest it shrewdly, and to spend it carefully. A
successful playwright, he had an element of showmanship in him that
publicized the Society' s work. As author and publisher of a news-letter
which had a worldwide and devoted readership, he was an
internationalist with an understanding of the different forms of
government that different countries needed.
Much of his considerable fame in Britain was founded on the
regular broadcasts on current affairs which he made in the 'thirties,
especially to children and many of those who grew up in that
unsatisfactory decade remember him, his voice and his style. So it was
predictable that the Hansard Society should from the start have
concerned itself with the education of children. The large-scale purpose
of the Society was to be the promotion and study of parliamentary
government in all parts of the world; one of the principal means to this
end, and the one that lay closest to had, was a direct and continuing
contact with the schools. f or more than two decades the Society has
held a series of public meetings in which audiences of up to 3,500
schoolchildren have listened to a panel of experienced and well-known
parliamentary personalities answering the questions put to them,

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72 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

generally on constitutional matters of particular interest at the time. TI1is

of course is a form of education or entertainment well-known on radio
and television-a fact which is both a bonus and a burden to the
organizers: a bonus because the young audience appreciates the chance
of playing a part in a game which is so widely enjoyed; a burden,
because they expect in the perfonnance the high standards which the
broadcasting authorities can display. The Society's meetings require a
considerable amount of participation by the audience, and impromptu
votes are taken form time to time. The meetings are lively, even of
occasion exciting. Of aU the educational activities of the Society, this
is perhaps the most dramatic and the most satisfying.
Much of course depends on the quality of the members of the
panel. To attract well-known participants (and one of the attractions
for the audience is to see and hear people whom they know ot) it is
necessary to guarantee a big audience; there are in act never enough
seats for those who wish to come, and admission has accordingly to be
by ticket. The organizational problems and the expense are greater when
the meetings are away from London, and it is very much harder to get
Members of Parliament to agree to attend these (or, on some regrettable
occasions, having got them to agree, to get them to tum up). There are
many wounds in this business, and the provincial meetings have never
achieved the success of those in London. The Society's lecture service
has been one of its most essential activities right from the start, but the
extent to which it has operated has been in direct relationship to its
finances. In a good year-in 1965, for instance, when the government
made the society a grant as part of the celebrations associated with the
700th anniversary of Simon de Montfort's Parliament-the Society has
given more than 200 lectures, reaching an audience of over 14,000
schoolchildren, most of them in the senior forms. The experiences of
the Society ' s practitioners in this unexciting medium are those
well-known to itinerant lecturers everywhere: they will know of the
nervous wait before the exposure to that host of captive children with
their curiosity about the man on th.e platform, and their unforeseeable
private jokes. The rewards are well-known, too: the magic moment when
one senses that the audience is following an argument intently; the
realization that the questions asked arise spontaneously from what has
been said, and are not pre-planted; the strangely moving occasion when
the thanker on the floor breaks away from his' rehearses notes to say
something of genuine gratitude.

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Organizations and Teaching of Political Science 73

These are the common experiences of those who lecture. Perhaps

the Society's lecturers have an advantage in that their subject-matter,
Parliament, contains a certain amount of built-in mirth. No self-
respecting audience of children can listen to some of the things that
happen in Parliament without experiencing a comfortable sense of
superiority. There are the ceremonial costumes, the slamming oftl1e door
in Black Rod's face, the ritual producing of a collapsible top hat if a
point of order is to be raised during a division and so on. Why mention
these trivia at all? Because children have beard of them, and want to
know more; and because it is necessary that they should realize that
the element of charade in Parliament is comparatively small, does no
harm and is quite unimportant.
The efforts of the Society in the lecture room can never hope to
reach an audience of great size, unless radio or television time is ever
made available to them. But it is a vital part of the Society's activities
because, better than almost any other way, it enables the Society to know
what young people think about Parliament; they, in a manner of
speaking, educate the Society. The knowledge gained is valuable for the
planuing of many of the Society's subsidiary educational activities; these
have inc'uded the annual essay competition, the occasional issue to
members of wall-charts (related perhaps to a particular event- a general
election, for example), and the periodical production of study boxes on
Parliament.
The Society is also able to help teachers. Parliamentary Affairs
in particular gives them a great deal of information about parliaments
throughout the world; an teachers who use the Information Service to
answer questions they have been asked in class may not realize how
many of their charges use it as a court of appeal from the answers their
master have given them.
When one turns to consider the principal; lessons that the Society
has gained from its experience with schools, three stand out all negative
in form.
In the first place, the Society has not tried to draft a definitive
·blueprint for th ideal Parliament. How could it, when its outlook is
international'? What is appropriate in one country at a given time will
provide a lesson for other states, but not necessarily an example. One
of the most difficult things to decide today is how far one should given
support to parl!aments which negate one or other of the principles

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74 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

which, not long ago, would have been thought a sine qua non of a
democratic parliamentary system. The one-party parliaments of Africa
pose questions that have to be faced, however uncomfortable the process.
Secondly, in its descriptions o f the working of the British
Parliament, the Society has learned not to dogmatize. Indeed, the facility
with which the commons change their procedure is a trap for us all; it
is an unwary teacher who repeats unquestioningly the words of standard
works on procedure--even those of only a few years ago. For example,
the princ iple by which much of the House's financial procedure had to
be initiated in a committee has been explained, w ith its historical basis,
in many books on Parliament, often at great length; but the abrogation
of this principle aroused so little opposition and made so little difference
that, for some time after the dissolution of the Committees of Supply
and of Ways and Means, their functions were still being considered in
some classrooms. again, it is all to easy in describing the long-draw-
out legislative process to g ive the impression of a vigilant House of
Commons where every Member is able to bring his constituents' points
of view to bear. The truth may be somewhat different; it is now possible
for a Bill to pass the Commons without any of its stages being taken
on the floor of the House.
Thirdly and finally, in its attitude to the British Parliament, the
Society cannot allow itself the indulgence of uncritical affection; there
is much that is admi.rable at Westminster, but the Society is not a
preservation society, as its work in the recent move ment for
parliamentary reform shows. In a country where Parliament is so firmly
based, one of the chief works of the teacher must be it display its
shortcomings-but to display them accurately, fairly and in proportion. •

CEWC

Terence Lawson

There would appear to be a good deal of evidence for believing

that public interest in Britain in international affairs is greater in the
1960s than it has ever been. The exposure given to politics and
politicians on television has become a feature of the decade-though
whether this is an entirely healthy development in terms of the

• Since this was written Hansard Society has developed plans for the establishment of an
association for teachers of Politics.

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Organizations and Teaching ofPoUtica/ Science 75

democratic process and the place of parliamentary discussion is

debatable; a positive industry has built up around race relations, and a
similar activity centres upon the issue of world poverty and the
relationship between the 'developed' and the 'developing' countries.
Teachers are inundated by the flood of materials produced by
organizations and societies, commercial publishers and newspapers,
concerned with making a contribution in the field of education, and
tend to become bewildered by the profusion of conferences, seminars
and courses in the area of international affairs which compete for their
attention and support. Yet, if one is to assess concern by statistical
evidence of public support for org.anizations, it should be recognized
that no single voluntary organization in Britain today comes any-where
near the membership achieved by the League of Nations Union between
the wars. There may well be a variety of sociological developments
which determine that there will never again be in Britain a single
organization, embracing the whole of the political spectrum, of such a
size. The fact remains that the LNU existed and exercised a considerable
influence throughout the whole of British society.
The Education Committee of the League of Nations Union under
the chairmanship of Professor Gilbert Murray-who was also one of
the leaders and outstanding personalities of the International Institute
of Intellectual Co-operation-was an active and authoritative body which
secured the affiliation and allegiance of an enormous number of schools
in Britain. It reached out to the deep idealism of the teachers and
educationists of that time, and secured from them a response which
supported the concept of an international order and authority-embodied
in the League of Nations-to an extent which has never been enjoyed
by its successor, the United Nations.
The history of the decline of the League does not need repetition.
From the moment that its member states failed to make any positive
reaction to Japan's conquest of Manchuria, through their havering and
wavering over Italy's adventure in Abyssinia and the Spanish Civil War,
the authority of the League of Nations and the concept of collective
security upon wh ich it was based came into question. The League of
Nations Union exerted itself to maintain in Britain strong and active
support for the League and for the establishment of the aims and ideals
of the Covenant as the keystone of Britain' s foreign policy. Jnevitably,
political positions polarized, and the League of Nations Union became
a focus of political dispute. In such an atmosphere, schools feh it

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 76 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

necessary to reconsider their positions as active members of an

organization which no longer commanded the unequivocal support of
all political parties, and they resigned in their hundreds.
By early in 1939 the likelihood of a major war was evident to
Gilbert Murray and his fellow educationists in the Education Committee
of the League of Nations Union; it was also clear to them that the
political controversy su.rrounding the LNU placed an intolerable burden
of decision upon their colleagues in schools in Britain. They took the
decision to transform t he LN U Educations Committee into an
educational organization which would function as well as it could during
the war years-if such were to develop-and which would be in an
established position, whenever the. war ended, to enlist the support of
education for the form of international organization which would emerge
to assume the former place of the League; but they conceived an
organization which could not become embroiled in any future political
differences and disputations. It was to function within the educational
system and process, but would not express any official opinion upon
an issue ofpolitfcal controversy. Its task would be to attempt to provide
schools with information and facts, objectively and dispassionately. They
decided to call this organization the Council for Education in World
Citizenship, and it came into existence on I September 1939.
In the beginning the concentration of effort by the CEWC was
upon teachers. The uncertainties of the first year of the war, and the
dispersal of pupils by evacuation, made large gatherings for conferences
both difficul t and undesirable; though as the nation adjusted to the
problems of wartime existence, even these were attempted, and it was
during the war that the now world-famous Christmas Holisay Lecture
(refe.rred to in more detail later) commenced. The CEWC gained
particular support from the major educational associations through the
idealism and efforts of the many distinguished personalities in education
who were identified with its purpose and activities. It was partly as a
result of the consequently prominent position it attained that the CEWC
played a leading part in the development of what came to be known as
• 'the London Assembly. During the war, the ministers of education of
Allied governments met with the ir United Kingdom colleagues to plan
the intellectual reconstruction of their countries and lay the foundations
for future co-ope ration. It was this Assembly that drew up the
Constitution upon which the Un ited Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization was eventuaily based.

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Organizatiuns and Teaching ofPolitical Science 77

When the war ended, the United Nations Association was formed
in britain to influence public opinion towards the support of the
successor to the League of Nations-the United Nations. The Council
for Education in World Citizenship was by then an established and
recognized body of educationists and became 'an Organization of the
United Nations Association' subscribing to all those aims and purposes
of the parent body which could be described as educational, but
eschewing participation in any activities or pronouncements by UNA
which entered the arena of political disputation. This is the relationship
to the UNA which continues today. The Council is an autonomous body
within the family of the United Nations Association-UNA 's
'specialized agency' in the field of education.
The services offered by the CEWC to its member schools are
various, but the most widely used are its provision of speakers to
individual schools and the organization of inter-school conferences. The
subjects upon which schools request speakers tend to follow the main
developments in world affairs and the attention paid to these in the
columns and headlines of the newspapers. A school when it makes its
request may stipulate that it requires a speaker who will present a
particular view-point, e.g., one who will express an Arab-<>r Israeli-
position on the Middle-East events, or the Rhodesian Nationalist angle
as opposed to the Smith-Rhodesian attitude. Presented with such
requests, the CEWC will do its best to comply; but when the demand
is of a general nature, expressing a wish for a general survey of the
issue or problem, them the role of the CEWC is to find a speaker who
can deal with the subject objectively and set out the positions of all the
contending sides. Increasingly, however, the interest of the pupils is in
active contention and argument, with a major part of the time available
being devoted to questions and discussion which involve the audience
in clops participation. Those in the audience who have already formed
views appear to be concerned, in the main, with advocating or
substantiating these; the uncommitted majority seems to be more
interested in the flow of adrenal in than the· process of resounded
argument; and educationists are beginning to speculate about the
influence upon pupils of television's presentation of political discussion
and the attitudes adopted towards politicians by the interviewers and
interrogators. The closer an interview gets to a ' punch-up' the more
compulsive viewing it provides. By the same token, the success of a
school meeting or an inter-school conference begins to be judged by
the extent of the energy or violence of the participants.

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78 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

There are, of course, still exceptions to the foregoing, and the

single event for which the CEWC is best known-its annual Christmas
Holiday Lectures-provides one of these exceptions. The Lectures bring
to London some 3,000 senior pupils from secondary schools in all parts
of the United Kingdom. They combine to form what bas been described
by one man who has taken part in these Lectures on a number of
occasions-Professor Lord Ritchie-Calder- as 'the finest audience in
the world.' Over the years, men and women eminent in various sections
of society feel privileged to meet this exciting and demanding gathering
of young.people to speak to them and to respond to their questioning,
which is searching, exacting and-with very, very few exception-
courteous. The Christman Holiday Lectures last for four days and are
built around a central theme. Naturally, the more controversial themes
prove to be more popular. Race and race relations, for example, provided
a greater emotional temperature than the sober examinations of the
problem of illiteracy. Illiteracy is like sin-everyone 'is agio it'; but there
were still a very great many young people who found it valuable to have
spent four days in examining the nature and implications of literacy
and its antonym, and the relations of these to social, economic and
political developments, even though the subject d id not have the
immediate relevance to political issues present in such subjects as race,
or co-existence, or neo-colonialism.
The Christmas Holiday Lectures have, on a number of occasions,
dealt with themes which were of concern to UNESCO. Literacy was
one of these, as was the major project on arid-zone research, and the
very considerable attention given by UNESCO to the mutual
appreciation of oriental and occidental cultural values. This close
connection between the CEWC and IMESCO followed naturally from
the part played by the CEWC in the events which led to the inception
of the Specialized Agency, and has been reflected in other activities.
The CEWC acts as the agent for UNESCO in the United Kingdowm
for the operation of the Gift Coupon Programme-a description of which
is not really relevant to a book concerned with the teaching of politics.
But UNESCO's Associated Schools, Project represents the largest single
activity in the world in the field of education for international
understating, and the CEWC has been closely concerned in this since
its beginning in 1953.
The objectives of education for international understanding were
summed up by the Director-General of UNESCO in a report to the

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Organizations and Teaching of Pofitical Science 79

General Conference of UNESCO irn 1962. His statement was:

The objectives ar to increase among youth a knowledge of the world
and its peoples; to engender sympathetic attitudes which will enable
young people to view other cultures without prejudice and to react to
differe nces with friendship ra.ther than hostility; to develop
understanding of the need for international co-operation in solution of
world problems; and to encourage respect for human rights, a sense of
moral and social responsibility for others, and a desire to act in the
common good.
Some fifty nations have nomin ated some of their secondary schools
and teacher-training institutions for participation in the Associated
Schools Project. A school so nominated agrees to carry out a project,
or conduct a course of teaching, concerned with one of three themes:
teaching about the United Nat ions; teaching·about Human Rights; or a
study of another country. The project should have the conscious aims
of increasing the knowledge and influencing favourably the attitudes
of pupils taking part. In association with the United Kingdom National
Commission for UNESCO, the CEWC has been closely involved in the
development and progress of the Associated School Project in Britain,
where particular emphasis has been laid upon work with fourteen-and
fifteen-year-old pupils.
In nearly all cases attempts were made to evaluate the results of
the projects in terms of changes in knowledge and attitude. At the
request of participating schools, UNESCO commissioned the production
of a series of tests by an international group of educational psychologists,
and these were widely used, though with the reservations with which
many educationists approach such tests. The results of these in British
schools were correlated at Birmingham University and a valuable report
was produced for UNESCO. The CEWC has continued to act as a centre
for the distribution of information and materials about the Associated
Schools Project, and in 1966 co-ordinated the first work within the
Project carried out in five primary schools in Britain. This followed an
interesting pilot project conducted in the primary schools of four
European countries under the auspices of the International Federation
of Teachers 'acted' for IFTA, in the planning and operation of the pilot
project in Britain.
For a variety of reasons, increasing attention to the problems of
' development' and world poverty has been evident in Britain during

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80 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

the last three or four years, and there has been an marked increase in
the production of materials and services for schools concerned with this
subject. The CEWC has, in consequence, tended to devote increasing
attention to the political background to development, and to the political
aspects of the work of the United Nations and its family. In doing so it
enters into an area where objectivity becomes increasingly important,
but more and more difficult, and where its long-standing reputation and
experience are strenuously tested.

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 The Problem of Bias in Teaching
Political Science

An awareness of the problems raised by the teaching of politics in

schools, involving a3 it does the exposure of immature minds to ideas
which are as controversial as they are important, is not confined to
philosophers and educationists. The problem of bias appears first and
perhaps most tellingly at the level of commonsense. Fore most parents,
whilst agreeing that children should know something about politics or,
more broadly, current affairs, wou ld shrink from the notion of this
political initiation being placed in the hands of a teacher known to be
of opposing political convictions. The more far-sighted might be equally
wary of political instruction placed deliberately in the hands of persons
of similar political outlook, in case this should lead to an assumption
that what is called for is political indoctrination rather than information.
And, assuming for a moment an understanding of some tem1s which
clearly need analysis. political indoctrination in schools is one of the
aspects of Communist societies which stands in most contrast to the
freedom of ideas and opinion which is a prime value of our own society.
But at a philosophical level. the problem presents further and
possibly more serious complications; for from the point of view of
linguistic analysis, to talk about politics in neutral tenns is almost an
impossibility. The very terminology of politics, the concepts in which
!t deals, arc used by philosophers to demonstrate how words which
nHl~querade as as fact-stating and descriptive are actually devoid of
factual content but charged with emotional appeal. Such words as
· fre~::dom .' 'equality.' democracy', which are the very stuff of politics,

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The Problem of Bias in Teaching Political Science 82

are also the raw material of the kind of philosophical analysis which is
aimed at establishing a contrast between the descriptive and the emotive.
What is involved here is the distinction between words like ' green',
'sparkling', metallic', which describe without prompting any emotional
response on the part of the hearer, or giving expression to any emotional
feelings on the part of the speaker, and words like ' frightening',
marvellous', astonishing', which convey or conjure up emotions, but
communicate little or nothing in the way of information or description.
Political terms like 'freedom ' or 'equality' are often taken to belong to
the former category, on the assumption that they describe some factual
aspect of the society to which they are applied, but in fact they function
purely as va.lue-terms unless further qualified. To call a society •free •,
in almost any part of the world, is to make it clear that you approve of
it. Whether anything else at all is conveyed is problematical, for an
undefined notion of freedom is compatible with practically any
organization of society; there is in fact nothing that can be deduced about
the way a society runs it affairs simply from its being described by
someone as free . This is not to deny that it is possible to suggest a
rigorous definition of freedom so that it may convey some factual
information is addition to its emotional effect. Indeed, this is part of
the task of political theory. But the difficulties involved become apparent
if one considers, for instance, a typi.cal liberal interpretation of freedom
in terms of freedom of speech, of publication, of association and of
assembly, and contrasts this with a typical Communist interpretation
emphasizing economic and material freedom and viewing life under a
capitalist system as 'economic slavery.'
It follows, then, that if some of the basic concepts of politics
necessarily involve evaluation, then it may be impossible to talk about
politics in neutral language. If, therefore, to teach politics without bias
means to talk about politics in tenus which are wholly neutral, factual
rather than emotive, then it wou.ld appear that the common-sense
difficulties merely reflect a more radical difficulty-a root contradiction
in the very notion of unbiased political discussion.
I want at this point to distinguish the teaching of politics in
schools from the associated pursuit, usually confined to university level,
of political science. In this field, it is arguable that discussion can and
should be value-free, although even hl!re th e neutmlity ma y b.: more
apparent than real. There is, of cou rse. no reaso n. apart f.' tJ lll its
difficu lty, why some elements of political science should not be :I'• •)lvcd

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The Problem of Bias in Teaching Political Science 83

in the more general programme of teaching politics. In fact comparative

studies of governments and constitutions, sociological studies of voting
behaviour or elitism, and even the making of political models after the
pattern of mathematical and economic models, are all useful candidates
for inclusion in the curriculum; and where they are included, provided
covert valuation is avoided, the problem of bias does not arise in relation
to them. The problem arises only in connection with the wider aims
likely to be pursued in schools, where an ultimate objective of the
undertaking is the production of politically-educated and politically-
aware citizens; people capable of making a rational assessment of the
declared objectives and policies of politicians and parties, and of
understanding to some extent the tasks and problems of government,
as well as the particular issues and events, national and international,
of their contemporary political scene. It is in relation to this much wider
task that the problem of bias arises, as it is here that controversial topics
are touched upon and the language of politics (equality, freedom,
democracy) is virtually unavoidable.
A solution which may be suggested at this point, is that of
replacing the ideal of neutrality of terminology with an alternative ideal:
that of the presentation by the teacher of all the conflicting viewpoints,
without his revealing which it is that he supports himself, or striving
to secure from the pupil a llegiance to any one of the conflicting
viewpoints. But such a Programme is easier to propose than to carry
out. It is unl ikely that a teacher could for long keep his political
allegiances a secret, and it is equally unlikely that the pupils' attitude
to him as a teacher could fail to be reflected in their deliberate
acceptance or rejection of his known point of view. But more important
still is the question of whether it is possible for an individual impartially
to present conflicting points of view, with all except one of which he
may strongly disagree. Can a sworn enemy of welfare provision, for
distance, be expected to explain the rise of the welfare state in a way
which would be acceptable also to its supporters?
This problem is one which arises in a similar way in relation to
religious education, where it has a solution in the form of the Agreed
Syllabus, reached after centuries of bitter controversy. It arises, too, in
connection with ethics and moral education, and the issues involved in
the teaching of morals have received considerable discussion recent ly.
Broadly, the object of this d iscussion has been to establish a criterion
for distinguishing between instruction (legitimate teaching, education)
and indoctrination.

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84 Modern Merhods of Teaching Political Science

The problem is perhaps more urgent in ethics, in that, whereas

children may and do grow up without any kind of political education,
and the effects of this on society if bad are long-term and generalized,
they receive instruction in morality from their earliest years, and it seems
unlikely that a society which fielded to inculcate any kind of code of
behaviour in its young could survive the experiment. Moreover,
everyone, simply by virtue of being an individual in society, is obliged
to have a moral life (in a broad sense), whereas political participation
can be limited to quinquennial voting, or even less than this.
However, since bias and indoctrination are here being taken as
associated terms, an since the general question of the definition of
indoctrination can be given a particular application within the limited
field of the teaching of politics, it is important to consider what
suggestions have already been advanced, although with particular
reference to moral education.
Broadly, suggested criteria fall into two categories: those which
depend upon the content of the teaching making subject-matter
definitory of indoctrination; and those which stress instead the intention
of the teacher/indoctrinator, or the methods which he uses.
ln an article called 'Education and Indoctrination,'* John Wilson
argued in favour of a criterion of the first kind, suggesting that there
was a readily recognizable gradation from total neglect of a person's
mind, through education proper, to indoctrination; and that whereas
indoctrination was clearly recognizable in certain model cases such as
Communist brain-washing techniques, the methods of the Spanish
Inquisition, and the ranking of society in Aldous Huxley's Brave New
World it became problematical in border-line cases such as sleep-
teaching. Wilson argued that in all. these cases it is not the methods
that are employed, but the content or subject-matter of what is taught
that marks the presence of indoctrination, the crucial subject-matter
being politics, religion and morals.
The distinguishing mark of indoctrinatory subject-matter is,
Wilson suggested in this article, its uncertainty; and ' uncertain' is itself
defined as: ' not true that any sane and sensible person, when presented
with the relevant facts and arguments, would necessarily hold the
beliefs;** i.e. there is no ' publicly-accepted' evidence for them.
• J. Wilson, 'Education and Indoctrination', in THB Hollins. ed.. Alms in Education
(Manchester University Press, 1964).
"* Ibid .. pp. 27-8

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The Problem of Bias in Teaching Political Science 8S

This led Wilson to propose thJat we should only teach ' rational'
beliefs, for which there is publicly-accepted evidence, as opposed to,
for instance, beliefs which are held by the majority of any society, or
which are 'good' for children, or trnditional, or socially cohesive. He
added that, wherever possible, a presentation of the evidence for beliefs
is preferable to the presentation of the beliefs themselves, always bearing
in mind that this excludes metaphysical and moral beliefs, for which
evidence is not even a possibility. For these, he suggested, rational
discussion in an agnostic sprit is the alternative to teaching or
indoctrination.
As indication of the trend such discuss ion might take appears
towards the end of Wilson's article, where he asserted that the 'pseudo-
liberal' 'doctrine of adjustment to society, and a ' mature" acceptance
of social responsibility' is more pernicious than the authoritarianism
which it replaces. Wilson had, in fact, at the time of writing this article,
in spite of his stress on 'agnosticism,' a very particular and pronounced
moral point of view. This becomes clear when he claims that the
education must be sociologically a ware that western societies are
'power-seeking and status-seeking societies largely incapable of
spontaneous enjoyment, guilt-ridden in matters of sex and sensual
enjoyment generally, lacking in communication and co-operative effort,
neurotically isolated, tense and lonely, obsessed by the symbols of
prestige and to a great extent incapable of honesty.' *
Quite apart from the question of tile truth or the truth or accuracy
so this as a p icture of western society, it is clear that such an anti-
conformist position is by no means ethically neutral; and it is doubtful
whether a person holding it could generate the mood of moral neutrality
which Wilson has suggested is the proper basis for the rational
discussion which constitutes moral education.
However, this in itse lf does not refute the definition of
indoctrinatory teaching in terms of content which it was Wilson's main
purpose to establish. And a further argument for this point of view was
put forward by R.F. Atkinson in an interesting and carefully argued
article called ' Instruction and Indoctrination.'**
Like Wilson, Atkinson argues that the distinction between
instruction and indoctrination depends on certain characteristics of what
• Ibid .. p. 40.
•• In R.D. Archambault cd . Plrilosophica/Analysis and £ducati01r (London Routledge
& K,·gnn l'aul , 19651.

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86 Modern Me thods of Teaching Political Science

is taught rather than on the way in which any particular subject is taught.
In particular, he thinks that indoctrinatory or non-rational methods of
teaching may be both necessary and justifiable in some cases, such as
with very young children, and that this in itself makes it important to
establish a distinction between thing.s which it is proper to teach by these
methods and those which it is not.
The criterion he suggests is one of rationality. In the case of
instruction, he argues, the person instructed is brought to accept what
he is taught on rational grounds, and he is given the reasons. This means
that he will be able to go on beyond the limit of his actual teaching to
take steps on his own. Moreover, being shown the reasons, or the criteria
for the truth of what he is being taught, will be an essential part of the
teaching process. In the case of indoctrination, on the other hand, the
subject is brought to accept what he is being taught, whether it can be
rationally justified or not, and the question of its justification does not
arise as part of the teaching. Atkinson compares this to the distinction
between training and drilling, where in a similar fashion the distinction
may be established on grounds of whether or not the reasons for the
actions are part of the process of eliciting the actions.
This has, on Atkinson's view, as far as moral education is
concerned, a panicular and important consequent consequence. This is
that 't)lere can be moral teaching, instruction in, as opposed to
instruction about, morality, only if there are criteria of truth, cogency,
correctness, in the field.* And Atkinson holds that there are in fact no
such criteria for moral truth, since morality is essentially open-ended,
one 'whole way of life 'being on a par with another 'whole way of life.'
This is a conclusion with which most contemporary moral philosophers
would agree, and if such skepticism applies within morals, how much
more does it apply within politics.
Although Atkinons's definition of rational content in terms of the
possibility of a criterion of criterion of truth is very different from
Wilson's definition in terms of what is accepted by 'sane and sensible
people,' his conclusion is somewhat similar; in that he implies that,
although he has argued strongly against moral education in the sense
of feeding children moral conclusions, moral education may yet be
permissible if it takes the form of guidance in dealing with moral
problems for om•self.
• In R.D Archambault ed .. Philo!ophical Analysts and Education (london: Routledge
/J; 1-.egau l'<tol , l965j p. 176

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The Prohlt!m r~( Bias in Teaching Political Science 87

Although this is a very reasonable conclusion, and one which may

in the end be accepted as a programme for action, the proposition that
there are some subjects which exclusively lend themselves to the
possibility of bias and indoctrination, wh ilst others are free from this
defect is one which deserves close examination. in effect, the
controversial subjects are held to be morals, religion and politics, and
often there is a tacit assumption that the traditional school subjects,
History, Geography, Mathematics, etc., are free from complications as
to values. This assumption is not always made, however. In an article
called ' Pawns against the Devil',* D.H. Monro describes the position
of those who oppose the introduc tion of any va lue-element into the
school, curnculum suggesting that only the most straight-for.vard type
of history is suitable for teaching in schools, and that criticism in
literature should be reserved until the critic has sufficient taste and
maturity. He envisages them arguing: 'It is repulsive a to think of cocky
little schoolboys being encouraged to find flaws in Shakespeare or to
sneer at the dreams (however unpractical they may have been) of Shelley.
Similarly, the traditions and values on wh ich our own community has
be~n built should be approached as a precious inheritance which it would
be tragic to lose, and which it is essential to understand, not as kind of
Aunt Sally at which the immature may be allowed to hurl their
intellectual ammunition in the hope that their aim will gradually
improve** . But Monro himself is unable to accept this argument.
Following John Stuart Mill, he agues instead that to understand anything
fully is to understand the arguments against it.
What becomes clear from this discussion, however, is that there
is in fact a range of subjects which only on a very simple level can be
considered value-free. And even 0111 this very simple level it is doubtful
whether thy are after all as value-free as they appear. It is a well-known
and unfortunate fact of life that history textbooks vary from country to
country throughout the world, with for instance defeats and victories
differently viewed and interpreted by victor~ and vanquished. Geography,
again, is non-controversial when it is dealing. with the position of rivers
or the shape of coast-lines, but not when describing national boundaries,
where a particular political viewpoint tends to be taken for granted
(consider, fur example, the different local geography taught in Arab and

• In E. L. French, cd , .He/bourne SIUdies in f:duca<io11 (Melbourne Univcrs it) Press,

1964).
•• Ibid .. pp. 36-7

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88 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

Israeli schools), or in describing the way of life of the inhabitants of

different countries. (There is a biased and an unbiased way of describing
life in South Afric~ for instance.) Again, the study of literature deals
with life, and the teacher's outlook on life will shop his comments to
an extent of which he may be unaware.
But, it may be argued, even if these subjects do form a marginal
category not as blatantly non-factual and evaluative as politics, morals
and religion, but sharing some of these features, there is still a further
area of traditional school subjects which is completely value-free. In
particular, mention might be made of Science, Languages, Mathematics
and Art. However, even the teaching so Science offends some
susceptibilities; as an example one could cite the teaching of Darwinism
and evolutionary theory, which fundamentalist Christians see, not as
the imparting of facts, but rather as the taking up of a position which
is not merely controversial but actually false. Languages and
Mathematics, again, are not usually used for indoctrinatory teaching
in our society, but this by no means shows that they cannot be. In pre-
war Germany, for instance, textbooks for the teaching of these subjects
were used as particularly insidious propaganda vehicles for accustoming
the minds of the young to certain political programmes. Peterson quotes
from Education and Society in Modern Germalf)' on the inclusion in
arithmetic books of 'a table giving the sum of money paid annually by
the State for elementary and secondary school children and for lunatics
in order to proye that a lunatic is an expensive liability; the child is
then told that there are 200,000 lunatics in Germany, and he is required
to estimate how much they cost the State each year and how many
marriage loans could be made with the money thus used. Other problems
to be worked out deal with the Jews and military events.' •
As far as Art is concerned, it is sufficient to say that what children
are encouraged to do under this name in Russia is very different from
what they are encouraged to do io the West: and that Art is not, in
Communist countries, considered to be something that has nothing at
all to do with politics and values generally.
It follows, then, that there is no real case for excluding certain
subjects altogether from the school curriculum as being uniquely liable
to evoke bias: since, if the precedi111g argument is accepted, it will be

• A.D.C. Pererson. A Htmdred Years oj£ducalion (london: Ouckwonh. 2nd ed., 1960)
p. 52.

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The Problem of Bias in Teaching Political Science 89

seen that bias is something to be first understood and defined, and then
avoided, if it is though undesirable, in the context of every teaching
subject.
Instead of a definition of indoctrination, then, in tern1s of content,
it becomes necessary to consider the alternative suggestion of a definition
which makes no reference to the subject-matter of the teaching, but only
to either its manner or its intention.
In an article called ' Adolescents into Adults', • R.M. Hare
criticized the point of view put forward by Wilson in his article, arguing
that in place of a definition in terms of content, what is required is a
definition in terms of aim or intention. Wilson, Hare argues, having
posed the false dilemma-method or content--went on to make the
mistake of opting for content on fallacious grounds. His grounds
depended- as has already been stated-on accepting a definition of what
is rational in terms of what is accepted by 'sane and sensible people.'
Hare points out that almost everybody would consider himself to belong
to this category; in particular he mentions Roman Catholics wl1.1. to
many outsiders, would seem most definitely to be indoctrinators. ar:d
whose views, again to outsiders, do not seem to be of a type which mus;
be accepted by all sane and sensible people, and who yet Wt•u ld
neverthel ·ss certainly claim that their views were of this nature. On
grounds such as these, Hare suggests, one cou ld never arrive at
agreement over a ' right' content, or a ' right' doctrine.
In the light of these criticisms, it is of interest to consider what
John Wilson has added to his views on the nature of indoctrination in
the recent publication by the Farmington Trust, An Introduction to
Moral Education ... His emphasis here has ~hifted from content to
method; although as far as content is concerned. he does hold that belief
is an essential aspect of indoctrination. Simply t!l get people to do things.
or to feel in a certain way, is not, he suggests, indoctrination. since this
necessarily involves at least some element of getting people to believe
things. The stress, however, is upon how these beliefs are inculcated.
and Wilson ' s suggestion now it that the question of whether
indoctrination has taken place or not turns upon the question of whether
or not non-rational methods have been used to inculcate the belief. He

• In THB Hollin>. UJI . cit.

•• J Wil son. N . Williams and B. Su2arrnan . /ntro:wctt0/1 to .llol'lll f. d t•clllton
tl '• " '"'"d'"onh: Penguin. 1967).

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90 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

says: ' Indoctrination implies that a person is implanting certain types

Jf beliefs by non-rational or illegitimate methods.• It will be seen that
:n the phrase 'certain types of beliefs' a covert reference to content is
:;till retained , without being further amplified, although the new
definition is principally in terms of method.
Unlike Atkinson, Wilson does not agree that the use of non-
rational methods is an essential feature of the education and training
of young children, since he considers that almost always this can be
a\•oided. He suggests that in avo iding it (i.e, the use of non-rational
methods of instruction) the factual question is raised of ' Does this way
of seeing this, this sort of language, increase or diminish the child's
rationality, in the sense of his appreciation of and control over reality?• •
But since the problem of indoctrination is fundamentally a conceptual
m·.her than a factual question, and Wilson implicitly recognizes this,
he suggests also a further double criterion of a less facn1al kind: if we
are to say that indoctrination has not taken place, then the beliefs which
a child or a person entertains at the end of the teaching programme
must, (a) be arrived at by methods w hich are not non-rational met hods,
and (b) be susceptible to adaptation or change with changes in the real
world situation.
Since Hare in his art icle also assumed that th e use of
indocrr'natory or non-rational methods was inevitable in the upbringing
of young children, it is important to consider why Wilson denies th is,
and what it IS that he means in making his den ial. It turns, it would
seem, on his use of the phrase ' non-rational methods. ' When Atkinson
or Hare use this term, they are using it in its broad sense to apply to all
those aspects of children's education where authority. or even pure
power, rather than persuasion by appeal to reason, is used to secure
cu tain ends. These ends will almost always be modes of behaviour
rather than beliefs, and the younger the child, the more likely this is to
be the case. Wilson, on the other hand, although he ln.; on occasion
used the notion of non-rational methods in this way,**" With reference
to the eliciting of behaviour, has here deliberately restricted the use of
the tenn to cases where what is aimed at is the establishment of a belief.
Since what children believe is of less pressing importance for adulls

• Ibid .. I'· 172.

u Ibid., p. I 73
. ... E.g. in ·f'.tucatiun and Indoctrination ·, in conneel ion \\ith stoppinj! a child onakinf: a
1 :'1is~. p. _t;

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The Problem of Bias in Teaching Political Science 91

than how they behave, what was impossible becomes by this new
definition perfectly possible.
However, the phrase 'non-rational methods', which was readily
comprehensible in its broad sense, demands a much more explicit
definition in its new sense than Wilson cares to give it. Brain-washing
techniques and physical or physiological control are plainly ruled out,
but so, Wilson appears to think, are all cases of telling somebody
something without explaining the reasons why you thin k it to be true.
But can it be indoctrination simply to tell a child that Stockholm is the
capital of Sweden? If so, then the possibility of avoiding indoctrination
becomes once again doubtful. But there is in any case an air of circularity
in defining indoctrination in terms of the use of non-rational methods,
particularly in conj unction with the reinforcing worked ' illegitimate.'
It is clear that both these terms are to be understood as synonymous
with ' indoctrinatory,' but a criterion for distinguishing what is
indoctrinatory from what is not, is no nearer to having been established.
The second criterion suggested by Wilson- that of readiness to change
one's beliefs with changes in t!he world- which, because it is n:ore
specific, would at first sight appear more valuable, is unfortunatfiiY not
appropriate for this task. For. particularly in connection with political
beliefs. there are people who hold their beliefs in lively appreciation of
external developments which have a bearing on their beliefs. people who
will adapt and revise their original beliefs in the light of these
developments: there are at the same time people who will cling to their
beliefs in the face of total change, ignoring any appeal for ratil)nal
reconsideration. But that these two classes of people owe their
characteristics to the people from whom they originally obtained their
beliefs seems in the highest degree unlikely. It would in any case be an
unfortunate situation if one could never recognize indoctrination when
it was taking place, but had always to await the future, and the
observations of pupils' behaviour that changes in the ' real world'
situation might or might not make possible.
If it is agreed, then, that the search for a criterion must centre on
the teacher rather than the taught, we may return to Hare's article, and
his suggestion that the crucial factor is the aim of the educator. In til~
case of small children, he says, the methods used may be the satw· .ts
indoctrinatory ones, i.e., they may be authoritarian, but if thei r ultimate
aim is to enable the children to think for themselves later in life. then
this is not indoctrination. And her he makes the point which giv.:s his

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92 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

article its title: that the educator is trying to tum children into adults;
the indoctrinator wants to keep them perpetual children. The educator
watches for signs of thought with approval; the indoctrinator watches
f0r such signs, too. but because he is alert to suppress them. And Hare
sums up: ' Indoctrination only begins when we are trying to stop the
growth in our children of the cr.pacity to think for themselves about
moral questions.' •
J.P. White also offers a criterion of this kind, but in more specific
terms. He says: ' Indoctrinating someone is trying to get him to believe
that a proposition "p" is true, in such a way that nothing will shake
that belief.'** In this case, whilst the definition is wholly in terms of
intention, White makes a clear distinction between the real and the
avowed intention, in order to overcome the objection to this type of
criterion. that many people who would be considered indoctrinators
could dissociate themselves from the charge simply by claiming that
their intention was not 'to establish! belief in proposition "p" in such a
way that nothing would shake that belief, but rather to explore with
th~ir pupils its rational grounds. White argues thal if they are genuinely
prepare:d to do this, then in fact they should not be called indoctrinators.
whatever the nature of the beliefs they are instilling.
He considers, too, the suggestion that his definition needs to be
supplemented by the stipulation that the beliefs to be implanted must
be doctrinal beliefs, beliefs which form part of a religious, scientific or
political system; and he rejects this on the grounds that many other
things are indoctrination too, such as instilling in one's pupils the notion
that they are born for a particular and lowly function in life. In support
of his argument he cites a hypothetical case of a teacher trying to
indoctrinate his pupil with regard to a single false but neutral fact, such
as that Melbourne is the capital of Australia; and suggests that if the
teacher goes about instilling this belief in a particular way, suppressing
all counter-evidence, for instance, not permitting argument, and
endeavouring to induce a sense of guilt with regard to questioning the
belief, then the fact that the belief does not belong to a doctrinal category
is not in itself enough to prevent this being considered a case of
indoctrination.

• Op. cit.. 5: .
•• J. P. Wlulc. ·tndoctrinalillJl'. m R S. l'etcrs. cd.. Tit~ Concept <ifEducation ll.c111don:
Roull\'{lg · 8.: I-.egan PauL 19671p. 181.

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The Problem of Bias in Teaching Political Science 93

If it is accepted, then, that in the notion of aim or intention, with

real as opposed to stated aim established independently with reference
to a variety of criteria such as reaction to questioning, attitude to contrary
viewpoints, etc., a clear understanding of the notion of indoctrinate
becomes possible; and if it is also accepted that bias and indoctrination
are two sides of the same coin-bias being indoctrination looked at from
the point of view of the teacher and his material, whilst indoctrination
is bias looked at form the point of view of the teacher/pupil relationship;
then one further question must be c.onsidered. So far the discussion has
tended to be conducted from the assumption that bias and indoctrination
are things to be avoided, with their counterpart, impartiality, being taken
for granted as a desirable al1ernative. This is not, however, by any means
a necessary or an inevitable assumption.
When the subject for indoctrination appears desirable enough, then
there witt always be people to recommer.d the procedure, and to
condemn neutrality in respect of it. For instance, the committed
Christian may ask, but only rhetorically: 'Am I not to bring up my child
as a Christian?' The American local politician may enquire: 'Are we
not to bring up our children to love freedom and our democratic values?'
The general public after major wars have tended to lo'lk first at the
education system and blame the s~hools for the failings of the adult
population, demanding that childrei1 be moulded in the image that has
come to seem necessary. (It is no accident that major educational refonn
in both Britain and France has for a century come in the immediate
post-war years.) Similarly, a psychoanalyst may possess a clear view of
the type of child needed or adjustment to modern society, and may see
no objection to any method being used to obtain that type, with the good
of the child himself as a justification.
Perhaps the most powerful and persuasive argument for the putting
of a particular point of view in relation to, in its broadest sense, politics,
is that advanced by Sri Richard Acland in his book, Curriculum or
Life?• Acland argues that it is essential that all children should grow
up with a particular historical awareness, which it is his purpose in this
book to present and describe.
But valuable though such an insight may be, it is unfortunately
the case that once the principle has been accepted that children in
schools are fair targets for the implantation of excellent ideas, or good

• R. Acland, Curriculum or Life? (London: Gollancz. 1966).

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94 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

and valuable ways of looking at life, then the claimants press in from
all sides. Training for life, training for citizensh ip, training for
Christianity-how is one to divide between their conilicting claims? But
rather than attempt to do this, I should like to contrast this view of
education-the view that education consists in turning out products
carefully molded to someone's ideal- with a rather more austere view.
This is the v1ew that task conscious impartiality as its model, with
respect for the pupil's own latent powers of discrimination and ultimate
choice as its basis.
Impartiality here becomes merely a reflection of the teacher's belief
in the equality of persons, with his own viewpoint accorded no special
status over that of others, or indeed over that of his pupils at a later
date. In other words, he will not try to over-ride their future adult status
by feeding them ready-made ideas. Instead, he will concentrate on
equipping them with the skills they will need to make their own
de;cisions. On this subject, Monro says: 'Education is not merely or even
mainly the imparting of infonnation. It is much more a training in the
techniques by which the pupil can obtain infonnation for himself... The
whole curriculum should be designed to bring out the fact that human
knowledge is fallible, and continually being C'>rrected, and that there
are recognized techniques of gaining knowledge, for weighing evidence
and testing hypotheses.' •
Any teacher who subscribes to this view of education can safely
accept the task of teaching politics, confident that bias is no more likely
to mar the quality of his teaching in this than in any other field. To
add to this our earlier concluding, he may also feel secure that bias is
not something into which he may slip in an unwary n•oment, but that
it is rather a matter of conscious intent.
It is not an inevitable accompaniment of certain types of subject-
matter, and although there do exist indoctrinatory methods, the only
methods which are indubitably indoctrinatory are of such a gross kind
that they are both easily avoidable and also unlikely ever to be attempted
in our schools. If we agree, then, that only the intention to indoctrinate
counts, this need not be a vague and unspecific criterion. Instead it can
be supplemented with a number of clear practical tests. The teacher of
bias, the teacher who, whatever his protestations, is concerned to
indoctri nate, can be identified whenever one of a number of points of

' D. H !\.lonro. op. cit .. pp. 28-9

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The Problem of Bias in Teaching Political Science 9S

view is presented as though it were the only one possible; whenever

questions are suppressed rather than answered; whenever certain areas
of questioning are taboo: and whenever the education is psychologicall ~
unable to tolerate the expressing of dissenting views.

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 Political Parties and Elections

POLITICAL PARTIES

Introduction
The literature concerning political parties is almost as diverse as
the parties themselves, and as the old two-party political system becomes
more complicated by the rise of new parties. it becomes increasingly
necessary to have some framework within which to organize the field.
Definitions are not easy to formulate, but there are certain features
which are generally acce pted as a minimum statement of what
constitutes a political party:
(I) It must have an organization.
(2) It must compete for positions of political power within the
political system (i.e. contest elections) as one of its primary
aims.
(3) II must have a distinctive label that distinguishes it from other
political groups.
It is worth noting that you do not have to belong to a political
party in order to stand as a candidate in UK elections, and in recent
years there has been proliferation. of candidates, particularly at by-
elections, who describe themselves on the ballot paper usi ng curious
party names. Concern over such 'freak' candidatures during the First
W;>rld War led to the introduction of the deposit at parliamentary
elections. but its present level is now widely regarded as being too low
t" have ?ny deterrent value. Indeed, the Home Afl'airs Select Committee
n:port (I' I the Reoresrmtntinn nfthe People Acts (HC 32. Session 1982-

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Political Parties and Elections 97

1983) recommended that the deposit should be increased to £1000 and

periodically reviewed. The publicity surrounding by-elections and the
1969 change in the law which allowed candidates' descriptions on the
ballot paper to include their political activities may have encouraged
this trend, but eccentric independents do not fulfil l the first requirement
of having an organization. Even Independent Members standing for re-
election must be disqualified on this count, and it could be argued that
a party must seek (at least in theory) to fi ll more than one position of
political power if it is to be taken seriously.
Parties are generally regarded, by their activists at least, as being
useful because they 'organize the vote.' In pluralist societies a number
or parties compete for support amongst the electorate by putting forward
a distinct programme of policies, thus enabling people to choose between
them. In single-party states the party machine is difficult to distinguish
from the organs of executi ve power, so its functions differ substantially
from the parties we are considering here. This underlines the fact that
the literature of parties, and to some extent elections as well, is very
closely bound up with the political ideas and the political system in
which they operate.

Primary Sources
The literature relating to political parties is dom inated by the
publications of the parties themselves. Only by studying these primary
sources can the ideology and to som e extent the organizational strategy
of each party be accurately discovered. The party manifestoes are the
most important sources of the part' s ideology. They may be published
at any time, but they are always produced at the time of general election,
and can be found collected together in the Times Guide to the House of
Commons for the Parliament retumcd at each election. F. W.S. Craig
has also published a histo rica l C()Jie ction entitled British General
Election Manifestos 1900- 1974 (Macmillan, rev. edn, 1975), which is
mainly confined to Conservative, Labour and Liberal manifestos. The
Conservative Research Department a lso publishes from time to time The
Campaign Guide, which sets out detailed policy statements and criticizes
the stance of the other parties on the major issues of the day. A similar
publication was produced by the Labour Party before the 1979 General
Election, called Labour Party Campaign Handbooks. which appeared
in twenty-three parts, each covering a major policy area, but this was
not repeated in 1983.

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98 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

Annual reports of each party's conference not only show the major
issues of debate for the party but its organizational and personnel details
as well. Labour Party Conference Reports go back to 1900, although
the name Labour Party dates, strictly speaking, from 1906. The earliest
reports can be found in a reprinted volume. The Labour Party
Foundation Conference and Annual Conference Report 1900-1905
(Labour Representation Committee 1900-1905; Hammersmith Bookshop
reprint, 1967). From 1906 the series is simply called Labour Party
Conference Reports.
Conservative Party conference reports date from 1867, but since
1978 they no longer publish a full report, although they do release the
text of speeches by Ministers. This is much less satisfactory from an
archival point of view, but it does perhaps reflect the different place of
the party conference in Conservative Party Politics. Once again, F. W.S.
Craig has compiled and published a very useful work of reference:
Conser vative and Labour Party Conference Decisions 1945-1981
(Parliamentary Research Services 1982), which is arranged in broad
subject areas. The Liberal Party has never published verbatim reports
of its annua l conferences (which it p refers to call Assemblies), although
texts of the resolutions debated at each Assembly are available since
1976. The part> was established as the National Liberal Federation in
1877, but the party conference onl.y really became a forum for policy
discussion in the mid-1960s. A subject index to Assembly resolutions
since 1967 can be found in the Gladstone Club's Directory ofLibera1
Party Resolutions 1967-1978. with is annual supplements. The party
also produces an annual report giving details of work and organization
of the party during the previous year. The newest party of all, the Social
Democratic Party, continuing its conscious attempts to break out of the
old party system, does not hold a party conference in the traditional
sense. The party's representative policy-making body. the Council for
Social Democracy, meets three times a year to formulate policy. There
is no report of proceedings although major policy papers are published.
Once a year there are also Consultative Assemblies, at which rank-and-
file party members can discuss party policy, but no publications will
res ult from th ese. Most parties also publish weekly or monthl y
periodicals for th eir members which provide up-to-date statements of
the party's position on current even ts as well as news of internal party
developments. Labour Weekly ( 1971 -) and Liberal News ( 1936-) appear
weekly; Conservative News line (September 1982-) is monthly and the

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Political Parties and Elections 99

Conservative Research Department's Politics Today ( 1975-) appears

fortnight ly. Con fu singly, th e Labour Research Department, which
publishes the monthly Labour Research ( 191 7-), has no connection with
the Labour Party.
On a particular issue it is always advisable to check whether the
party has published a pamphlet on the subject. The bigger parties aim
to cover all major issues in their pamphlet series, smaller ones such as
Plaid Cymru or the Communist Party may only publish one or two items
al year, so their manifesto would be a better source of general policy.
Sometimes smaller parties produce usefu.l pamphlets about themselves
and their history. A recent example is Ian Birchall's The Smallest Mass
Party in the World (Socialist Workers Party, 1981 ). References can often
be found in the bibliographies of secondary sources. Some interest
groups and factions within the larger parties also produce newsletters
and pamphlets to publicize their po int of view, such as YL Newsletter
(Young Liberals), whic h can provide useful additional detail on
particular policy stances or on differences of opinion within the party.
One of the most influential groups is Conservative Action for Electoral
Reform, which represents a sizable section of Conservative Party opinion
in favour of proport ional rep resentation, and regu larly publishes
pamphlets on the subject. Equally significant to the Labour movement,
and of much greater antiquity and prestige, is the Fabian Society, wh ich
was founded in 1884 and 'exists to further socialist education and
research.' It is affiliate to affiliated to the Labour Party, and publishes
Fabian News (1891-) as we ll as the Fabian Tracts (1884-), Fabian
Research Series ( 1932-) and Young Fabian series of pamphlets
( 1961-). Their archives are in Nuffield College, Oxford. The Row Group,
although not connected with the Conservative Party, is open only to those
with Conservative views and serves as the Conservative equivalent of
the Fabian Society in publishing a major series of policy pamphlets.
Turning from ideology to organization, each party's constitution
and rules for constituency branches are pr inted either as part of the
annu al conference record or as separate pamphlets. The constitutions
of the major parties are reproduced in J.D. Lees and R. Kimber,
Political Parties in Modern Britain (Routledge and Kcgan Paul, 1972);
but since the party conferences usually have the power to amend the
constitution, a new one tends to be pri nted after any changes have been
made. Detailed party procedures on such matters as the selection of
parliamentary candidates, may also be fou nd in the party's ru les for

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100 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

constituency branches. The Conservative Party, for example, has Model

Rules for Constituency and Branch (rev, edn, Conservative C~ntral
Office, 1982) and the Labour Party publishes Rules for Constituency
Labour Parties & Branches ( 1981 ). References to the constitution and
rules of regional parties can be found in United Kingdom Facts, by R.
Rose and I. McAllister (Macmillan. 1982).
Both the Labour and Conservative Parties have libraries at their
London headquarters where researchers can consult their publications
on request. Most of the Conservative Party archives have been deposited
at the Bodleian Library, but the archives of the Labour Party can be
consulted in London by appointment, subject to a fiften-year closure rule
on sensitive material. The other parties, suffering from a lack of
resources, do not operate their own libraries as such.

Secondary Sources
Works about political parties can best be considered under three
main headings. They tend to focus on either the party system, party
organization and finance or on studies of individual parties.
Tile Party System
A major theme of recent writings is the future of the system. Does
the proliferation of parties means the end of the two-party system? H.M.
Drucker explores this theme in his Multi-party Britain (Macmillan,
1979), which includes chapters by contributors on major and minor
parties, as well as a very useful section on extra-parliamentary parties
which are not otherwise well documented. A more analytical approach
is used by S.E. Finer in The Changing British Party System, 1945-1979
(American Enterprise Institute, 1980), which also discusses party
organization and the impact of the electoral system. Another study of
the likely effects of the rise of 'minor' parties in David Butler's
Governing Without a Majority (Collins, 1983), which discusses various
types of possible future 'hung parliaments'. A thorough up-to-date
survey is provided by Alan R. Ball's British Political Parties: the
Emergence of a Modern Party System (Macmillan, 1981), which
includes a good bibliography. Further historical detail can be found in
the standard works: The Growth of the British Party System, Ivor
Bulmer-Thomas (2nd edn, John Baker, 1967) and Party Politics: the
Growth of Parties, by Sir Jvor Jennings (Vol. 2, Cambridge University
Press, 1961 ). For many years accepted as the standard explanation of

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Political Parties and Elections 101

the rise of parties, Democracy and the Organisation ofPolitical Parties,

by M.l. Ostrogorski (2 vols, Quartet Books, 1964) is still a classic work
of reference in the field . S. H. Beer has just reprinted his Modem British
Politics (Faber, new edn, 1982) in which he takes a historical view of
the links between ideology and policy making, concentrating mainly
on the Conservative and Labour pa.nies.
Party Organization and Finance
' The best modem study of pomitical parties in Richard Rose's The
Problem of Party Government (Macmillan, 1974). An important
comparison of tile internal policies of the Labour and Conservative
parties in to be found in British Political Parties by R.T. Mckenzie
(Heinemann, 2nd edn, 1963). Party organization is well analysed in Less
and Kimber's Political Parties in Modem Britain (Macmillan, 1972),
and a detailed examination of the regional structure of the Labour and
Conservative parties can be found in David J. Wilson, Power and Party
Bureaucracy in Britain (Saxon House, 1975). An excellent historical
study of the growth of party organization after the Reform Act of 1867
at both national and local level is H.J, Hanham, Elections and Party
Management: Politics in the Time of Disraeli and Gladstone (Harvester
Press, 2nd edn, 1978). It includes a useful bibliography. Studies of local
constitue ncy parties tend to focus on election campaigns, but
constituency Labour Parties in Britain, by E. G. Janosik (Pall Mall
Press. 1968), is a good example of a study of constituency party leaders
and activists. A more detailed analysis of poli4fal sociology and party
membership is D. Berry's survey of attitudes in Liverpool: The Sociology
of Grass Roots Politics (Macmillan, 1970). The subject of candidate
selection is dealt with by two classic studies: A. Ranney. Pathways to
Parliament (Macmillan, 1965) and M. Rush, The Selection of
Parliamentary Candidates (Nelson, 1969). It is a tribute to their efforts
that nobody has h:td much to say on the subject since their publication.
The study of party finance should be much easier since the publication
of Michael Pinto-Duschinsky's British Political Finance 1830-/980
(American Enterprise Institute, 1981 ). Consideration of the arguments
for state aid to political parties outside Parliament can also be found in
one of the few official publications in this field, namely the Report of
the Commillee on Financial Aid to Political Parties (Chairman, Lord
Houghton; Cmnd. 6601 HMSO, 1976). which recommended state aid
at both central and local levels by a system of partial reimbursement of
candidates' election expenses. This has never been implemented. The

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102 Mvdem Methods of Teaching Political Science

highly respected Hansard society for Parliamentary Government

published a report on the subject in July 1981 entitled Paying for
Politics, in which they recommended a system of state aid dependent
upon matching contribut ions to party funds . This provoked little
comment. Analysis of company dona tions (principally to the
Conservative Party). appear every year in the August issue of Labour
Research and in more detail in the Labour Party Research Department's
regular lnfonnation Paper. Company Donations to the Tory Party and
other Political Orga11i.mtions, which is usually published in August of
September.
Since 1975, state aid has been given to opposition parties in
Parliament on the basis of the number of seats won and votes gained at
the previous general election. It is designed to finance secretarial and
research support manly for opposition front-bench spokesmen.
The role of the party conference is thoroughly discussed by Lewis
Minkin in his book The Labour Party Conference (Manchester
University Press, 2nd edn, 1980). Unfortunately, there is nothing similar
for the other parities.
Individual Parties
It is noticeable that more is being written about elections and
voting behaviour than about parties as entities. There are very few
studies of individual parties, apart from the minor parties whose
increasing ele..:toral success has brought them widespread attention;
whereas many books concentrate on the party in power by discussing a
particular administration, for example Labour in Power? A Study of
the Labour Government 1974-79, by D. Coates (Longman, 1980): or
on a short historical period, for example, P. Adelman, The Decline of
the Liberal Party 1910-1931 (Longman, 1918); or on one aspect of the
party such a~; The Making of Conservative Party Policy: the
Conser vative Research Department since 1929, by John Ramsden
(Longman 1980). Biographies of Ministers or prominent politicians
should not be overlooked as they can provide valuable insights into
particular incidents or periods.
Tile Conservatwe Party
An early bibliography of Conservatism is G.D.M. Block, A Source
Book of Conservatism (Conservative Political Centre, 1964). There are
many books discussing the history of the party at various periods. but
among the be~t are The Conservative Party from Peel to Churchill, by

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Political Parties and Elections 103

Robert Blake (Eyre and SpottiswoO<ie, 1970), which surveys the period
from 1830 to 1955: The Conservatives: History from their Origins to
1965. editer' by Lord B1.1tler (Allen and Unwin, 1977); and to bring the
story up to date, The Conservative Party fi'om Heath to Thatcher, by
R. Behrens (Saxon House, 1980). The major work on ideology remains
Jan Gilmour's Inside Right: A Study of Conservatism (Hutchinson.
1977), although Z. Layton-Henry's collection of conference papers,
Conser vative Party Politics (Macmillan, 1980), provides an interesting
insight not the Conservative Party as a party in opposition. A critical
look at more recent developments is taken by S. Hall and M. Jacques
in The Politics ofThatcherism (Lawrence and Wishart, 1983), which
is a collection of essays from Marxis m Today.
Tlte Labour Party
TI1e early history is well set out in The Emergence of the Labour
Party 1880-1924. by Roger Moore (Hodder and Stoughton, 1978).
Details of the developing party organization are to the found in A History
ofthe Labour Party from 191-1. by G.D.H. Cole (Routledge and Kl!gan
Paul, 1948). A good introduction which also studies the more recent
period is A Short .History ofthe Labo ur Party, by H. Pel ling (Macmillan,
6th edn, 1978). Dennis Kavanagh has edited a useful collection of papers
which discuss various aspects of current controversy within the party:
The Po/itk·s of the Labour Party (Allen and Unwin, 1982). One of the
best studies of ideology remains Parliamentary Socialism. by R.
Miliband (Merlin Press, 2nd edn, 1972), although Anthony Crosland's
Crosland's thinking in The Future of Socialism (Jonathan Cape, 1956)
and Socialism Now, essays editted by Dick Leonard (Jonathan Cape,
1974) is still considered a formative influence in socialist philosophy.
A more recent account of ideological division in the party isS. Haseler's
The Tragedy of Labour (Biackwll, 1980), and The Battle for tbe Labour
Party. by David and Maurick Kogan (Kogan Page, 2nd edn, 1983),
charts the recent power struggle s within the party in a clear and
structured way.
TI1e Liberal Party
The Liheral Party is not so well documemed as it might be, in
spite of many discussions of its rise and fall at various periods. The
most useful works are The Formation ofthe British Liberal Party 1857-
68, by J. Vincent (Constable, 1966); HistOI)' ofthe Liberal Party 1895-
1970, by R. Douglas (Sidgwick and Jackslln 1971): and Chris Cook' s

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104 Modern Methods of Teaching Poliiical Science

more recent Short History ofthe Liberal Party 1900-1 976 (Macmillan,
1976) , which includes a very useful bibliographic note. A more
sociological study is The Liberal Party, by J.S. Rasmussen (Constable,
1965). A thorough historical study of ideology is P. Clarke's Liberals
and Social Democrats (Cambridg,e University Press, 1978), now a
source of certain renewed interest. Clarke's arguments also appear in a
book edited by V. Bogdanor, Liberal Party Politics (Oxford University
Press, 1983), which surveys Liberal Party fortunes since 1931. It is a
similar work to Layton-Henry's Conservative Party Politics and
Kavanagh's The Politics of the Labour Party (see 1bove), which also
resulted from conferences sponsored by lhe Social Science Research
Council (now lhe Economic and Social Research Council).
Tlte Social Democratic Party
Although a recent phenomenon, the formation and development
oflhe SOP has attracted considerable attention. Jan Bradley's Breaking
the Mould? (Martin Robertson, 1981) traces its emergence from the
Labour Party, while Hugh Stephenson's Claret and Chips (Michael
Joseph, 1982) focuses on the leading personalities and the central
organization. The latter reprints as appendices some useful documents
such as the Limehouse Declaration.
Minor Parties
The best starting point is Minor Parties at British Parliamentary
Elections 1885-1974, by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan, 1975), which lists
which parties have stood, lheir candidates and results, and gives a short
list of sources on each. This should be supplemented by United Kingdom
Facts (see above), Chapter 3: Political Parties, which covers parties in
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the latter being excluded from
Craig. A short bibliography is given in each case. An early study of
small parties and pressure groups is G. Thayer, The British Political
Fringe (Anthony Blond, 1965). Some of the material has been
superseded by later works, but it is still a useful survey of groupings
who were then outside the two-party system. Other studies of minor
panics have concentrated on those of the Right, the Left or the various
nationalist viewpoints. One of the most useful is Left, right: the March
vf Political Extremism in Britain, by J. Tomlinson (John Calder. 1981 ).
Blake Raker's recent 'expose' of the extreme Left in Britain '. The Fitr
L,;ji ( Wcidenfeld and Nicolson, 198 1). also contains some helpful
information not available elsewhere. Rightwing movements were not

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Political Parties and Elections 105

previously very well covered, but The British Right, edited by N. Nugent
and R. King (Saxon House. 1977) and Harvester Press' occasional seri.:s
of limited but useful bibliographical guides entitled The Radical Right
and Patriotic Movements in Britain (during 1975, published in 1978;
and during 1978, published in 1982) have helped to fill the gap. They
have also produced a similar publication dealing with left-wing political
movements entitled The Left in Britain: a Checklist and Guide
(Harvester Press, 1976) which covers groups that were active between
1904 and 1972. Single studies of individual small parties are too
numerous to list here, and there is certainly room for a comprehensive
bibliography in this area.

ELECTIONS

Introduction
The major purpose of any political party must be to cont:::st
election. It is inevitable, therefore, that much of the literature relati ng
to parties in also important to the understanding of elections. However.
the electoral system within which paretics have to operate, the election
process itself and the political implications of both of these have each
been stu~ied separately and have generated a vast body of literature.

Primary Reference Sources

It is something of a curiosity that, unlike many other European
countries, we do not have a handy volume which sets out the body of
our electoral law. The nearest source is the current edition of Halsbury 's
Laws of England, whose volume on elections covers most electoral law,
although other relevant provisions are scattered under different headings.
Rules for the conduct of a parliamentary election arc set out in the
standard work Parker 's Conduct of PAr/iamemary Elections (Charles
Knight, new edn, 1983), which is. now in a loose-leaf format. More
procedural detail can be found in Chapter II of Erskine May's
Parliamentary Practice (Butterworths, 20th cdn, 1983). Local election
rules differ slightly, and here Little 's Local Government Elections (shaw
and Sons, 8th edn, 1979) can help.
Detai ls of which areas are included in each constituency are
contained in the schedules to the schedules to the Act implementing
the latest redistribution of seats. These are usually called Rcprcsentatillll
of the people Acts, and they put into effect the agreed reports of the

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106 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

Parlbmentary Boundary Commissions, Since 1944 the four Boundary

Commissions (for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) have
been required to report at ten to fifteen-year intervals. Previous reports
were in 1947, 1969. The latest reports are:
Boundary Commissionfor England(2 vols, Cmnd 8797, 1983);
Boundary Commission for Wales (Cmnd, 8798, 1983);
Boundary Commission for Scotland (2 vols, Cmnd. 8794, 1983)
an d
Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland (cmnd. 8753, 1982).
The best source for maps of each constituency is the appropriate
Boundary Commission report. The tracing of boundary changes over
the years is a complex task, and although much can be done by
comparing maps and the Boundary Commission recommendations over
the years, the non-specialist is better advised to use F. W.S. Crag's helpful
summ ary, Boundaries of Parliamentary Constit11encies 1885-1972
(Political Reference Publications, 1972). It is important to distinguish
hece the Parliamentary (PBC) from the Local Government Boundarf
Commissions (LGBC). There are four LGCBs matching the four PBCs.
Their function is to draw local government boundaries as the PBC's is
to draw parliamentary constituency boundaries, but they operate under
S{' parate legislation and separate rules. This section considers only the
Parliamentary Commissions.
Works concerned with election results are a basic source for any
further investigation. Parliamentary election results are fairly easy to
discover, largely thanks to the efforts of Fred Craig, who has produced
a number of. indispensable works of reference in this field. His series of
British Parliamentary Election Results covers the period 1832 to 1973:
{1832- 1885 : Macmillan, 1977. 1885-1918: Macmillan, 1974 . 1918-
1'.>49: Macmillan, new edn, 1977. 1950- 1973 : Political Reference
Publications, 1983). Thereafter Britain Votes 2 (Parliamentary Research
Services, 2nd edn, 1980: Britain Votes 3 (1984) cover parliamentary
election results from 1974 to 1983. For detailed analyses of different
a~rects of elections and by-elections, his British Electoral Facts Facts
IS32-1 980 ( Parliamentary Research Services, 1918) will answer most
q4estions. Further discussions of by-elections since 191 8 are contained
in By Elections in British Politics. edited by C. Cook and J. Ram sden
(Mac millan, 1973), which lists in an appendix the results of all contested
by ·~ kct ions from 1919 to March i 973 (with a few exceptions). Election

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Political Parties and Elections 107

resu lts before 1832 arc less easy to obtain, but Fred Craig has edited
an edition of Henry Stooks Smithy's Parliaments of England (Political
Reference Publications, 2nd edn, 1973), which gives the results from
17 15 to 1847. Before 1715 there is no comparable reference book, apart
from the original Official Return of Members of Parliament (HC 69,
session 1877-1 878) which lists the Members elected to each Parliament
as far back as 1213 , in chronological order of Parliament with an
alphabetical index of names. This publication is not without errors and
omissions, but it is the most comprehensive work available and always
worth consulting. As far as Irish seats at Westminster are concerned,
F. W.S. Craig does not include details of any before the creati ng of the
Northern Ireland Parliament in 1921. They can, however, be found in
Parliamentary Election Resuits in Ireland, 1801 -1922, edited by B.M.
Walker(Royallrish Academy, Dublin, 1978).
The various parliamentary bodie£ in Northern Ireland are well
covered. Northern Ireland Parliamentary Election Results 1921-1972,
by Sydney Elliott (Political Reference Publication. 1973) gives the results
for all general elect ions and by-elections during t he Stormont
Parliament. Elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1973 are
summarized in The Northern Ireland General Elections of 1973 (Cmnd.
5851, HMSO, 1975), and the results of the elections to the 1975
Convention are rcund in most detail in The 1975 Northern Ireland
Convention Election, by Ian McAllister (University of Strathclyde
Survey Research Centre, Occasional, Paper No. 14, 1975). The first
elections to the present Assembly are listed and discussed in The 1982
Northern Ireland Assembly Election, by S. El liott and A. Wilford
(University of Strathclyde, I 983).
Local elections results are much more d ifficult to find, especially
at ward level. The only local election results which have been compiled
for elections before 1973 concern the GLC: Greater London Votes I :
The Greater London Council 1964-1970, by F.W.S. Craig (Political
Reference Publications, 1971 ). No. fu rther works were published in this
series. Since then, they are better d ocumented for Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland than they are for England-an unusual and difficult
situation. As far as Scotland is concerned, since 1973 J.D. Bochel and
D.T.Denver have been compiling tl1e results after each election. Their
two most recent publications are The Scouish Regional Elections 1978:
Results and Statistics (with B.J. McHardy: Uni versities of Dundee and
Lancaster, 1978) and The Scottish District Elections 1980: Results and

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108 Modem Methods of Teaching Political Science

Statistics (University of Dundee, 1980). For Wales some data are

available in A Political and Electoral Handbook for Wales, by D.
Balsom and M. Burch (Gower, 1980), although, unlike Bochel and
denver, individual results are not given.
Local election results for Northern Ireland are, like Scotland,
contained in a variety of sources. This time the main contributor is
Sydney Elliott. He was co-author of the Command Paper on the Northern
Ireland elections of 1973 (see above) which includes a section on the
local elections in that year. Unfortunately the detailed results are not
included. He has also compiled jointly with F.J. Smith, Northern Ireland
Local; Government Elections of 1977 (Queen's University of Belfast,
1977) and Northern Ireland, the District Council Elections of 1918
(Queen's University of Belfast, 1981), both of which show individual
transfers of votes at each stage of the count as well as the final figures.
The only results which are readily available for areas in England
are those for the GLC. Fred Craig has compiled the results for GLC
elections from 1964 to 1970 (see above), but since then the GLC itself
taken on the task of compiling and publishing results for both the GLC
elections and the London Borough Council elections. The results for
each election are published in separate voiumes, the latest ones being
Greater London Council Election 7 May 1981 and London Borough
Council Elections 6 May 1982. The detailed election results for any
other area can only be found in local newspaper reports at the time or
by contacting each local Returning Officer.
The results of national and regional referenda are important to
the study of the political and electoral system, and are all included in
British Electoral Facts /832-/980 (see above), where the references to
the official publications containing the results of each can be found.
The main sources of statistics relating to elections which go further
than the resu lts themselves are Electoral Statistics, pub-lished annually
by the Office of Population. Censuses and Surveys and supplemented
periodically by the OPCS Monitor; and the Annual Abstract a/Statistics.
which also contains data on numbers of electors, votes cast, etc., for
the last eleven elections. After each general election an official return
of election expenses is published wh ich includes details of polling
stations, postal votes and spoilt ball to papers together with the expenses
of each candidate. The return relating to the 1983 general election is
Election Expenses (HC 130, Session 1983-1984: HMSO, 1983).

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Political Parties and Elections 109

Secondary Sources
There have been countless studies of different aspects of elections
over the years, and to the student of electoral history contemporary
accounts of the system and its operation at various periods are always
valuable. Nevertheless some organization of the field is essential to avoid
confusing readers unfamiliar with the complexities of the subject matter.
Tile Electoral System
Although it is now slightly out of date, R.L. Leonard's Elections
in Britain (Van Nostrand, 1968) gives one of the clearest accounts of
the technicalities of the system as well as describing in detail what
actually happens during an election. The best analysis of the workings
of the electoral system remains D.E. Butler's The Electoral System in
Britain since 1918 (The C larendon Press, 2nd edn, 1963) which
discusses how the present system developed as well as how it operates.
The extension of the franchise has always been a popular subject of
study, and there are a number of useful sources which could be used to
supplement Part I of Butler' s book if more details were needed. The
passage of the major electoral refonns of the nineteenth century can be
traced in various works on each of the Acts. TI1e 1832 Act is the subject
of Michael Brock' s The Great Reform Act (Hutchinson University
Library, 1973) and J.R.M. Butler' s The Passing of the Great Reform
Bill (Frank Cass, 1964), which recounts the political controversy of the
time through the accounts of the m ain participants. The consequences
of these early reforms are dealt with in Politics in the Age of Peel: a
Study in the Technique of Parliamentary Representation 1830-50 by
Norman Gash (Harvester Press, 2 nd edn, 1977). The next attempts at
rcfonn arc charted in f.W . Smith's The Marking of the Second Reform
Bill (Cambridge University Press, 1966). A more detailed account of
the effects of these reforms and those of the mind-1880s is contained
in Charles Seymour's very th oroug h Electoral Reform in England and
Wales: the Development and Operation ofthe Parliamentary Franchise
1832-1885 (Oxford University Press, 1915; reprint, David and Charles,
1970). Another good account of the refonn s of the second half of the
century is Comelisu O' Leary' s The Elimination of Corrupt Practices
in British Elections 1868-191 / (The Clarendon Press, 1962). Moving
on to d iscussions of twentieth-century developments, H.L. Morris'
Parliamentary Franchise Reform 1885-1918 (Columbia Univers ity
Press, 192 1) is less analytical than Seymour or Butler, although he does

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110 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

discuss the campaign for women's suffrage in some detail, a top ic

surprisingly poorly treated many sources. The best work devoted to this
subject is Constance Rover's Women's Suffrage and Party Politics in
Britain, 1866-19.14 (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967), which includes
a useful appendix showing Private Members' Bills attempting to
in\roduce the enfranchisement of women. Roger Fulford's Votes for
Wiimen (Faber, 1957), is a good readable study of the suffragette
m~wement and its eventual success. Fulford converts the period up to
19~ 8, and a chapter in J.F.S. Ross' Elections and Elector (Eyre and
Spottiswoode, 1955) deals with the extension of the franchise from 1918
to 195 I (Chapter 16, Women in Parliament, pp. 252-268). A more
detailed account of the passage of the 1918 Representation of the People
Act is in Martin Pugh, Electoral Reform in War and Peace /906-18
(Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978), which, despite its irritating typescript
appearance, gives more of the flavour of the events than Morris' rather
dry style.
The parliamentary franchise has unfortunately never been identical
with the franchise for local elections. One of the very few sources on
this subject is The English Local Government Franchise by B. Keity-
Lucas (Blackwell, 1952), which concentrates large ly on nineteenth-
centu ry developments. A brief discussion of the twentieth century
position is found in Chapter 2 of A History of Local Government in
the Twentieth Century, by B. Ke ith-Lucas and P.G. Richard (Allen and
Unwin, 1978, pp. 18-23).
111e Election in Pratice
Sources range fron~ relatively straightforward accounts of the
conduct of the campaign nationally or locally to thoroughly researched
post-mortems on the outcome and investigations into th e behaviour of
the electorate. Into the first category come the ' instant' guides to the
next general election. A good example is the series of Guardian/ Quartet
Election G uides, wh ich not only examine th e performance of the
incumbent adm inistration, but give considerable background detail on
the various issues to figure in the campaign. In 1983 a trio of books
appeared, written by Members of Parliament, arguing the case for each
of the three main parties by explaining their policy and ideology. Chris
Patten put The Tory Case. Austin Mitchell The Case for Labour and
Alan Seith argued The Case for the Liberal Party and the Alliance (all:
Longman, 1983). They were published so near the 1983 general election
that it is dou btful whether they swayed an y voters, but they will be

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Political Parties and Elections Ill

referred to as classic statements of each party's current philosophy for

many years.
Into the category of post-mortems come studies of single general
elections, an interesting gender which deserves more attention. Since
1945 Nuffield College, Oxford has sponsored a series of these, in which
the biggest single contribution has been made by David Butler, who has
been author or co-author of each on:e since 1951. His last three works
have been written jointly with Dennis Kavanagh: The British General
Election of February 1974 (Macmillan, 1974); The British General
Election of October 1974 Macmillan, 1975); and The British General
Election of 1979 (Macmillan, 1980). Each of these goes far beyond a
summary of the events of the election concerned. The 1979 study, for
instance, includes a survey of the record ofthe previous administration,
the performance of the opposition, major political events, re-selection
struggles and the effect of media coverage. An American initiative has
led to a series entitled Britain at the Polls, under the editorship of H.R.
Penniman. Two studies have appeared so far- Britain at the Polls: the
Parliamentary Elections of 1974 (American Enterprise Institute.
Washington, 1975) and Britan at the Polls, 1979: Study ofthe General
Election (American Enterprise Institute, Washington, 1981). Using a
mixture of British and non-British contributors, Penniman gives an
interesting comparative perspective on our own processes. There arc
number of studies of earlier elections, such as A.K. Russell's Liberal
Landslide: the General Election of 1906 (David and Charles, 1973)
and Baldwin Thwarts the Opposition: The British General Election of
1935, by T. Stann age (Croom Helm, 1980). A list of the major studies
of this type is given in the bibliography to The British Voter: em Atlas
and Survey since I 885, by M. Kinnear (Bats ford, 2nd edn, 1981 ) .
Kinnear surveys the results of each eleciion since 1885 and illustrates
the voting with maps. He also has useful analyses of swings, turnout
and voting behaviour.
A further type of election study focuses on a single constituency
and analyses grass-roots political activity and organization, which
usefully supplements the national perspective. Anyone interested in the
history of a particular constituency might find useful a longitudinal
study such as The Parliamentary History of G/amorgan 1542- I976, by
R. Grant (Christopher Davies, 1978). There is as yet no bibli<lgraphy
of sources in this field, although one is in compilation by th e author.).

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112 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Sci£'11Ce

An increasingly popular aspect of election studies is the analysis

of voting behaviour. Arguments about the extension of the franchise
often turned on the dangers of entrusting the vote to the mass electorate,
and although we now have universal education, the question of voter
rationality is still an important issue. The parties themselves want to
know which factors will encourage people to vote for them-policies,
personalities, image or tradition- and academic studies have begun to
concentrate on voting behaviour as an indicator of th e success of the
electoral system in producing the results that voters intend.
The most comprehensive study in the field is Political Change
in Britain, by D. Butler and D. Stokes (Macmillan, 2nd edn, 1974).
Besides attempting to explain the factors influencing an ·individual
voter's choice, including the impact of major issues. Butler and Stokes
also examine in detail the concept of party identification, which in turn
helps to explain shifts in party support over the years. More recent work
by lvor Crewe has shown that the once-popular notion that there were
' floating voters' who regularly switched their allegiance from one party
to another on longer describes voting behaviour. His theory of ' partisan
dealignment' is that traditional party allegiances are breaking down,
partly as a result of the rise of new parties. His Decade of Dea/ignmem,
written jointly with Bo Sarlvik (Cambridge University Press, 1983),
analyses these trends in the 1970s. A more detailed social psychological
study can be found in How Voters Decide, H.T. Himmelweit and others
(Academic Press, 1981), which re-analyses some of Butler and Stokes'
data. Sadly, the ' swingometer' only worked when there were two main
parties. A much more sensitive device is needed to portray the
complexities of electoral choices when so many more candidates are
involved. One interesting attempt to analysed the interaction between
politicians and voters is Jan (McLean's Dealing in Votes (Martin
Robertson, 1982). McLean discusses voting behaviour in the context of
the influences that may be exerted on an individual's choice, and links
it to the attitudes of elected politicians. He includes comparisons with
American experience. Another comparative study is Richard Rose's
Electoral Participation (Sage, 1980), a collection of papers relations
to different electoral systems, with attention focused on the analysis of
voting tumout.
Electoral Reform
Pressures for reform of the electoral system are usually in three
Jirection~-the extension of the franchise. the operation of electoral

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Political Parties and Elections 113

procedures and the effect of the sys1em itself. Since the achievement of
universal suffrage there have only been minor alterations to the
franchise, such as the recent enfranchisement of patients in mental
hospitals. There is some pressure for Irish nationals living in the UK
to be disfranchised, but this is unlikely to become a reality. On the
question of electoral procedures, the level of the deposit and the
provision of postal votes for people on holiday on polling day are two
topics of current concern. By far the most persistent calls for reform,
however, relate to the operation of the electoral system itself, Studies
of how votes are translated into seats and comparison's with other voting
systems have come to prominence mainly since the Second World War.
This is due partly to the results of particular general elections in which
parties obtained a majority of votes but a minority of seats, and partly
to the consistent underrepresentation of smaller parties in Parliament
in proportion to their support amongst the electorate.
The concept of representation has always been fundamental to the
study of democratic systems, and one of the clearest presentations of
the subject is A. H. Birch's Representation (Pall Mall Press, 1971),
which includes an extensive bibliography. A thorough critique of the
voting system, its effects and altemalives is J.F.S. Ross' Elections and
Elect01y (Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1955. It also contains a useful section
on the Speaker's Conferences on Electoral Refonn. In spite of being
written before many disparities between voting strength and seats had
become obvious, this book is still a very valuable comprehensive survey.
A more recent work which is a standard textbook for politics students
is Political Representation and Elections in Britain, by P. G. J. Pulzer
(Allen and Unwin, 3rd edn, 1975). Pulzer has a section on representation
in theory, as well as discussions ol the system in practice, including
the place of political parties in the electoral process. It is readable and
has useful footnotes and a good classified bibliography. Another well-
written analysis of our electoral system is lain Mclean's Elections
(Longman, 2nd edn, 1980). which also deals purely with Britain.
The works mentioned above are primarily critiques of the present
system, but there is a sizeable body of literature which not only analyses
what is said to be wrong with our 'e lectoral system, but advocates that
some form of proportional representation should take its place. The
classic work on the subject is by Britain's foremost campaigner for
proportional representat ion (PR)-Enid Lakeman . It is H ow
Democracies Vote: a Study of £/ect.oral Systems (Faber, 4th edn, 1974).

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114 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

It is the most thoro11gh and comprehensive account of not only our own
voting methods, but those in other voting systems, and contains strong
cogent arguments in favour of PR. The Electoral Reform, Society, of
which she was a director for many years, has library with a good
collection of books, pamphlets and newspaper cu ttings which can be
consulted by appointment. The n ext useful work to published was
Adversary Politics and Electoral Reform (Anthony Wigram, 1975), a
collection of essays elite by S.E. Finer. These in clude pieces about the
experience of European electoral systems the effect of our electoral
system on our economic life and the effect of electoral reform on :he
local Member of Parliament. This book is particularly interesting,
because Professor Finer admits to having revised his former anti-PR
opinions due to concern about the ' malfunctioning' of the political
system, as demonstrated by the break-up of the two-party system. In
1975 the Hansard Soviet for Parliamentary Government set up a
Commission to study the case for and against electoral reform and its
possible impact on the British political system. Its report, published in
1976, is a masterly summary of the present system, alternative systems
and the pros and cons of electoraJ reform. That were unanimous in
recommending that there should be electoral reform (Report of the
Hansard Society Commission on Electoral Reform Hansard Society,
1976). A more technical discussion ,o f the form ulae involved the various
voti ng systems can be found in The Political Consequences of Electoral
Laws by D.W. Rae (Yale Un iversity Press, rev. edn, 1971). His fi nal ·
chapter contains a rather complex statistical refutation of some of the
criticisms of PR, such as that it leads to a multiplicity of parties, or
causes government instability. Verv different styles are evident in two
of the best pleas in favour ofPR: Joe Rogaly's Parliament for the People
(Temple Smid1, 1976) is in simple language and is easy to read, whereas
Enid Lakeman 's latest book PQwer to Elect (Heinemann, 1982) is a
sober, serious statement of the case for the adoption of PR by the single
transferable vote method. Both are valuable, even if they appeal to
different audiences. Finally, Vernon Bogdanor has produced a very useful
book called The People and the Party System (Cambridge Un iversity
Press, 1981 ). The first part argues for the extension of the use of the
referendum, but the second advocates the introd uction of the single
transferable vote type of PR, and contains a very good historical su rvey
of the attempts to introduce PR since 1831.

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Political Parties and Elections 115

It is in these discussions of electoral reform that the two themes

of parties and elections are combined. Analyses of how votes an:
translate into seats and whether we elect the govemmenrwe deserve
inevitably involve the political parties as intennediaries in this process.
The two aspects are complementary, and should be studied together to
ac hieve a full understanding of our electoral system.

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 Parliament and Ministers

Parliament
Unlike the broad subjects covered by many of the chapters in this
book, this one is concerned with one specific institution, Parliament,
the sharp focus of our national politics. Frorn the majority party in the
House of Commons. seldom more than so me 400 persons, our
Government is fonned and this chapter concludes with mention of the
modest literature conceming this aspect of Parliament's role. The wider
issues of politics and constitutional history have been excluded. Political
part ies and elect ions, which generate the membership of the House of
commons, are treated in Chapter 8.

Bibliography
Considering the age and pr.e stige of Parliament as a national
institution, it is surprising how inadequate is the bibliography of the
subject For instance, it might be though that the standard Bibliography
ofBritish History Published by the Oxford University Press would offer
sound support, but, as the fo llowing detai!s show, comparatively short
entries are offered:
A Bibliography of English History to 1485. edited by Edgar
Graves, pp. 503-524 (Oxford University Press, 1975)
Bibliography of British Hist.ory 141$5-1 603, edited by Conyers
Read, 2nd edn. pp.88-96 (Oxford University Press, 1959)
Bibliography of British History 1603-1714, edited by Mary Keeler,
2nd edn, pp. 111-130 (Oxford Uni versity Press. 1970)
Bibliography of British Hist ory 17 14-1789. edit ed by Stanley
I
I
I.
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Parliament and Ministers 117

Pergellis and D.J. Medley, pp. 55-65 (Oxford University Press, 1955)
Bib/iographJ• of British History 1789-1851 , edited by Lucy Brown
and Jan Chrisue, pp. 62-70 (Oxford University Press, 1977)
Bibliography of British History 1851-1914, compiled and edited
by H.J. Hanham, pp. 50-60 (Oxford University Press, 1976).
In total then, a mere 70 pages including many duplicate entries,
in a bibliography running to 5500 pages. And what is more important,
a Libliography on Parliament that is decidedly patchy.
It is fortunate, therefore, that we can consult the entries under
the heading ENGLAND-PARLIAMENT... which are to be round in vol.
63 of the British Museum General Catalogue of Printed Books:
photolithographic edition to 1955 (263 vols, British Museum 1960-
1966). The entry runs to 562 colllmns and to this must be added the
entries in the Supplements covering 1956-65 (50 vols, 1968 (see vol.
7); 1966-70 (26 vols, 1971-2 (see vol. 4); 1971-75 (13 vols. 1978-79
(sec vol. 4)). Together these offer a good start, although it takes time to
get used to the arrangement of the subjections of the main entry
ENGLAND-PARLIAMENT.
The second important. source of bibliographical information on
Parliament and one more clearly organized than the British Museum
Catalogue is the American National Union Catalogue: pre 1956
imprints (754 vols, Mansell, 1968-1981 ). Here, under the beading
GREAT BRITAIN Parliament, in vols, 214, pp. 44 1-697 and 215, pp.
1-40, together with vol. 730, pp. 361-387, will be found a list of the
great collections on the subject Parliament in this massive work. Most
of the material is arranged chronologically session-by-session and many
of the entries have useful notes. The main catalogue continues with
Supplements where additional entries are to be found under the same
heading covering 1953-57 (26 vols, 1958): 1958-62 (50 vols, 1963);
1963-67 (59 vols, 1969); 1968-72 (104 vols, 1973); 1973-77 (135 vols,
1978) and the further annual vol umes will be cumulated thereafter.
While the British Museum Catalogue uses as its author subject heading
England-Parliament and the NUC use Great Britain-Parliament the
catalogue of the Bodleian Library at Oxford uses just Parliament. The
main pre-1922 catalogue has, unti l recently, been on slips in boxes-
about four large boxes covered the subject. It is currently being
thoroughly revised and transferred to a computer from which volumes
are printed for use by students at the Library at Oxford. The volumes

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118 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

covering Parliament should be printed by the end of 1983 and it is to

be hoped that in time they will be made available to others-possibly
on microfiche. Also important is A London Bibliography of the Social
Science (4 vols, British Library of Political and Economic Science, 1931-
1932), together with Supplements every few years since, where, just to
add variety, the heading chosen is United Kingdom Parliament. In 1980
the heading was changed to Great Britain Parliament. This collection
is especially strong in modem pamphlet material while the other major
catalogues are strong on history. Finally, there is the standard work,
Writings on British History 1901-66 (In progress, Royal Historical
Society and University of London), Parliament of Great Britain:
Bibliography by R.V. Goehlert and F.S. Martin (Gower, 1983) is a
pioneer work Clearly a lot of systematic examination of the more
obvious periodicals has been undertaken and many of the most obvious
secondary sources listed. But it does reflect the problems of undertaking
the bibliography of a complicated institution from the outside, the most
major gaps being the extensive bibliography of Parliament to be found
in its own reports.
Articles on Parliament have to be sought in the obvious published
indexes to periodicals, especially those covering history, law and the
social sciences, but we are fortunate in having a duplicated
memorandum A Handlist of Articles in' Periodicals and other Serial
Publications Relating to the History of Parliament, compiled by H.S.
Cobb (House of Lords Record Office, I 973 ). A supplement to this
memorandum updating it to 1980 is in preparation.

Records
ln 1497 the then Clerk of the Parliaments, whose successor is still
responsible for the records of the House of Lords (and of the Commons,
on behalf of the authorities of that House), decided to keep thereafter
the original Acts of Parliament at Westminster to which other records
were subsequently added. This means that the records of Parliament
prior to that date (and a few, such as the Rolls of Parliament, thereafter)
are to be found in the Public Record Office, while most post- I 497
records are to be found at the House of Lords Record Office in the
purpose-built and recently renovated Victoria Tower. For the pre-1497
period, therefore, reference must be made to Guide to the Contents of
the Public Record Office (3 vols, HMSO, 1963-1968), especially the
first two volumes. For the post 1497 records there is the Guide to the

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 Parliament and lHinisters 119

Records of Parliament by Mauri<:e Bond (HMSO. 1971 ). It is an

excellent account both of the very large collection of documents at
Westminster and of the context within which they were prepared.
Calendars of some of these manuscripts up until 1678 were included
in the Reports of tire Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, vols
1-9 (HMSO, 1874-1884) and for the period 1678-1693 in the appendices
ofVols 11-14 (HMSO, 1887-1894). Volumes 1-9 have been reprinted
by the publisher Karus and the separately available volume A
Companion to the Klaus Reprint Edition (K TO Press Nendeln,
Liechtenstein, 1977) should be consulted. This work has been continued
more fully in the Calendar of the Manuscripts of the House of Lords
1696-1718 (12 vols, HMSO, 1964- 1977). This series has now ceased.
However, the Annual Rep ort of the House of Lords Record Office,
published as one of their series of Memoranda, updates Bond's Guide
by listing each year the Parliamentary records transferred by the various
departments of the two Houses to the archive in the Record Office,
J together with other accessions from outside Parliament.

House of Commons Proceedings (Excluding debates)

Parliament, and especially the House of Commons, has for many
generations ensured that many of its proceedings have been printed,
partly for its own use and partly for general information. A certain
number of proceedings and indeed papers were published during the
period 1641 - 1660 and, apart from the catalogues already mentioned,
reference should also be made to the heading England in A short title
catalogue ... 1641-1700, compiled by Donald Wing, Vol t , pp. 567-621
(2nd edn , 3 vols, Index Committee of the Modern Languages
Association of America, 1972). The whole question of this mid-
seventeenth-century Parliamentary printing has been examined the The
Beginning of Printing for the House of Commons /640-42 by Sheila
Lambert (In The Library: Transaction of the Bibliographical Society,
6th Series, vol, 3 No, I., March 1981 ).
. Regular printing of proceedings did not start until 1680, when
Mr. Speaker was instructed by tllte House to print their Votes and
Proceedings on a daily basis. The early history of this venture is covered
in Votes and Standing Orders of the House ofCommons: The Beginning,
by Betty Kemp, (HMSO, House of Commons Library Document No. 8,
1971), and The Printing of the Votes of the House of Commons 1730-
1781 , by K. Maslen in (The Library, 5th Series, XXV, 1970). The

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120 Modem Methods of Teaching Political Science

Printing of the Votes and Proceedings has continued until the present
day, and these are the papers required to understand and conduct the
work of the House of Commons. Over the centuries. as procedures have
altered, extra sections have been added, Division lists since 1836, for
instance. and occasionally sections have been withdrawn. Today the
'Vote Bundle,' as it is colloquially called, runs to eight main sections
which are unindexed. They are available from HMSO but only on
subscription:
(I) Votes and Proceedings
(2) Pri vat.e Business
(3) Private Bill Lists
(4) Public Petitions
(5) Public Bill Lists
(6) Division Lists
(7) Notices of Motion
(8) Supplement to the Votes and Proceedings
Section I of this series later forn1s the Journal of the House of
Commons. Recently some of these have been published on microfiche.
namely Division Lists 1836-1909, Appendices to the Votes and
Proceedings 1817-1890 and also Reports of the Select Committee on
Public Petitions 183:3-1900, all edited by F. W. Torrington (Chadwyck-
Healey, 1982).
The next important date in Parliamentary printing is 1742, when
the first printing of the House of Commons Journal was authorized. 1l1is
edition is rare, and it is more usual to have access to Journals of the
House of Commons from November the 8th 1547... reprinted by order
of the House ( 1803). This is not just a reprint, more a new edition, and
vols 56 ( 1801) to vol, 89 ( 1834) include important Appendices of
accounts and papers for each session. The history of the Journal and,
most importantly, its indexing is described in Journal of the House of
Commons: a Bibliographical Guide by D. Menhennet (HMSO, House
of Commons Library, Document No.7, 1971). The current Journal is
to be found in com paratively few libraries, although it is the one official
record of both the work of the House of Commons and the information.
i.e. papers laid before it, Individual volumes are indexed and eight
volumes of index cover 1547- 1878/1879. Since 1880 there are decennial
inde)(es. The Minutes of Proceedings of Houst: of Commons Standing
and Select r omm ittees are publishrd as House of Commons papers.

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Parliament and Ministers 121

House of Commons Papers

The early printed papers of the House of Commons occasionally
appeared as ' separates' and some of them, reports of Committees, were
first collected together in the eighteenth century as Reports from
Committees of the House of Commons Printed by Order of the House
(4 vo ls, 1772-1773). A second updated collection appeared as Reports
from Commiuees of the House of Commons which have been Primed
by Order of the House 1715-1801 (16 vols, 1803-1806). The final
vo lume is a very deta iled index to the whole set and includes a list of
reports which had been printed in the Journals 1696-1800 and therefore
excluded from the Reports of Committees ... Another collection made
at the beginning of the nineteenth century and known as th e Abbot
Collection covers 1731-1800, and includes Bills, Reports, and Accounts
and Papers. It runs to 110 volum es. There are four nearly complete sets,
includ ing one in the British Library, one in the University of London
Libmry and two at the Houses of Parliament and also one or two part
sets; so they are very mre. The indexes to both these sets of papers have
been reprinted as Hansard Catalogue and Breviate of Parliamentary
Papers 1696-1834 (reprinted, Blackwell, 1953) and Catalogue of Papers
Printed by Order of the House of Commons 1731-1800 (repri nted,
Blackwell, 1954).
In recent years there has appeared House of Commons Sessional
Papers ofthe Eighteenth Century, edited by Sheila Lambert (Scholarly
Resources Inc., 145 vols, 1975- 1976). The collection, which consists
of facsimi les o f Public Bills, Reports of Committees and Accounts and
Papers, opens with Volume I Introduction and List, 1715-1 760 and
Volume II List. 1761-1800. This introduction includes the most
exhaustive and scholarly account of Parliamentary printing not only for
the eighteenth century but also through until the mid-nineteenth century.
As a collection it is the most complete and best-organized set of pre-
1800 House of Commons Sessional Papers.
From 1800 onwards the Ho use of Commons, Sessional Papers
have been regularly printed session by session, including Bills and House
of Commons Papers and, from the 1830s, Command Papers. In 1806-
1807 printed title pages were introduced and the arrangement of the
series quickly stabilized into groups of Bills. Papers of Committees,
Reports of Commissioners and Accounts and Reports. A list of these
volum es is avai lable in A Checklist of the British ParliamentaJ:1· Pupers
(bound set) 180 1-1 950. compiled by K.C. Parsons (Privately printed.

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122 ;Hodern Methods of Teaching Political Science

Cambridge, 1958). It might be m ore accurately called a checklist of

volumes of House of Commons Papers ... There are official indexes to
these papers, namely the General Index to the Reports of Select
Committees 1801-1852; General Index to the Bills 1801-1852; and
General Index to the Accounts and Papers, Reports of Commissioners.
Estimates. etc 1801-1852. Less well known is an important and very
comprehensive set of Indexes to Reports ofthe House ofCommons 1801-
I 834 ( 1837 HC paper 626; 1834 HC Paper 498). For later papers there
are the General Alphabetical Index to the Bills, Reports, Estimates,
Accowus and Papers...and to Command Papers 1852-1899; General
Index 10 the Bills, Reports and Papers... /900 to /948--19 and those are
fo llowed by General Alphabetical Index to the Bilis. Reports and
Papen... /950 to 1958-59 and a similar volume covering 1959to 1968-
69. These are based on individual Sessional indexes which since 1979-
1980 have been indexed using the House of Commons Library POLIS
thesaurus (sec Domestic Matters). These are all HMSO publications.
Throughout the period 1800-1968/ 1969 the arrangement of papers did
not change, but there was change in 1969-1970 and from 1979-1 980
onwards a further change, as now the papers are simply arranged by
number of Bill or House of Commons Paper with in the session and
Command Papers by runni ng number.
The post-1800 papers are included in three r ecent m ajor
republishing projects. First, the Irish Universities Press selected 1000
volumes of reports from the period 1801 - 1899 and brought them out
as handsomely produced and bound facsimiles in broad subject groups.
Details are to be found in the Checklist of British Parliamemary Papers
in the Irish Unh·ersity Press 1,000 Volume Series by P. Ford (Irish
University Press, 1972). Second, the firm of Chadwyck-Healey is well
advanced with its project of bring ing out a microfiche edition of the
complete House of Commons papers 180 1-192 1, and in the future this
is likely to be the most usual source. The title is given as House of
Commons Parliamentary Papers 1801-1900 and House of Commons
Parliamentary Papers / 90/ - 1921 (64500 microfiche, Chadwyck-
Healey, 1980- 1984). This set is more complete than any collection in a
library. Third, from the same source microfiche copies of the Irish
University Press volumes mentioned above may be obtained, including
the indexes already ment ioned. When these projects are completed a
bibliographical guide will be published listing documents added to the
edition which are not recorded on the contents pages or in the older
inde x~:~ of the bound Li brary sets. The Parliamentary Papers 1922-1972

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Parliament and Ministers 123

are available in microfilm under the title Controller's Library Collection

of Her Majesty's Stationary Office Publications. 1922-1972 in 1700
ree ls (Historical Documents Inst itute, Inverness. 1976- 1978). ln
con nection with this is the sportily published Cumulative Index to
HMSO Annual Catalogues, 1922- 1972 (2 vols, Historical Documents
Institute 1976).
Apart from the official sessional indexes already mentioned there
are a number of guides, lists, brevities, etc., prepared by or under
Professor and Mrs. Ford of the University of Southampton. First, there
is thei r standard short work A Guide to Parliamentary Papers: Where
they are. How to find Them. How to use Them by p. and G. Ford (3rd
edn, Irish University Press, 1972). Then the papers of the nineteenth
century are covered by their Select list of British Par/iamenwry Papers
1833-99 (reprinted Irish University Press, 1970).
Also useful as a guide and summary of twentieth-century papers
are the following volumes; P. and G. Ford A Breviate ofparliamentary
papers 1900-1916 (Blackwell, 1957); 1917- 1939 (Blackwell, 1951}-
these two volumes were reprinted by the Irish University Press in 1969;
1940- 1954 (Blackwell, 196 1). After 1954 this work changed to a
classified list with Select list of British Parliamentary Papers 1955-64
(Irish University Press, 1970) and D. Marshallsay and J. Smith, Ford
List of British Parliamentary Papers 1965-74 (KTO Press, 1979).
Thes~ lists, wh ich will be continued, seek to select the papers
concerned with policy rather than routine administration. Finally, there
is a useful finding list for Parliamentary Papers and Proceedings Access
to Parliamentary Resources and Information in London Libraries,
APRILL (House of Commons Library, Public Information Office, 1982).

House of Proceedings (Excluding Debates)

The daily Minutes of Proceedings of the House ofLords (HMSO)
are available by subscription and how appear in two parts covering past
busi ness and future business. They have been printed since 1825. From
1836 they have been included in th.e main series of the House of Lords
papers (see below). The Minutes, like the Votes and Proceedings of the
House of Commons are unindexed. The Journal of the House of Lords
reports proceedings, starting in 15 I 0. It was first ordered to be printed
in 1767, and unti l 1980 included the text of Select Committee reports.
They are served by an index for each volume, six volumes of cumulated

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124 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

indexes covering 1510- 1853 and decennial indexes thereafter. From the
beginning n• session 1981-1982 the relationship between the Minutes
and the Jot:r-·.aJ has been simplified, so the latter is now revised Minutes
furnished wi th an Attendance Register and Index. The Proceedings of
Select Com minces are published as House of Lords Papers.
A recent publication Divisions in the House of Lords ... 1685 to
1857 complied by J.C. Sainty and D. Dewar (HMSO, 1976) illuminates
this aspect to House of Lords Proceedings. Of importance on this subject
generally is The Journals. Minutes and Committee Books of the House
of Lords (rev. edn, House of Lords Record Office Memorandum No. 13,
1957).

House of Lords Papers

As with the House of Commons, the early printed papers of the
House of Lords first appeared as rare 'separates,' but recently, surviving
papers were collected together and a facsimile was published as House
of Lords Sessional Paper 1714-1805, edited by F.W. Torrington (60
vols, Oceana Publications, 1972-1978). The volumes include all the Bills
and Reports available and this is the only significant collection of pre-
1800 House of Lords papers outside the holdings of the House of Lords
Library.
The same editor and publisher continued this series in microfilm
from 1806 to 1859 as House uf Lords Sessional Paper (Trans-Media
Publishing Company Inc., 1976) and Mr. Torrington was able to add a
number of papers to this series ( 13 volumes) which are listed in an
addendum to A General Index to Sessional Papers.... of the House of
Lords 1801-1859 Session/ (reprinted. 2 vols, Oceana Publications Inc.,
1976). The reprint includes a checklist of House of Lords Sessional
Papers, 1801-1859.
The original House of Lords printed Sessional Papers started in
1801 with volumes I-XV covering E801-1805 and volumes 1-CCCXXJX
covering 1806-1834. Session 1835 has its own numbering and from
1836 the House 01 '~ords Sessional Papers include the Minutes as volume
I of each session ar. • IJave printed ti tic-pages. ln 1900 Command Papers
were dropped from the collection to avoid duplication with the House
of Commons sets. The main indexes cover 1801-1859 Session I,
reprinted in 1976 as mentioned above, 1859 Session 11- 1870, 187 1·
188411885 and sessionally 1886-1921. Since 192 1 there has been no

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 Parliament and Ministers 125

published index to the House of Lords Sessional Papers. Reference

should be made to a short but important article 'House of Lords
Session a l Papers 1641 -1859 ' by K. Mallaber (in Journal of
Librarianship. 4. No. 2, April/976).

Debates
Before 1800, debates had been reported very selectively in early
newsletters, then after the event in the commercial journals, and finally
reports were collected together into pu blishers' sets. Another source for
reports on debates was Members ' published Diaries. A Bibliography of
Parliamentary Debates of Great Brilain (HMSO House of Commons
Library, Document No.2, 1956) (a new edition would be welcome) sets
out to list these pre- 1800 printed debates and diaries. There are a number
of articles on pre-1800 deba tes, including. T he Beginn ing of
Parliamentary Reporting in Newspapers 1768-1774 ' by P. Thomas
{English Historical Review, LXXIV ( 1959); Sources for Debates ofthe
House ofCommons 1768-1774 by P. Thomas (Athlone Press, 1959);
and 'The Reliability of Contemporary Reporting of the Debates of the
House of Commons, 1727-41' by M. Ransome (Bulletin of ln~titllle of
Historical Research. XIX (1942-1 943)). Also important is the
introduction to Samuel Johnson's Parliamelllary Reporting by B.B
Hoover (C.,mbridge University Press, 1953).
We start, at the beginning of the nineteenth century. with the
Parliamentary History by Cobbett. Th is work purports to report debates
going back to the earliest history of Parliament and is itself heavily
dependent on the reports in the eighteenth century commercial journals
listed in A Bibliography of Parliamentary Debares of Great Britain
(Previously cited). This was soon taken over by T.C. Hansard, and we
reach the early series of Hansard These fall into the 1st Series, 1803-
1804 to 1819-1 820, 4 1 vols; 2nd Series, 1820 to 1830, 25 vols; 3rd
Series, 1830-183 1 to 1890-1891 , 356 vols; 4th Series, 1892 to 1908,
199 vols. By the late nineteenth century a Treasury Subsidy was needed
I to publish these debates and in 1909 the Official Report (Hansard) was
finally taken over by HMSO acting as an agent for Parliament.

l There then started the 5th Series with different sequences of

I volumes for the House of Lords and the House of Commons. It is only
since the beginni ng of the 5th Series that reports have been compiled
I by Parliamentary staff and have been verbatim. A 6th Series began in
I March 1980. Fortnightly, vol ume and sessional indexes are prepared

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126 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

and from 1984 this indexing has been undertaken in the House of
Commons Library and based on POLIS (See Domestic Matters).
Standing Committee debates of the House of Commons have been
published since 19 19 (HMSO). They have no indexes.

Procedure

The two Houses regularly publish official documents on their

procedure. The House of Lords has Standing Orders for Public Business
(HMSO), Standing Orders for Private Business (HMSO), Companion
to Standing Orders (HMSO) and House of Lords Form of Appeal
(Criminal) (HMSO) and Form ofAppeal (Civil) (HMSO) to cover their
judicial work. The House of Commons publishes Standing Orders
Private Business (HMSO), Standing Orders Public Business (HMSO)
and Manual of Procedure (HMSO). The last major review of procedure
was the First Report from the Select Committee on Procedure 1977-
1978 HC 588 1-111 (HMSO, 1978) which 'considers the practice and
procedure of the House in relation to public business.
Since its first edition in 1844, th e standard work on procedure
has been T.E. May's A Treatise Oil the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and
Usage of Parliament (Buttcrworths, 20th edn, 1983). The first edition
of May has been reprinted (Irish University Press, 1971) and includes
a collection of the prefaces from the fi rst eighteen editions. Today
Erskine May is prepared under the May Memorial Fund and is edited
by the Clerk of the House of Commons with support from the Clerk of
the Parliaments for House of Lords matters. It is a mine of information
on the working of Parliament and is revised every five years. But to
keep up to date with procedural matters it is also essential to read the
reports of any published evidence given to !he Select Committees on
Procedure. These appear as House of Lords or House of Commons
papers. An occasional summary of changes is to be found in the journal
Parliamentary Affairs. As its title suggests, The House of Commons at
work by Eric Taylor (Macmillan, 9th edn, 1979) is a monograph which
contains a lot of infomtation on procedure.
There are a number of important historic works, including
Precedents of Proceedings in the House of Commons by J. 1-latsell (new
edn, 5 vols, 1818: reprinted Irish University Press, 1971). Also important
is The Procedure ofthe Hm~ve ofCommons, by J. Redlich (3 vols. 1908)
and for a short historical survey An Introduction to the Procedure of
the House of Commons by Lord Camp ion remains of inte rest

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Par/iament and Ministers 127

(Macmillan, 3rd edn, 1958). In Parliament at Work a Case-hook of

Parliamentary Procedure by A. H. Hanson and H.V. Wiseman (reprinted,
Greenwood Press, 1975) the authors have set out 'to provide a case-
book which will illustrate the use to which the House of Commons puts
its various procedures,' and under headings such as Questions, Financial
Procedure, Select Committees. It wor'ks well, though as it was originally
published in 1962 and so rapid is change in some of these areas, it is
already rather dated.

Domestic Matters
Since the mid-sixteenth century Parliament has met in the Palace
of Westm inster. In recent years growing interest has been shown by
historians in Parliament's actual physical surroundings and their effect
on its work. The dividing line is, of course, I 834, when the old Palace,
with the imponant exception of Westminster Hall, burnt down. The old
Palace has been fully described in History of the King's Work, edited
by H.M. Colvin, Vols. I and II. The Middle Ages (liMSO, 1963), Vols
Ill and IV, 1485-1660 (liMSO, 1975), Vol. V 1660-1782, pp. 385-43 1
(HMSO 1976) and Vol. VI, 1782-1851. pp. 496-537 (HMSO, 1973).
There is also Views of the Old Palace of Westminster. edited by H.M.
Colvin (Society of Architectural li istorians of Great Britain, 1966),
Westminster Hall by Hilary StGeorge Saunders (Michael Joseph, 1951)
and Maurice Hastings, St. Stephen's House (Architectural Press, 1950).
Essential is the standard pre- 1834 Palace work. The History of the
Ancient Palace and Late Houses of Parliament, by E.W. Brayley and
J. Brittan ( 1836).
When we come to the new Palace of Westminster, so familiar to
us all, apan from the numerous Select Committee reports during the
many years during which it was being built, there is the History of the
King's Work, edited by H.M. Colvin, Vol. VI (HMSO. 1973): Houses
of Parliament. edited by M.H. Port (Yale University Press, 1976), the
standard work; Works ofAn in the House of Lords, edited by Maurice
Bond (HMSO, 1980); and two special articles, 'The Pa lace of
Westminster after the Fire of 1834' by R.J.B. Walker (Walpole Society,
44 (1972- 1974, 1974 )) and 'Decoration of the New Pa lace of
Westminster by T.S.R. Boase (Journal of the IVarburg and Cour:au/d
Institutes, XVII, Numbers 3-4 ( 1954). The essential older work with
its fine illustrations is Wright and Smith, Par/iame/11: Past and f'resefll
(Hutchinson. c. 1902).

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128 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

There has been a great deal off frustrated speculation and planning
about future accommodation for the House of Commons, the current
plan being set down in New Parliamentary Building Bridge Street;
Feasibility Study (Casson Conder and Partners, I 979). Special attention
should also be given to the flow of reports on acc{)mmodation from the
House of Commons (Services) Committee.
Outside the Journals of both Houses wh ich can occasionally be
important sources for domestic matters, and obviously the relevant Select
Committee Reports of both Houses, there is little monograph material.
The Clerical Organisation of the House of Commons 1661-1850, by
0. Williams (Oxford University Press, .I954) is a distinguished account
of tbe Clerk's Department, and it is to be hoped that the last century
will be covered. A brief general account of House of Commons Officials
is to be found in The Officers ofthe Commons /363-1978 by P. Marsden
(HMSO, 1979) and there is also a list, Officers of the House of Lords
1485 to 1971 (House of Lords Record Office Memorandum No. 45,
1971).
Since 1966, domestic matters in the House of Commons have been
the concern of the House of Commons (Services) Committee, chaired
nonnally by the Leader of the House, with its four Sub-Committees
covering Accommodation, Catering., Computer Matters and the Library.
It meets in private but sometimes prints its evidence, and its reports
always appear as House of Commons papers. Broadcasting is the
responsibility of the Select Committee on Sound Broadcasting. Since
the House ofCommons Administration Act /978, cap 36 (HMSO, 1978)
the staff of the house has been employed by the House of Commons
Commission, and this group of Members, chaired by Mr. Speaker,
publish an Annual Report ofthe House ofCommons Commission, again
as a House of Commons Paper (HMSO). In the House of Lords it is the
Officers Committee wh ich plays the role of the Services Committee and
with similar Sub-Committees takes evidence and publishes Reports on
domestic matters as House of Lords Papers (HMSO).
There is only one general survey of facilities, etc., The House of
Commons: Services and Facilities, edited ~y M. Rush and M. Shaw
(Allen and Unwin, 1974). updated by The House ofCommons: Services
and Facilities 1972- 1982, edited by M. Rush (Policy Studies Institute.
1983). It contains a full list of Select Ccmmittee Reports on the subject.
A recent survey of the Library and its research and infonnation services
in l'arliament and Information: the Westminster Scene. by D. Englefie ld

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Parliament and Ministers 129

(Library Association. 1981 ). which describes facilities in both Houses

and also infomtation on Westmins•er which is available to the public.
As a postscript to this section on domestic matters mention must
be made of POLIS, standing for Parliamentary One Line Information
System, a computer-based subject index to Parliament's proceedings
since 1980-1981 and papers since 1979-1980, which the House of
Commons Library compiles daily and which is available to outside
subscribers. The system is described in ' How the Parliamentary on Line
Information System at Westminster was Planned by D. Englefield
(lnspel, Official Organ of the IFLA Division of Special Libraries, 16,
No. 3 ( 1982)) and ·POLIS in Parliament .. .' by D. Menhennet and J.
Wainwright (Joumul of Documentation, 38, No. 2 ( 1982)).

General Works
In a chapter as shon as this one, it is not possible to cover the
long history of Parliament. For this, reference should be made to the
bibliographies and lists already mentioned. This section is confined to
the twentieth century.
The Study of Parliament, by Peter Richards (University of
Southampton, 1972), and 'The British House of Commons as a Focus
for Political Research.' by S.C. Patterson (British Journal of Political
Science, 3 ( 1973)), are useful staning points for Parliamentary studies.
An elementary but very useful survey is the COl pamphlet The British
Parliament (HMSO), which is regularly updated. Parliament by Sir lvor
Jennings (2nd edn, Cambridge University Press, 1957; reprinted 1970),
although dated in arrangement and facts, remains a substantial work
of historical interest. More recent i11 its focus, and concerned just with
the House of Commons, R. Butt's The Power of Parliament (Constable,
2nd edn, I969) is pan of the mid-1960s movement for reform which
was aniculated in The Reform of Parliament., by B. Crick (Weidenfeld
anc Nicholson, rev. 2nd edn, 1970). Parliamentaty Reform; a Survey
of Recent Proposals for the House of Commons (Cassell, 2nd rev. edn,
for the Hansard Society, 1967) is a summary of facts and gives the
subject perspective. A recent political textbook is Parliamentary
Gol'ernme/11 in Britain, by M. Rush (Pitman, 1981 ). The last two authors
are members of the Study of Parliament Group formed in 1963, which
is made up of academic and ParHamentary officials, some of whom
contributed to The House of Commons in the Twentieth Centwy, edited
by S.A. Walkland (The Clarendon Press, 1979), which covers the whole

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130 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

century, and The Commons Today, edited by S.A. Walkland and M. Ryle
(Fontana, 1981 ), really concerned with the last ten years. (The earlier
two editions of this work Commo11r in Tramition. edited by A.H. Hanson
and B. Crick (Fontana, 1970) and the Commons in the 70s edited by S.
A. Walkland and M. Ryle (Fontana, 1977) make interesting comparative
reading with The Commons Today.) Both The House ofCommons in
the Twentieth Century and The Commons Today are focused on the
workings of the House of Commons, while The Commons in Perspective
by P. Norton (Matri Robertson, 1981) is a useful 'overview'. An
important comparative study of both Chambers of the UK and the US
is Parliament and Congress, by K. Bradshaw and D. Pring (Constable,
1972), with an updating chapter (Quartet, 1981).
The House of Lords has two roles, as a judiciary and a legislature.
Literature on the House of Lords as part of the judiciary is in Chapter
12. As a legislature a number of the works mentioned in this chapter
cover both Houses. However, a useful short bibliography is Select List
of Published J'.laterial on the House of Lords in the T-wentieth Century,
House of Lords Fact Sheet No. 7 (House of Lords lnfom1ation Office,
1980). It is especially strong in periodical articles and official papers.
The House of Lords and Contemporary Politics 191/-1957, by P.
Bromhead (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1958) and The House of Lords
and the Labour Government 19'64-1970, by J. Morgan (Oxford
University Press, 1975), are general studies of the Upper House. An
interesting insider's view is The Lords, by Viscount Masserene and
ferrard (Leslie Frewin, 1973). Refonn of the House of Lords has been
a subject of interest for a number of years, and a handy starting point
which lists most of the material. available and contains a useful
introduction is House of Lords Reform: 1850-1970, House of Lords
Factsheet No. I (2nd edn, House of Lords Information Office, 1979).
Between the First World War and 1945, Select Committees were
of small importance, except for the Public Accounts Comr.1ittee and the
Estimates Committee, surveyed in The Control of Public Expendilllre:
Financial Committees of the House of Commons, by B. Chubb (Oxford
University Press, 1952). In Parliament and Administration, by B.
Johnson (AII!!n and Unwin, 1966), the Estimates Committee 1945-1965
is fu rther considered and The Member vf Parliam ent and the
Administration, D. Coombes (A lien and Unwin, 1966), examines the
first ten years of the work of the important Nationalised Industries
Committee established in 1956. Parliament and Public Ownership. A

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Parliament and Ministers 131

Hanson (Cassell., 1961 ), also considered the subject. A new stage arrived
in the mid-1960s with the ' Crossman Reforms' and the establishment
of some ' Departmental' and some 'Subject' Select Committees,
examined in The Growth of Parliamentary Scrutiny by Committees, by
A. Morris (Pergamon, 1970), and in 1970 the Estimates Committee
was replaced by the Expenditure Committee, which had wider terms of
reference and which is the subject of Parliament and Public Spending,
by A. Robinson (Heinemann, 197:8). Her book is also an interesting
study of the Select committee system in general, Called to Account. The
Public Accounts Committee ... 1965-66 to 1977-78, by V. Flegmann
(Gower, 1980). is a disappointing supplement to the earlier work of B.
Chubb. Following th e First Report from the Select Committee on
Procedure 1977-78 HC 588 (HMSO, 1979), the new Departmental
Select Committee System was established in late 1979. So far,
preliminary consideration of this move has been made in Reformed
Select Committees, by A. Davies (Outer Circle Policy Unit, 1980), and
the First Report for the House of Commons Liaison Committee: The
select Committee System, 1982-1983, HC 92 (HMSO, 1983) together
with Dilys M. Hill (ed.) Parliamentary Select Committees in Action: a
Symposi/um (University of Strathclyde Discussion papers in Politics,
1983). Commons Select Committees-Catalyste for Progress?, edited by
D. Englefield, (Longmans, 1984) is a series of papers by Member and
wimesses with full details of the Committees work; a further srudy edited
by G. Drewry is to be published by Oxford University Press in 1985.
Despite these important changes, many believe the problems of
Parliamentary oversight, examined in Parliament and Foreign Affairs
by P. Richards (Allen and Unwin, 1967) and Parliament and Economic
Affairs, edited by D. Coombes and S.A. Walkland, Part II (Heinemann,
1980), remain.
Over the decades the process of legislative scrutiny has changed
less then Committee work, so the Parliamentary Scrllfiny a,(Government
Bills, by J.A.G. Griffith (Allen and Unwin, 1974), though based on the
period 1967-1968 to 1970-197 1, remains important. A more recent
important study is Legislation and Public Policy: Public Bills in the
1979-74 Parliament. by I. Burton and G. Drewry (Macmillan, 1981).
It is not always the Government which introduces Public Bills, and
Private Members· Bills in the British Parliament, by P. Bromhead
(Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1956), covers the subject during the first
half of the cenrury. The first Committee on legislation for a long time
published The Preparatio11 of Legislation, Sir D. Renton, Chairman,

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132 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

Cmnd . 6053 (HMSO, 1975), which is an authoritative and lucid

description of Public Bill Procedure. An unusual insight into the passing
of a Bill is to be found in The State of the Nation: Parliamem (Granada
Television Ltd., 1973).
For private bills there are two distinguished historical works, F.
Clifford's History of Private Bill Legislation (2 vols. reprinted, Cass,
1968), a reprint of the 1885-1887 edition, and 0. Williams, The
Historical Development of Private Bill Procedure and Standing Orders
in the House ofCommons (2 vols, HMSO, 1948-1949). Completed in
1945, this is the work of a distinguushed parliamentary official. Also of
interest in this context is D.L. Ry·dz, The Parliamentary Agents: A
History (Royal Historical Society, 1979).
A further method of scrut iny is covered in Questions in
Parliament, by D.N. Chester and N. Bowring (Oxford University Press,
1962), and also important for this subject is the report of the Select
Committee on Parliamentary Questions 1971-1972, HC 393 (Hmso,
1972).
Finally on the subject of scrutiny there is the latest service for
Members and their electorate- the Ombudsman. The reports of the
Select Committee on the Parliamentary Commissioner for
Administration are clearly essentia'l reading, as are the Ombudsman's
Annual Reports (HMSO) and his quarterly reports of Selected Cases
(HMSO). As Health Service Commissioner the same official provides
the same service for Members regarding the administrative aspects of
the National Health Service. Also important are The Parliamentary
Ombudsman. by R. Gregory and P. Hutchesson (Royal Institute of Public
Administration, 1975), and The British Ombudsman, by F. Stacey (The
Clarendon Press, 1971 ), which inclu:les the legislative h istory of the
establishment of the Parliamentary Commissioner in 1967.
Maladministration and its Remedies (25th Hamylin lecture) (Stevens,
1973 ), by K.C. Wheare, includes an important chapter on Ombudsmen
and F. Stacey, in Ombudsmen Compared (The Clarendon Press, 1978),
includes a number of chapters on the UK Ombudsman which update
his earlier book. A preliminary review of the fJTSt few years of the system
working is to be found in Our Fettered Ombudsman (Justice, 1977).
The Job of being a Member has been exami ned in The
Backhenchers. by P. Richards (Faber, 1972), and various aspects in an
anthology of printed pieces. The Backbencher and Parliament. edited
by D. Leonard and V. Herman (Macmillan. 1972). British Members of

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Parliament and Ministers 133

Parliament: a Self-portrait. by A. King (in association with Granada

Television, 1974). is mostly Members talking about their role and
Backbench Specialisation in the House of Commons. by D. Judge
(Heinemann, 1981 ), considers their work in the face of growing
specialization. Parliament and the Public. by E. Marshall (Macmillan,
1982), is a Member's own view of his job both inside and outside the
House. So also is A. Mitchell, Westminster Man (Methuen, 1982), and
Member of Parliament, by J. Grant (Michael Joseph, 1974), which gives
a diary of a year's work, Using Computers to Analyse the Activities of
Members of Parliament, by M.N. Franklin (University of Strathclyde.
1971 ), is a more scientific approach to the same subject. Their influence
is examined in The Influence ofthe Ba,·kbencher... by J.P. Mackintosh
(Manchester Statistical Society, 197 1).
Women were first elected to the House in 1918 and Women at
Westminster... 1918-1966, by Brookes (Peter Davies, 1967), and Wome
in the House, by E. Vallance (Athlone Press, 1979), a more academic
study, cover the subject. Women and Parliamem 1918-70, by B.
Stobaugh (Exposition Press. Hicksville, 1978), and The Divided House,
by M. Phillips (Sidgwick and Jackson, 1980), are more up-to-date
studies, while Women in National Legislatures, by Walter Kohn (Praeger,
1980) puts the Westminster women MPs in the context of five other
legislatures. A pioneering pamphlet covers women in the House of
Lords. The Impact of Women in the House of Lords, by G. Drewry and
J. Brock, Studies in Public Policy No. 112 (Centre for the Study of Public
Policy, University ofStrathclyde, 1983).
Within the House, voting is a key aspect of Members work and
Dissension in the House ofCommons 1945-1974, compiled and edited
by P. Norton (Macmillan, 1975), and 1914-1979, by P. Norton {The
Clarendon Press, 1980), are reference books of sources. Other works in
this area are Rebels and Whip...since /945, by R. Jackson (Macmillan,
1968); Baclcbench Opinion in the House ofCommons /945-55, by H.
Berrington (Pergamon, 1978); and Backbench Opinion... /955-59, by
S.E. Finer eta/. (Pergamon, 196 1). The careers of Members of the House
of Commons is examined in Amateurs and Professionals in British
Politics 1918-1959, by P.W. Buck (University of Chicago Press, 1963).

Reference Works and Periodicals

There is a short list of reference works and periodicals on
Parliament but it is a pity that some of the Fonner are growing a little

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134 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

out of date. An Encyclopedia of Parliament, by P. Laundy (Cassell, 4th

edn, 1972) gathers a lot o f information togethe r on the world
Parliamentary scene, wh ile Parliamentary Dictionary, by S. Hawtrey
and H.M. Barclay (Butterworths, 3rd edn, 1970), concerned with
Westminster, is accurate technically but dated. A lucid and up-to-date
assembly of information on Parliament is.to be found in Halsbury's Laws
of England (Butterworths, 4th edn, Vol. 34, 1980). This was prepared
by the Clerks of each House and is updated periodically.
Annually there appears The Table, Being the Journal of the
Society of Clerks-at-the-Table.... ( 1933-), and this is especially strong
in articles in the minutiae of Par liament's working. While edited at
Westminster, it covers all Commonwealth Parliaments. Also edited at
Westminster is The Parliamentarian ( 1920-,Commonwealth
Parliamentary Association, quarterly). Lively and authoritative articles
are contributed and the editorial policy takes very seriously the dispersal
of both technical an d bibliographical information of Parliaments.
Parliamentary Affairs ( 1947-, Hansard Society, quarterly) is also central
to the subject and is strong on book reviews and articles. But, of course,
much information on Parliament is to be found in reference and, to some
extent, politics. We mention two periodicals on current Parliamentary
matters, namely the House of Commons Weekly Information Bulletin
(1980-, HMSO, weekly during the Session), which covers the work of
the current and previous week in Parliament, and keeps, the reader up
to date with the session's legislation, membership of committees, etc.,
and the House Magazine (1976-, Parliamentary Communications Ltd.,
weekly during the Session), which carries current information, analysis
of important Reports, Bills, etc. and interesting articles on Parliamentary
matter written by specialists. There is a new annual Parliamentary
History Yearbook (1982-, Alan Sutton Ltd.) which appeared with articles
covering British Parliamentary history and includes commentaries on
parliamentary electoral hist9ry as well as book reviews.
'
Until recent years the standard authority for membership of the
House of Commons were lists prepared in response to a motion for a
' Return of the names of every member of the lower house of parliaments
of England ... ' made in 1876 and 1877. These ronsclidated lists, which
cover the ground from the year 1213, began to appear in (1878) i-IC
69, 69-1, 69-11, and continued untiJ (1929-30) HC 56. more recently,
The History of Parliament Trust is setting out to compile a biographical
d ictionary of the House of Commons 1386 to 1832, and has so far

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/'arliament and Ministers 135

published History of Parliament: Biographies of Members ofthe JJouse

ofCommons 1439-1509, by J.C. Wedgwood (HMSO, 1936), The House
ofCommons 1509-1558, by S.T. Bindoff (3 vols, Seeker and Warburg,
1982); The House of Commons 1558-1603. by P.W. Hasler (3 Vols.
HMSO, 1918); The House of Commons 1660-1690, by B.D. Henning
(3 vols, Seeker and Warburg, 1983): The House ofCommons 1715-1 75./,
by R. Sedgwick (3 vols, HMSO, 1970); and The House of Commons
1754-1790. by L. Namier and J. Brooke (3 vols. HMSO, 1964). Other
volumes to fill gaps are in preparalion. and it should be noted that each
set contains an important introduction. Today there arc a number of
important reference works covering the biography of Members, Who's
Who of British Members of Parliament 1832-1979, compiled by M.
Stenton ( 4 vols, Harvester Press, 1976-1981) has for biographies
superseded the great runs of Dod's Parliamentary Companion (1832-).
The Times Guide to the House ofCommons, published after each election
since the 1880s (Times Publishing Company), is also important. Finally,
Sources in British Political History, /900-195/, compiled by C. Cook
(5 vols, Macmillan, 1977), covers the private papers of Members of
Parliament in Vols 2, A-K, and 4, L-Z. Members of Parliament
frequently appear in standard reference works such as the DictionaiJ'
of National Biography, school and university registers, Boase, etc.
Mention has already been made of a certain number of Committee
reports, and it must be emphasized that central to the bibliography of
Parliament and its work are the reports and published evidence of its
Select Committees. For the House of Lords these include the Special
Reports of the Committee on European Communities concerning their
work, the reports, etc. of House of Lords Offices Commiuee, Privileges
Committee. Procedure Committee and also the Sound Broadcasting
Committee. In addition there may be ad hoc Select Committees on
domestic matters. For the House of Commons there are the Special
Reports of the European Legislation etc. Committee, concerning their
work, the Reports, etc. of the House ofCommons (Services) Committee,
Members Interests Committee, Special Reports of The Parliamentary
Commissioner for Administration Committee and the Reports of the
Privileges Committee, Procedure Committee and the Sound
Broadcasting Committee. There are also Special Reports of the Liaison
Committee. which is made up of the Chairmen of Select Committees.
In addition to these regular comm ittees, the House of Commons also
may set up ad hoc Select Committees on domestic matters.

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136 Modern Me thods of Teaching Political Science

Also published by the House of Commons arc a number of Returns

of information about its work covering Public Bulls, Select Committees
and Standing Committees, together with the Register of Members '
Interests. In addition to these papers, all published by HMSO, there are
also Returns not ordered to be printed for which recourse should be made
to the House of Lords Record Office.

Ministers
One of Parliament's roles is to provide a majority group whose
leader is invited by the Crown to forn1 a Government, i.e. to appoint a
Ministerinal team. About one Member in eight of the House of
Commons is a Minister and of these about one in six is in the Cabinet.
Books on individual posts and departments are not included.
It was only in 1916 that a Secretariat for the Cabinet was formed.
For this reason, for the earlier period The Prime Ministers ' Papers 180/-
1902. Historical Manuscript Commission (HMSO, 1968) and Papers
of British Cabinet Ministers 1782-1900 Historical Manuscript
Commission Guide... No. I (HMSO, 1981 ), which gives a comprehensive
list of relevant family pears whe:re many Cabinet papers still rest,
together with their locations, are both vital. A continuation volume,
Guide to the Papers ofBritis/1 Cabinet Ministers, 1900-1951. compiled
by C. Hazlehurst and C. Woodland (Royal Historical Society, 1974), is
<'lso essential. The Public Record Office, which keeps later papers, has
published List of Cabinet Papers 1880-1914 Handbook No.4 (HMSO,
1964), List of Cabinet Papers 1915 and 1916 Handbook No.9 (HMSO,
1966) and Reports of the Cabinet Office to 1922 Handbook No. I/
(HMSO, 1966). No further volumes are planned but here is also an
important monograph The Cabinet Office to 1945 Handbook No. 17
(HMSO, 1975), which sets out tht< context of the records as well as lists
of Cabinet documentation. The first Secretary to the Cabinet was Lord
Hankey, Secretary from 1916 to 19'38, and the distinguished biography
Hankey, Man of Secrets, by S. Roskill (3 vols, Collins, 1970-1974), is
important for understanding Cabinet matters, as is Whitehall Diary (of
Thomas Jones), edited by K. Middlemass (3 vols, Oxford University
Press, 1969-1971 ).
All this material has been published much later than earlier
monographs such as The British Cabinet System, 1830-1938, by A.B.
Keith (Stevens, 1939) and Cabiner Government, by Sir lvor Jennings
(Cambridge University Press, 3rd edn. 1959). This latter is a textbook

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Parliament and Ministers 137

which ranges far wider than the Cabinet itself. Two slim volumes add
perspective to the subject, namely Cabinet Government and War 1890-
1940, the Lees Knowles lectures of 1957, by J. Ehrman (Cambridge
University Press, 1958) and his distillation, Reflections on the
Constitution, by H. Laski (Manchester University Press, 195 I), which
covers both Parliament and Cabinet.
A modem survey, revised since Cabinet papers of only thirty years
ago might be consulted, is The British Cabinet by J.P Mackintosh (3rd
edn, Stevens, 1977) and there is a useful collection of essays, Cabinet
Studies: A Reader, edited by V. Herman and the Lobby' (also worth
consulting on this is The Westminster Lobby Correspondents, by J.
Tunstall (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1970) to ' Resignations,' also
treated in The Tactics of Resignatiq_n: A Study in British Cabinet
Government R. Alderman and J. Cross (Routledge and Kegan Paul,
1967). TI1e job itself is examined in British Cabinet Ministers: the Roles
of Politicians in Executive Office, by B. Headey (Allen and Unwin,
1974), and one aspect of their Job, namely Ministerial patronage, is
critically examined in Patronag. · in British Government, by P. Richards
(Allen and Un\vin, 1963). A more general survey of the institution is
Cabinet Reform in Britain 1914-1963. by H. Daalder (Stanford
University Press 1964).
There are a number of inside views of a Minister' s role, including
his relationship with Parliament, and of these, Government and
Parliament by H. Morrison (Oxford University Press, 3rd edn, 1964),
which grew out of a fireside chat to Oxford dons, still remains the most
important. Another view is The Cabinet by P. Gordon Walker (Cape,
rev. edn. 1972), there is an insider's introductory work. The Governance
of Britain by Sir Harold Wilson (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1978). After
the excitement of keeping his diaries. R. Crossman delivered a reflective
Inside view... on Prime Ministerial Government, Godkin lectures 1970
(Jonathan Cape, 1972), which revealed worried distinctions between
Presidential and Cabinet Government. An interesting first attempt to
unveil the relationship between Mi nister and Civil Servant, with a side-
glance at Parliament, is H. Young and A. Sloman, No, Minister {BBC,
1982). The subject is treated broadly and authoritatively in four lectures
Parliament and the £tecutive (Royallnstitute of Public Administration.
1982).
The perspective on the Cabinet has been changed by two events
in recent years. First, under Public Records Act, 1967 (HMSO) the

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138 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

period for documents to be held before being opened to the public was
reduced from fifty years to thirty years. Overnight, half a generation of
Cabinet papers were revealed. A description of the method of passing
Departmental papers to the Public Record Office is to be found in
Modern Public Records: Selection and Access, Report of a Committee
appointed by the Lord Chancellor, Chairman Sir D. Wilson, Cmnd. 8204
(HMSO, 1981). Second, The Crossman Diaries 1964-70 (3 vols, Collins,
1975-1977) gave the most detai led account of the works of ministers
and the Cabinet yet available. A description of what happened
concerning its publication and the implications is to be found in The
Crossman Affair by H. Young (Hamish Hamilton ·and Jonathan Cape,
1976). Further detail on the working of the Cabinet and of a Minister's
role is to be found in The Castle Diaries 1974-76 (Weidenfeld and
Nicholson, 1980) and Sir Harold Wilson himself worked detailed
account o f the recent past in The Labour Government 1964-1970
(Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1971) and Final Term of the Labour
Government 1974-76 (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1979). Cross-referring
between these several works must illumi nate uniquely these years of
Ministerial life. finally , there are two lighter works designed to take
us behind the scenes, The Secret Constillltion. by B. Sedgemore (Hodder
and Stoughton, 1980) and How to be a Minister, by G, Kaufman
(Sidgwick anri Jackson, 1980).
To conclude th is survey we would mention two books, one, third
of the text of each of which is devoted to lists and other data subjects.
These are British Historical Facts /830-1900, edited by C. Cook and
B. Keith (Macmillan, 1975), and the frequentiy updated British Political
Facts 1900-1979, edited by D. Butler and A. Sloman (Macmillan, 5th
edn 1980). The latter especially has been honed to a h igh level of
accuracy and both can save the gra teful many hours of devilling.

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 Local Government

Introduction
C.H. Wilson, writing in 1948, believed that although J.S. Mill
had said 'almost everything that was fundamentally important' about
the institution of local government, it was vital to restate its value if it
were to survive: a point whose relevance has re-emerged in the 1980s
with a vengeance. Over the past quarter of a century critiques of
democratic viability, functions and boundaries have been tempered with
reasse rtions of the value of local government. The research
preoccupations of the 1960s have now given way, however, to a radical
recasting in which there are four main themes: urban historical studies;
a comparative analysis which has moved away from 'community power'
to a broader approach reflecting European, as well as American, ideas;
an interdiscipliary debate about the nature and role of theory (see D.M.
Hill. review article, Political Studies, 32, 2 June 1984); and a substantial
body of British institutional and policy studies.
These developments have had two revolutionary effects. First,
'local government' does not describe the area of study adequately, in
that publications are infonned by broader and more sophisticated
concepts. Second, work aimed at the undergraduate or 'layman' level
is now much more difficult to achieve satisfactorily: there is a long way
to go before there is a working consensus about analysis at this
synthesized, introductory level. What has been encouraging about the
structuralist/pluralist, neo-Maxist/neo-Weberian debate, however, is the
interdisciplinary way in which it has been conducted. This is due to
the relatively small academic world of local studies and the opportunities
which have existed for collaboration between European and American

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140 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

scholars. Sadly, reduced research facilities now threaten the ecletic

nature of this work, though some projects continue to attract welcome
support.

Theories and Definitions

' Local government' only became common usage after 1836 when
the tenn appeared in a Times leading article. Both theory and practice
then attracted increasing attention, in works such as: Joset Redich, Local
Government in England, edited by F. W. Hirst (2 vols, Macmillan, 1903:
Vol. 1 was reissued, edited by B. Keith-Lucas, as The History of Local
Government in England (Macmillan, 1958); W. Hardy Wickwar, The
Political Theory of Local Government (Columbia, University of South
Carolina Press, 1970); W. Thornhi.ll (ed.) The Growth and Reform of
English Local Government(Weidenteld and Nicholson, 1971 ); and D.M.
Hill, Democratic Theory and Local Government (Allen and Unwin,
1974). After 1945, concern for democratic local government was a
strong theme: 'Administrator', ' the Democratic Content of Local
Government': P. Self and 'Administrator', ' Local Government and the
Community', Fabian Quarterly, 47 (1945) and 53 (1947); C.H. Wilson
(ed.), Essays on Local GovernmenJ (Black-well, 1948); G.D.H. Cole,
Local and Regional Government (Cassell, 1947); W.A. Robson, Local
Government in Crisis (Allen and Unwin, 1966)--a revised version of
the Prologue of The Development of Local Government (G. Allen, 1931 );
W.J. Mackenzie, 'Theories of Local Government, ' Greater London
Papers No. 2 (London School of Economics and Political Science,
1961); J.P. Mackintosh, The Devolution of Power (Penguin, 1968); and
L.J. Sharpe, 'Theories and Values of Local Government,' Political
Studies. 18 (1970).
In the 1960s research increased and American work became
influential. a defence and re-evaluation of this work is N. W. Polsby,
Community Power and Political Theory (London, Yale University Press,
1980). For a critique, there is K. Newton, 'Community Politics and
Decision-Making: The American Experience,' inK. Young (ed.), Essays
on the Study of Urban Politics (Macmillan, 1975). In the 1970s research
moved in a number of directions-sociological critiques, policy studies,
interdisciplinary approaches (including political geography and political
economy). Urban sociology, associated with the work of Marguerite
Stacey, R. Pahl, C. Bel!, H.Newby and others, cu rrently emphasizes
social theory and a radical critique: M.P. Smith, The City and Social

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Local Government 141

Theory (Blackwell, 1980); B. Elliott and D. McCrone, The City

(Machillan, 1982); P. Saunders, Urban Politics (Hutchinson, 1979);
and his Social Theory and the Urban Question (Hutchinson, 1981 ). The
distribution al concerns of both political scientists and political
geographers are analysed inK. Newton and L.J. Sharpe, ' Local Outputs
Research: Some Reflections and Proposals,' Policy and Politics, 5
( 1977); R.J. Johnston, Political. Electoral and Spatial Systems: An
Essay in Political Geography (The Clarendon Press, 1979); and K.R.
Cox Location and Public Problems: A Political Geography of the
Contemporary World (Blackwell, 1980).
The expansion ofresearch brought a radical attack on the location
of local government stud ies primarily within public administration. The
theoretical Perspectives of Castells and others were made available to
English-speaking readers first in C.G. Pickvance (ed.) Urban Sociology:
Critical Essays (Methuen, 1976) and then in M. Casteils, The Uraban
Question: A Marxist Approach (Edward Arnold. 1977) and his City,
Class and Power (Macmillan, 1978). for an appraisal of the ideas of
Castells and others, seeM. Harloe (ed.), Captive Cities (Wiley, 1977).
A trenchant criticism of existing local government perspectives in C.
Cockburn, the Local State (Pluto Press, 1977). The concept of the ' local
state' has been widely debated, for instance, in M. Boddy and C. Fudge
(eds), ' The Local State,' Working Paper 20 (School of Advanced Urban
Stud ies (SAUS), Universiry of Bristol, 1981 ). Critical reviews of the
nco-Marxist and radical perspectives are M . Har loe (ed.), New
Perspectives on Urban Change and Conflict (Heinemann, 1981); M.
Goldsmith, Politics, Planning and the City (Hutchinson 1980) ; P.
Dunleavy, Urban Political Analysis (Macmillan, 1980); and his The
Politics of Mass Housing in Britain 1945-1975 (The Clarendon Press,
1981).

Historical Works and Texts

The twentieth-century history of local government stands on the
works of the Webbs, Cole, Laski, Hennan Finer and Robson. In recent
years, however, there has been a great expansion in the study of urban
history. As we ll as specialized jou rnals, a number of publishers now
produce urban history series, notably those by the Leicester University
Press. Edward Arnold and Basil Blackwell.
Particular local government services also have their own histories.
Bibliographies can be found in, for example, M. Bruce, The Coming of

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142 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

the Welfare State (Batsford, 4th edn, 1968) and G.E. Cherry, The
Evolution of British Town Planning (Leonard Hill, 1974). J.B.
Cullingworth's official history of environmental Planning includes: the
wartime history up to 1947; National Parks; New Towns; and Land
Values, Compensation and Betterment (Environmental Planning /939-
1969, Vols 1-11~ Hmso, 1975-1980).
The history of local government has its genesis in the writings of
Chartwick aod Simon and the official publications of the nineteenth
century and in the monumental writings of Sidney and Beatrice Webb:
under th e title English Local Government from the Revolwion to the
Municipal Corporations Act, published by Longmans, Green & Co. TI1e
work consists of three studies: The Parish and the County (1906); The
Manor and the Borough, Parts l and II (2 vols, 1980); and Statutory
Authorities for Special Purposes (1922). Other works include Redlich
and Hirst (work cited); V.D. Lipman. Local Government Areas 1834-
/ 945 (Blackwell, 1949); H.J. Laski, W.l. Jennings and W. A. Robson
(eds), A Century of Municipal Progress (Allen and Unwin, 1935); B.
Keith-Lucas, The English Local Governmellf Franchise (Blackwell,
1952); and his The Unreformed Local Government System (Croom
Helms, 1979). For this century there is B. Keith-Lucas' and P,G.
Richards. A History of Local Gover:nmenr in the 20th Century (Allen
and Unwin, 1978,), a successor to Redlich and Hirst. A major text of
the of the inter-war period was Sir Ivor Jennings, Principles of Local
Government Law (University of London Press, 193 I). This went into
many editions, latterly revised by J.A.G. Griffith. The current text on
the law relating to local government is C.A. Cross, Principles of Local
Government Law (Sweet and Maxwell, 6th edn. 1980).
After 1945 the Allen and Unwin New Town and county Hall
series, edited by J.H. Warren, published a wide range of studies including
Warren's own The English Local Government System (1946). This work
established a tradition of frequent revis ions, subsequently carried out
by P.G. Richards (in 1968 under the amended title of The New Local
Government System}, who became Editor of the series. The tradition
has continued P.G. Richard's The Reformed Local Government System
is regularly revised and gives a comprehensive description of the
functions, powers and progress of local government. Other texts include:
R.J. Buxton, Local Government (Penguin, 2nd edn, 1975); J. Stanyer,
Understanding Local Government (Fontana, 1976); J. Gyford Local
Politics in Britain (Croom Helm, '1976); W.H. Cox, Cities: The Public

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Local Government 143

Dimension (Penguin, 1976); and H. Elcock (with a chapter by M.

Wheaton), Local Government (Methuen, 1982). For School 'A' -level
purposes there is M. Cross' and D.. Mallen' s Local Government and
Politics (Longman, /978). Books for the general reader include: T.
Byrne, Local Government in Britain (Penguin, 1981) and M. Minogue
(ed.) The Consumers' Guide to Local Government, with a valuable
gazetteer (Macmillan, 1977). Lexington Books (D.C. Heath, Lexington,
Mass.) produce a series of comparative texts on local government
including the UK. For a view from the centre there is Dame Evelyn
Sharp, The Ministry of Housing and Local Government (Allen and
Unwin, 1969); R. Crossman, The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister, Vol. 1,
Minister of Housing, 1964-66 (Hamish Hamilton and Jonathan Cape,
1975); and C. Mellors, ' Local Government in Parliament: Twenty Years
Later,' Public Administration, 52 ( 1975).

Area Studies, Including London

In the past Wales and Scotland have tended to be neglected or, in
the case of Wales, subsurr.ed in general texts of English institutions.
Now, work in this area is expanding. For Wales, there is D. Balsom
and M. Burch, A Political and Electoral Handbook for Wales (Gower,
1980); and P. J. Madgwick with N. Griffith and V. Wallker, The Politics
of Rural Wales (Hutchinson, 1973). For Scotland, there is J.P.
Mackintosh, in On Scotland, edited by H. Drucker (Longman, 1982)
and Keating and A. Midwinter, The Government of Scotland
(Mainstream Publishing, 1983). Official publications include: the Royal
Commission on Local Government is Scotland 1966-1969 (the
Wheatley Commission) Report, Comnd. 4150 (HMSO, 1969); the Royal
Commission on the Constitution 1969, 1973 (The Kilbrandon Report),
Vol. i. Report, Cmnd. 5460, and Vol. If. Memorandum of Dissent
(HMSO, I 973); and Our Changing Democracy: Devolution to Scotland
and Wales, Cmnd. 6348 (HMSO, 1975), J. M. Bochel and D.T. Denver
produced a series on elections since reform in the 1970s, The Scottish
Local Government Elections, 1974 (Scottish Academic Press, 1974) and
three volumes pub lished by the University of Dundee, The Scottish
District Elections ( 1977). The Scottish Regional Elections ( 1978) and
the Scottish District Elections (1980). A local study of pre-1975
Peterhead is F. Sealey and J. Sewel, The Politics of Independence
(Aberdeen University Press, 1981). An earlier study of Glasgow in the
1960s is I. Budge et a/. , Political Stratification and Democracy
(Macmillan, 1972). A. Midwinter and E. Page examined the effects of

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144 Modern Me1hods of Teaching Political Science

refonn in ' Remote Bureaucracy or Administrative Efficiency: Scotland's

New Local Government System', Studies in Public Policy No. 38
(Glasgow, Centre for the Study of Pub lic Policy, University of
Strathclyde, 1981); and A. Midwinter, Management Reform in Scottish
Local Government (Department of Adm inistration, University of
Strathclyde, 1982).
Materical relating to Northern Ireland can be found in P. Arthur,
The Government and Politics of Northern Ireland (Longman, 1980). A
guide to local government in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic
is D. Roche, Local Government in Ireland (Dublin Institute of Public
Administration, 1982) and on the Irish Republic see Basil Chubb, The
Government. and Politics of Ireland (Oxford University Press, 1971 ),
and T.J. Barringtron, From Big Government of Local Government
(Dublin, Institute of Public Administration, n.d., c. 1976).
For London, B. Donaghue and G.W. Jones, Herbert Morrison
(Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1973) contains an invaluable bibliography.
A critical analysis is contained in W.A. Robson, The Government and
Misgovernment of London (Allen and Unwin, 1939; 2nd edn, 1948).
The Greater London Group at the London School of Economics and
Political Science published the Grealer London Papers. On the refonned
system of London Government the fundamental publication is The Royal
Commission on Local Government in Greater London, 1957-1960 (The
Herbert Report), Cmnd. 1164 (HMSO, 1961). Academic studies include
G. Rhodes, The Government of Greater London: The Struggle for New
Government of London (LSE/Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1972); and S.
Ruck and G. Rhodes. The Government a/Greater London (Allen and
Unwin, 1970). More recently, the enquiry into the GLC, commissioned
by the then-contro lling Conservative group, chaired by Sri Frank
Marshall, is The Marshall Inquiry on Greater London, Report to the
Greater London Council (GLC, 1978).
Planning, Housing and other :services have generated specialized
London studies, including D.V. Donnison and D. Eversley (eds} London:
Urban Patterns, Problems and Policies (Heinemann, 1974); M. Harloe
et al., The Organization of Housing (Heinemann/centre for Environmen-
tal Studies, 1974); and K. Young and J. Kramer, Strategy and conflict
in Metropolitan Housing (Heinemann, 1978).
Political parties and election s are treated in: L.J. Sharpe, • A
Metropolis Votes,' Greater London Paper No. 8 (LSE, 1962); K. Young,
Local Politics and the Rise of Party (Leicester University Press. 1975);

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Local Government 145

P. Cousin, 'Council Leaders-London's 33 Prime Ministers', Local

Government Studies, 5 (1979): A.D. Glassberg, Representation and the
Urban Community (Macmillan, 1981); J.Bartley, ' London at the Polls;
A Review of the 198 1 GLC Election Results', London Journal (1982);
and I. Gordon. 'London at the Polls', London Journal (1982). A
historical evaluation is K. Young and P.L. Garside, Metropolitan
London: Politics and Urban Change 1837-1981 (Edward Arnold, 1982).

Comparative Studies
American literature on community power and more recently on
distributional analysis has influenced British studies (see above). Recent
Contributions include : W.O. Hawley et al. (eds), Theoretical
Perspectives on Urban Politics (Prentice Hall, 1976); D.S. Wright,
Understanding Intergovernmental Relations (Duxbury Press, North
Situate, Mass,; 1978); and L.L Sharpe. American Democracy
Reconsidered,' Parts I and II, British Journal of Political Science, 3,
1-28 and 129- 167 (1973).
An encompassing description of reorganized local government is
D.C. Rowat (ed.), International Handbook of Local Government
Reorganization (Aldwych Press, 1980). For the problems of Comparative
urbanism there is: U.K. Hicks, The Large City (Macmillan, 1974); W.A.
Robson and D.E. Regan (eds), Great Cities of the World (3rd, 2 vols,
Allen and Unwin, 1972); and B. Roberts, Cities of Peasants (Edward
Arnold, 1978). The Institute of Commonwealth Studies has published
a work on new states: W.R. Morris-Jones and S.K. Panter-Brick (eds),
A Revival of Local government and Administration? An Assessment of
Recent Developments is Several New States (Athlone Press/Institute of
Commonwealth Studies, 1980).
Of increasing interest are those comparative studies with a West
European (including Scandinavian) focus: these include D.E.Ashford.
British Dogmatism and French Pragmatism (Allen and Unwin, 1982);
J. Lagroye and V. Wright (eds), Local Government in Britain and
France (Allen and Unwin, 1979); N. Johnson and A.Cochrane,
Economic Policy-Making by Local Authorities in Britain and Western
Germany (A llen and Unwin, 198 1); and A.B. Gunlicks (ed.), Local
Government Reform and Reorganization (Kennikat Press, P.Jrt
Washington, 1981 ). An important area is that of central-local rel;.tions
treated in C. Hull and R.A.W. Rhodes, Intergovernmental Relations in
the European Community (Saxon House. 1977).

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146 Modern Methods ofTeaching Political Science

K. Newton and L.J. Sharpe's comparative series (some published

under the aegis of the European Consortium for Political Research
(ECPR) included K. Newton (ed.) Balancing the Books: Financial
Problems of Local Government in Western Europe (Sage, 1980); L. J.
Sharpe (ed.), The Local Fiscal Crisis in Western Europe (Sage, 1981);
L. J. Sharpe (ed.), Decentralist Trends in Western Democracies (Sage,
1979); and K. Newton (ed.(, Urban Political Economy (Frances Pinter,
1981).

Representation and Participation

The study of local politics h as been dominatea by a pluralist
framework- but one which has been challenged by neo-Marxists, radical
sociologists and political economists. The Pluralist approach focuses on
community, on pressure groups and participation and on party politic$.
A selection of writing wou ld include A.H. Birch, Small Town Politics
(Oxford University Press, 1959); W. Hampton Democracy and
community (Oxford University Press, 1970); and K. Newton, Second
City Politics (Oxford University Press, 1976). One participation, there
is 'People and Planning' , Report or the Committee on Public
Participation in Planning', (The Skeffington Report}, HMSO, 1969),
D.M. Hill, Participating in Local Affairs (Penguin, 1970); S. Humble
and J. Talbot, Neighbourhood Councils in England (Inlogov. University
of Birmingham , 1977); R. Darke and R. Walller (eds), Local
Government and the Public (Leonard Hill, 1977); and A. Barker, Public
Participation in Britain: A Classified Bibliography (Bedford Square
Press, 1979). The work ofN. Boaden, M. Goldsmith, W. Hampton and
P. Stringer on participation in structure planning (their Interim Research
Papers can now be obtained only from the Department of the
Environment) has culminated in a more general study; Public
Participation in Local Services (Longman, 1982). One the role of the
local press and broadcasting, there is D.M. Hill ( 1970, work cited); I.
Jackson, The Provincial Press and the Community (Manchester
University Press, 1971 ); W.H. Cox and D. Morgan, City Politics and
the Press (Cambridge University Press, 1973); D. Murphy, The Silent
Watchdog (Constable, 1976); and A. Writh, ' Local broadcasting and
the Local Authority, Pvblic Administration, 60 ( 1982).
The case for the citizen's redress agai nst his local council was
argued in The Citizen and his Council: Ombudsmen for Local
Government?, Report by Justic (Chairman, J.F. Gamer) (Stevens, 1969).

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Local Government 147

Evaluations of the system are: The Loco/ Ombudm~an: a Review of the

first Five years, Report by Justice (Chainnen. Y. Moore and H. Sales)
(Justice, 1980); N. Lewis and B. Gateshill, The Commission for Local
Administration (RJPA, 1978); and P. Cook's autobiography, Ombudsman
(BKT Publications 1981 ).
Work in the field of electoral studies is still sparse. Reference
should be made to J.M. Bochel and D. T. Denver, '1976 District Council
Election Data for England and WaJes', which is lodged with the SSRC
Survey Archive (Data Set /498 (A), 1981; D.M. Clarke, Battle for the
Counties (Redrose Publications, Newcastle 1977); F.W.S. Craig's
material on London election (see below); and that of the GLC Research
and Intelligence Unit (see below); M. Stead's annual electoral review
in the Economist; S. Bristow's analyses of results in the Municipal
Review; and also for the 1960s, L.J. Sharpe (ed.) Voting in Cities
(Macmillan, 1967).
For political parties themselves there is J.G. Bulpitt, Party Politics
in English Local Government (Longman, 1967); W.P. Grant,
independent; Local Politics in England and Wales (Saxon House, 1977);
D.G. Green, Power and Party in an English City (Allen and Un iwn,
1980); and J. Gyford, work cited; Ripa, Party Politics in Local
Government (1980) which includes B. Wood's survey of member/officer
relations.
The issues of representation raised by L. I . Sharpe, 'Elected
Representatives in Local Government', British Journal ofSociology, 13
( 1962) and ' Leadership and Representation in Local Government',
Political Quarterly, 37 ( 1966), have continued to exercise researchers.
Such work includes A.M. Rees and T. Smith, Town Councillors: a Study
of Barking (Acton Society Trust, 1964 ); J.P: Hennock, Fit and Proper
Persons (Edward Arnold, 197). G.W. Jones Borough Politics
(Macmillan, 1969); and R. V. Clements, Local Notables and the City
Council (Macmillan, 1969). The maud and Robinson Committees looked
at councillors' characteristics in tl1e 1960s and again ten years later.
Also important are th Committee on the Management of Local
Government (The Mr.ud Committee), Vol. I, Report (5 vols, HMSO,
1967): the Committee of Inquiry into the System of Remuneration of
Members of Local Authorities (The Robinson Committee), Vol, /.
Report, Cmnd. 70 10 (2 Vols, HMSO, 1977); and the Prime Minister's
Committee on Local Government Rules of Conduct (The Lord Redeliffe-
Maud Committee) Vol.l, Report, Cmnd. 5636 (HMSO, 1974). The Maud

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148 Modern Methods ofTeaching Political Science

Committee's work has been criticed, and J. Stanyer warned of the

difficulties of collecting and analysing such data in 'Electors, Candidates
and Councillors: some Technical Problems in the Study of Political
Recruitment Processes in Local Government' , Policy and Politics, 6
(1917). S. Bristow pioneered research on women councillors: 'Women ·
Councillors- An Explanation of tlte Under-Representation of Women
in Local Government' , Local Gavernment Studies, 6 (1980). Also of
interest is J. Hills, 'Women Local CouncillorS: A Reply to Bristow',
Local Government Studies, 8 ( 1982).
A number of studies deal with aspects of leadership. These include
G.W. Jones (Work cited); R.V. Clements (work cited); J.M. Lee, Social
Leaders and Public Persons (The Clarendon Press, 1963); and its
successor, J.M. Lee, B. Wood, B.W. Solomon and P. Watts. The Scope
of Local Initiative (Marten Robertson, 1974). There is also G.W. Jones
and A. Norton (eds), Political Leadership in Local Authorities (lnlogov,
University ofBinningham, 1978); C.Game, ' Review Essay ' One Local
Political Leadership', Policy and Politics, (1979); and D.E. Regan, A
Headless State: The Unaccountable Executive in British Local
Government (University of Nottingham, 1980).

Functions
The main coverage of functions appears in the journals and
general texts. In Planning, a standard work is J.B. Cullingworth, Town
and Country Planning in England Wales (Allen and Unwin, 8th edn,
1982). A book with a wide sweep, beyond questions of law itself, is M.
Grant, Graf!t, Urban Planning Law (Sweet and Maxwell, 1982).
Criticisms of planning have multiplied: for example, J.M. Simmie,
CitizefiS in Conflict (Hutchinson, 1974), and critics have also developed
wide policy interest, as in A. Blowers, The Limits ofPower: The Politics
ofLocal Planning Policy (Pergamon, 1980).
The proliferation of works on Housing is even greater.
Bribliographies can be found in P. Dunleavy, The Politics of Mass
Housing 1945-1975 (The Clarendon Press, 1981) and S. Merrett, State
Housing in Britain (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979).
For the Police, a standard text is G. Marshall; Police and
Government (Methuen, 2nd edn, 1967) while for a history there is T.A.
Critchley, A Hist01y of Police in England and Wales (Constable, rev,
edn, 1978).

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Local Government 149

Urban Policy and Policy making now ranges widely, beyond

questions of land-use planning, with works such as M.P. Boaden. Urban
Policy-Making (Cambridge University Press, 1971) and J.Dearlove, The
Politics of Policy in Local Government (Cambridge University Press,
1973).Recently, increasing attention has been paid to the problems of
the innt;r city: J. Edward and R. Batley, The Politics of Positive
Discrimination (Tavistock, 1978); J. Underwood, 'Policy for the Inner
Cities-A Review Anicle', Policy and Politics, 8 ( 1980); P. Lawless,
Britain 's inner Cities (Harper and Row, 1981); and M. Loney and M.
Allen (eds), The Crisis of the Inner City (Macmillan, 1979). The Social
Science Research Council (SSRC) Working Party, chaired by Peter Hall
Published its final Report, The Inner City in Context (Heinemann/SSRC,
1981) together with a series of eleven specialist reviews. The SSRC has
now commissioned the next phas of the programme (SSRC Newsletter
48 (March 1983)). Recent work on economic regeneration includes: R.
Minns and J. Thomley, State Shareholding (Macmillan, 1978): C.
Miller's review article, Local Authority Involvement in Economic
lnitiati_ves', Local Government Studies, 7 (1981); and K. Young and
C. Mason (eds), Urban Economic Development (Macmillan, 1982). A
different aspt:ct of inner-city issues has been in the area of race relations
(see biblography section). The Scarrnan Report is now available: The
Scarman Report (Penguin, 1982). The Policy Studies Institute has also
carried our research in this area: KYoung and N. Connelly, Policy
and Pracice in the Multi-Racial City (PSI, 1981 ).

Finance

Leading publications on fmance include the Committee of Enquiry

into Local Government Finance (The Layfield Committee), Report,
Cmnd, 6453 (HMSO. 1976); and C.D. Foster, R. Jackman and M.
Perlman, with the assistance of B. Lynch, Local Government Finance
in a Unitary State (Allen and Unwin, 1980). The major textbook is N.P.
Hepworth, The Finance of Local Government {Allen and Unwin, 6th
edn, 1980). Current interest in financial constraints is reflected in R.
Rose and E.Page (eds), Fiscal Stress in Cities (Cambridge University
Press, 1982). A work of specific Criticism is T. Burgess and T. Travers,
Ten Billion Pounds: Whitehall's Takeover of the Town Halls (Grant
Mcintyre, 1980).

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ISO lv/odern Methods of Teaching Political Science

Management
Studies of officers and of officer-councillor relations remain scarce
but there is T.E. Headrick, The Town Clerk in English Local Government
(Allen and Unwin, 1962); A Alexander, Local Government in Britain
since Reorganisation (Allen and Unwin, 1982); C.A. Collins, C.R.
Hinings and K. Walsh. ' The Officer and the Councillor in Local
Government', PAC Bulletin (December 1978); B. Wood in RJPA (1979,
work cited); The Committee on the Staffing of Local Government,
Report (The Mallaby Report), (HMSO, 1967). The standard text is K.P.
Poole, The Local Government Service in England and Wales (Allen and
Unwin 1978).
The 1970s saw a notable change of direction. A seminal work
was J.K. Friend and W.N. Jessop, Local Goverment and Strategic
Choice (Tavistock, 1969). Management concerns are reflected in: DOE!
Local Authority Associations Study Group Report, ' The New Local
Authorities: Management and Structure' (Tbe Bais Report) (HMSO,
1972), J. Bourn, Management in Central and Local Govermment
(Pitman, 1979); R. Greenwood. K. Walsh, C.R. Hinnings and S.Ranson,
Patterns of Management of Local Government (Martin Robertson,
1980); R. Hambleton, Policy Planning in Local Government
(Hutchinson, 1978) S. Leach and J.Stewart (eds), Approaches in Public
Policy (Allen and Unwin, for Inlogov, 1982); R.J. Haynes, Organisation
Theory and Local Government (Allen and Unwin, 1980); and S. Barratt
and C.Fudge (eds), Policy and Action: Essays on the Implementation
of Public Policy ( 1981).

Central-Local Relations
The thinking behind the SSRC's central-local panel and the
theoretical approaches are desc ribed in G. W. Jones (ed.) New
Approaches to the Study of Central-L ocal Government Relations
(Gower, 1980); R.A.W. Rhodes. Control and Power in Central-Local
Government Relations (Gower, 1981 ); and E. Page. ' Why should
Central-Local Relations in Scotland be any Different from Those in
England?', Studies in Public Policy, 21 (University of Strathclyde,
Centre for the Study of Public Policy, 1978). For an alternative view;
ther is P. Saunders. ' Why Study Central-Local Relations? Local
Government Swdies. 8 ( 1982). Concern over this issue has a long
history; for example: D.N. Chester, Central and Local Government

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Local Government lSI

(Macmillan, 1951 ); J.A.G. Griffith, Central Departments and Local

Authorities (Allen and Unwin, 1966).' Relations between Central
Government and Local Authorities', Report by the Central Policy
Review Staff (HMSO. 1977). Two innovatory areas in this reas research
are in law: M. Elliott, The Role of Law in Central-Local Relations
(SSRC. 1981), and in the 'National Local Government Community:
see the work by J. Gyford and M. James (SSRC Newsletter and journal
articles); R.A.W. Rhodes, B.Hardy and K.Pudney's, work on the Local
Authority Associations in Discussion Papers (University of Essex,
Department of Government, 1982).

Reform
The reforms of the 1970s generated a number of studies: J.Brand,
Local Government Reform in England. 1888-1974 (Croom Helm, 1979);
and C.J. Pearce. The Machinery ofChange in Local Government 1888-
1974: A Study of Central Involvement (Allen and Unwin for lnlogov.
1980). Lord Redcliffe-Maud, Chairman of the Royal Commission on
Local Government in England (Cmnd. 4040, Vol. I Report; Vol II.
Memorandum of Dissent' (D. Senior); Vol. Ill. 'Research Appendices'
(HMSO, 1969)) was responsible, with B. Wood, for English Local
Govrnment Reformed (Oxforct University Press, 1974) and B. Wood
published 111e Process of Local Government Reform /966- I 97 4 (Allen
and Unwin, 1976). See also L.J. Sharpe, '"Reforming" the Grass Roots:
An Alternative Analysis', in D.E. Butler and A.H. Halsey (eds), Policy
and Politics (Macmillan, 1978); and P.G . Richards, The Local
Government Act, 1972: Problems of Implementation (Allen and Unwin/
PEP, 1975). Lord Redcliffe-Maud, in his autobiography Experiences of
an Optimist (Hamish Hamilton, 1981 ), describes the evolution of ideas
in the Royal Commission.
John Dearlove challenges these views in The Reorganisation of
British Local Government (Cambridge University Press, 1979), Alan
Alexander's work on reorganization has been referred to above; his book
The Politics of Local Government in the United Kingdom (Longman,
1982) describes the movements of change since 1945. The question of
reform is still an open one; the future of the LGC and the other
metropolitan authorities in uncertain (see above, The Marshall Report
on Greater London) and the general debate continues, as R. McAllister
and D.Hunter's Local Government: Death or Devolution (work cited)
and journal articles reveal.

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152 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

Offcial Material and Bibliography

Local authorities have a statutory duty to publish some kinds of

information (see, the Local Government, Planning and Land Act,
HMSO, 1980 and the Local Government Act, HMSO, 1972). Local
newspapers, political parties and interest groups carry some records.
Nationally, the Local Authority Associations maintain records and
publish dltta. The Commission for Local Administration, established in
1974, produces and Annual Reporl.
Since 1967 the British Library Lending Division has maintained
a comprehensive collection of social science publications, and the Ofl'cial
Publications Section of the British Library is the deposit of British
Government publications. HMSO publishes a Consolidated Index to
Government Publications. The Departments of the Environment and
Transport publishes a monthly Library Bulletin (which includes the
Scottish and Welsh Offices). The DOE/DT sub-library produces an
Annual List of Publications of their non-HMSO material.
The SSRC Newsletter reports on research probjects, and theses
are reported in the SSRC annual register Political Science Theses. and
in the annual Vol. III Social Science ofthe Scientific Research in British
Universities and Colleges, published by the Department of Education
and Science. The European Consortium of Political Research (ECPR)
Workgroup on Local Government and Politics reports ort research and
on publications in its Newsletter. The Political Studies Association Urban
Politics Group publishes a bian nual Newsletter and in October 1982
published a Research Register.
Statistical data are published annually in the DOE/Welsh Office
Local Government Financial Statistics for England and Wales and Rates
and Ratebale Values in England and Wales. The Scottish Office
publishes Local Government Financial Statistics (I st edn for 1975-1976
to 1977-1978 published December 1981 ; 2nd edn for 1978-1979
Published 1982). The Welsh Office published Welsh Local Government
Financial Statisitcs annually from. 1977 onwars; No. 4 (1980) covers
1978-1979. Between 1974 and 1979 the Office of Population, Censuse
and Surveys Series EL (Elctoral Statistics) (HMSO) published an
analysis of local elections for English Metropolitan and non-
Metropolitan counties, and Welsh ·counties and districts. The data were
discontinued after the analysis of local elections of 1979 as part of the
government's cutback of the statistical services. For previous years there

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Local Government 153

are the Registrar General's Statistical Review of England and Wales.

Part II (HMSO); for Scotland: the Annual Report of the Registrar
General for Scotland (HMSO); for Northern Ireland: The Analysis of
the Register of Electors, issued by the Chief Electoral Officer for
Northern Ireland (HMSO).
The Chartered Institute of Public finance and Accountancy
(formerly the Institute of Municipal Treasurers and Accountants)
publishes Local Government Trends; Financial, General and Ratings
Statistic (both annually); and the journal Public Finance and
Accountancy. The GLC's Urban Abstracts publishes eight issues a year,
in two series, on local government services. Urbandoc News (Capital
Planning Information, 44 Main Street, Empingham, Oakham, and also
in Edinburgh) publishes a monthly Digest of Documents and
Developments. A London Bibliography ofthe Social Sciences. published
by the British Library of Political and Economic Science, includes a
local government section.
The GLC Research and Intelligence Unit publishes details ofGLC
and Borough Elections; additional additional material is F. W.S. Craig,
Greater London Votes, 1: The Greater London Council 1964-1970'
( 1971) and 2 , ' The Grater London Council 1964-1971 ' ( 1972)
(Chichester, Political Reference Publications). Two journals containing
London material are London Joumal and the London Review of Public
Administration.
The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
publishes data on urbanization and local government. The International
Union of Local Authorities, IULA (The Hague), published Studies in
Comparative Local Government from 1967 to 1974 and from that data
planning and Administration. The British Sections of both 1ULA and
of the Council of European Municipalities publish IULA!CEM News,
and the monthly European Information Service. The former Journal
of Admnistration Overseas is now published by the R1PA as Public
Administration and Development. 'The public administration institutes
of different countries publish journals (for example, Public
Administration Review (USA), Canadian Public Administration
(Canada) and Administration (Eire). American and imperative material
can also be found in the monograph series of Sage: Urban Affairs
Annual Review:
The major local government joumals include Local Government
Studies. and the Local Authority Associations publications-Municipal

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154 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

Review. County Councils Gazette. District Council Revie w. Local

council Review. Curren t wo rk can also be foun d in Public
Administration. Public Adm inistration Bulletin, British Journal of
Political Science. Political Studies, Policy and Politics, Policy Swdies,
and in the discussion paper series Studies in Public Policy (Centre for
the Study of Public Policy. University of Strathclyde). Related journals
are Public Law, Urban Law and Policy. Houma/ of Urban and Regional
Research. Political Geography Quarterly CES Review (Published
between 1977 and 1980).
Information on current research is in Register of Research
Projects (lnlogov: see also the lnlogov reports and papers) and M.
Goldsmith. Register of Research on Central-Local Relations in Britain
(SSRC, 1982), an updating of the 1979 (A. Barker) register. See also
the discussion and working papers of the School of Advanced Urban
Studies, University of Bristol. Publication ofthe Race Elations Institute
include the journal Race and Class, while the SSRC Research Unit on
Ethni c Rel ations, University of Aston, publishes the information and
research brochure Racial and Ethnic Relations in Britain.

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 Judiciary and Government in
Great Britain

Partial Revival of a Lost Tradition?

A century ago the jurist Sir Frederick Pollock aptly observed that
'law is to political institutions as the !bones to the body': the observation
appears in an interesting essay (originally a lecture) with the portentous
title. 'The History of Engl ish Law as a Branch of Politics' reproduced
in his book, Essays in Jurisprudence and Ethics (Macmillan, 1882). It
is not hard to find modem echoes of this view. It was recently suggested,
for example, in a political science journal that the study of courts and
judicial dec isions lies 'at the very heart of political science': L. Johnston,
'A Defence of Public Law', Political Studies, 16, 384-392 ( 1968).
But tl!e fact remains that, somewhat along the line, the study of
politics in Britain became detached from the study of law. A careful
perusal of current British political science journals reveals a dearth of
items with a recognizably legal or j uridicial flavour. The wide physical
separation between ' law ' and ' politics' sections in most iibraries
symbolizes the breadth of the chasm between two disparate fields of
study. This is in stark contrast to the situation in the US, with its written
Constitution and its overtly ' political' Supreme Court, where the
operation of courts and the behaviour of judges are matters of major
concern to students of politics; and to the situation in many other
countries of Europe, where politics amd (even more emphatically) public
administration are taught, practiced and written about very largely as
facets of public law.

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156 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

Appearances may be slightly deceptive, however. Many major

figures in the history of political thought, as taught to British Politic
students , are also familiar figures in the literature and teaching of
theoretical jurisprudence: Bentham, Mill and Marx are discussed by
theotist of both Jaw and politics, An article on aspects of the relationship
between the judiciary and British politics- ' Judges and the Political
Order', by Howard Elcock (Political Studies, XVII, 294-312 (1969))-
notes the prevalence of legal concepts in political science, instancing
the discussion of justices in Plato "s Republic, as well as the classical
(and legally derived) concept of'social contract', associated notably with
the writings of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. The brilliant essay,
Legalism, by Judith Shkla( (Harvard University Press, 1964), is one
modem instance of the theoretical cross-fertilization that can, and
sometimes does, take place across the boundaries of legal and political
theory. The truth is that the boundary is, in the nature of the subject,
an artificial, one, endowed with reality only by academic convention.
It is the case, too, that some of the major authors of works on
British Government have themselves had a legal training. Thus the late
William Robson. Professor of Public Admir.istration at the London
School of economics and author of the pioneering work, Justice and
Administrative Law (see below,) was a barrister; so, too, was Sir lvor
Jennings (he became a bencher of Gray's Inn), the author of so many
standard texts on institutional and constitutional subjects in the years
spanning the Second World War. Two leading contemporary figures
whose published works demonstrate eloquently the value of interpreting
government and politics from legal perspectives are Geoffrey Marshall
and J.A. G. Griffith, both of whom we will encounter later in this
chapter.
One reason for the apparent gulf between law and political science
is that many post-war political scientists (on both sides of the Atlantic)
have sought to develop their subject through devising sophisticated
techniques for evaluating political behaviour and quantifying political
phenomena. This has been accompanied by rejection of institutional and
constitutional approaches to the subject as being old-fashioned and
atheoretical. Adjectives like 'formalistic' and 'descriptive' are sometimes
used, pejoratively, to describe such work. But whereas American political
scientists have harnessed their behavioural mythology, for better or for
worse, to the study of judicial behaviour (hence the branch of the subject
known as ' Jurimetrics'-see below), their British counterparts have

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Judiciary and Government in Greal Britain 157

chose largely to ignore the judges as part of their subject matter. This
is, in part, because law is seen as 'fonnalistic and its study as antithetical
to the quest for a 'science' of politics; it also stems from the undoubted
fact that British judges, have traditionally been regarded as far more
detached from the world of politics and government than are American
judges. But, whatever the explanation, it is this writer's belief that
neglecting legal and constitutional dimensions of the subject has
deprived political science of a source of potential enrichment: this does
not, of course, imply that ' law' is the Holy Grail of political science,
merely that the latter is necessarily eclectic and needs to draw upon as
many kinds of approach as possible.
There has in fact been something of a backlash against this
neglect, and some forceful advocacy of the need to re-emph asize
constitutional and institutional approaches; see, for example, In Search
of the Constitution, by Nevil Johnson (Methuen, t977) and The Study
ofGovernment, by F.F. Ridley (Allen and Unwin 1975), both of which
make telling comparisons between the legal and constitutional awareness
of academic students of government in countries like France and West
Gennany, and the lack of interest in such matt.ers in Britain. The work,
Constitutional Theory, by Geoffrey Marshall (The Cla.rendon Press,
1971 ), underlines how much the stl!ldy of government can benefit from
a constitutional approach ; some years earlier the same author had
expressed his own concern about the need for political science to draw
upon the resources of public law-see his article, ' Political Science and
the Judicial Process', Public Law, 139-152 (1957). Some Problems of
the constitution, by Geoffrey Marshall and Graeme C.Moodie
(Hutchinson, 4th edn, 1967) is a good instance of 'constitutional' writing
which is stimulating and lucid. It is encouraging, too, to note faint signs
of a possible revival of interest in constitutiona.l issue among a younger
generation of writers: see, for instance, a basic textbook, The
Constitution in Flux by Philip Norton (Martin Robertson, 1982).
Such a revival (if it is one) may simply be a product of the random
ebb and flow of academic fashion. But it may also be connected with
various recent events and developments-such as an apparent increase
in the political significance of judicial decisions, revival of the debate
about enacting a new Bil of Rights, the debate about devolution of
government and the constitutional and legal impact of Britain' s
membership of the European Communities. We will consider aspects
of such phenomena in due course.

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158 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

Were this chapter to confine itself strictly to the political science

literature concerning the relationship between government and the
judiciary in Britain then it would be embarrassingly brief. On the other
hand, it would be possible to go to the opposite extreme by digging out
the legal elements that exist in almost every corner of political and
administrative life. Clearly, some compromise is necessary. The
remaining sections of this chapter discuss the necessary. The remaining
sections of this chapter discuss the literature on the judicial process, on
judicial institutions and machinery of justice and on administrative law.
It then considers some of the contemporary issues which have intensified
the degree of interplay between law and government. The chapter
concludes with some remarks about legal journals and Jaw reports.

The Judicial Process

An informative review article by an American academic (Research
on the English Judicial Process' by Lawrence Baum (British Journal
of Politics Science, 7, 511-527 (1.977) notes, as we have done, that
'political scientists thus far have virtually ignored the English courts
as an object of study'. This, he says, 'reflects a belief that the courts'
political roles are too limited to demand study'-a view from which he
vigorously dissents. The article does, however, provide a useful survey
of what literature was in existence at that time, and includes references
to American material- mainly to illustrate the kinds of research that
he considers Briti~h political scientists ought to be doing.
Some of the sources cited by Baum are more in the category of
' machinery of justice' than in that of 'judicial process' . These
expressions are used in this chapter to denote a significant difference
of emphasis between, on the one hand, works concerning the
institutional structure within which judges transact their business and,
on the other, the nature and the determinantes of juclicial behaviour
itself. It must be admitted, however, that the distinction is somewhat
arbitrary-as can be illustrated by reference to the doctrine of precedent,
which needs to be considered as a :major factor determining the formal
relationships between different courts (e.g. the rules which render the
decisions of 'superior courts bicling upon 'inferior' tribunals) and as a
major factor underlying patterns of judicial decision making.
Behavioural methodology has, in the US. spawned a large
literature on 'jurimetrics', based upon various kinds of quantitative
analysis applied to juclicial decisions. Little of this has been attempted

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Judiciary and Government in Great Britain 159

in Britain: one interesting exception can be found in an article, Judicial

Ideology in the House of Lords: A Jurimetrics Analysis' by David
Roberston (British Journal of Political Science 12, 1-25 (1982), which
contains references to other source material in this area.
Unlike the case of the US Supreme Court, only intermittent
attention has been paid to the operation of particular British courts from
a political science or policy studies standpoint. A lonely pioneer was
The Restrictive Practices Court: A Study in Judicial Process and
Economic Policy, by R.B. Stevens and B.S. Varney (Weidenfeld and
Nicolson, 1965). The House of Lords, that constitutional oddity that sits
at the top of the hierarchy of courts, in Britain, is one obvious target for
research (e.g. David Robertson's anicle. work cited), though it does not,
of course, have the explicit political relevance of a Supermen Court
which is custodian of a written Constitution. One of its former members
observed, rather unkindly, in a review article(' Judges, Government and
Politics' by Lord Devlin, Modern Law Review, 41 , 501-511 (1978)) that
' compared with the Supreme Court, the House is a disorganised rabble.'
Nevertheless, the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords has
attracted increased notice on the part of political scientists in recent
years, partly because a number of politically significant causes celebres
have compelled such attention. One of several instances of commentaries
upon recent appellate judicial decisions appearing in politics journals
(they appear as a matter of course in legal journals, see below) is 'The
Law Lords and the Needs of contemporary Society', by David Pannick
(Political Quarterly, 53, 318-328 ( 1982)). The title is overambitious,
but this i~ a workman-like critical essay on the political/policy
implications of the London Transport fares case and the Harriet Harman
contempt case, both decided by the House of Lords in 1982.
Apart from such welcome, but essentially patchy, evidence of
interest in the political aspects of particular cases, this area of the subject
has been put onto a more secure scholarly footing by the publication of
three substantial studies of the judicial functions of the House of Lords
(two ofthem having appeared since Baum's survey). Quite different in
their respective approaches, they may be regarded as usefully mutually
complementary to one another.
Final Appeal: A Study of the House of Lords in its Judicial
Capacity, by Louis Blom-Cooper and Gavin Drewry (The Clarendon
Press, 1972), is a non-behavioural (but, in part, quantitative) study of

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160 Modern Methods a/Teaching Political Science

the role of the House of Lords, based mainly upon an examination of

procedures, personnel and the substance of decisions in the period 1952-
68. Law and Politics: The House of Lords as a Judicial Body, /800-
1976 by Robert Stevens (Heinemann, 1979) is an attempt, over a broad
time frame, 'to describe and evaluate in policy tenns the legal doctrines
that the House developed. Drawing upon a wealth of documentation
(which makes it a valuable quarry for legal and political historians), it
traces the impact and significance of judicial decisions in various areas,
and arrives at some trenchant conclusions about the patchy quality of
judicial decision making. The last member of the trio is The Law Lords,
by Alan Paterson (Macmillan, 1982), which uses role analysis to
examine the dynamics of judicial decision making in the Lords, with
special reference to the period 1957-1973. The main feature of this study
is its use of material gleaned from interviews with 28 judges, 26 QCs
and seven junior counsel. British judges have not been as eager as some
of their American coumerparts to encourage social scientists to examine
their inner-most thoughts, but Paterson managed to persuade nine of
the 15 serving Law Lords not only to be interviewed but also to be tape
recorded. If some of his findings are a little less than startling, Paterson
deserves credit none the less for his success in breaking down the
barriers of judic ial inscrutability.
A much broader perspective on t~e judicial process, and a more
controversial one, can be found in The Politics of the Judiciary, by
J.A.G. Griffith (Fontana, 2nd edn, 1981). The author's examination of
selected items of case law, under chapter headings of Industrial
Relations, Personal Rights, Property Rights and the Control of
Ministerial Discretion, the Uses of Conspiracy and Students and Trade
Union Members, leads him to some disquieting conclusions about the
pervasiveness of a conservative judicial ideology, and hence to refute
simplistic assumptions about the ' political neutrality' of British judges.
Griffith absolves the judges of making 'a conscious and deliberate
attempt to pursue their own interests or those of their class', but he
suggests that our most senior judges have 'a strikingly homogeneous
collection of attitudes, beliefs and principles, which to them represents
the public interest.' The radical critique is founded upon its author's
fonnidable legal scholarship and thus deserves to be taken more
seriously than some critics have suggested; but it needs perhaps to be
read in conjunction with more conservative interpretations, such as that
of Lord Devlin (considered below).

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 Judiciary and Government in Great Britain 161

In exploring the sociological and ideological undercurrents of the

judicial process, Griffith considers. but quickly abandons, classical
Marxism as a possible explanatory framework. This reminds us,
however, that the body of literature on law and government contains a
lot of items written from Marxiam perspective. This is particularly the
case with studies that emphasize aspects of the legal process as an
instrument of social control. This material has been of somewhat
variable quality. Images of Law, by Zenon Bankowski and Geoff
Mungham (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1976), Paul, 1976), is perhaps
as good an instance as any for readers to tum to in order to discover
both the strengths and the weaknesses of such an approach.
It is often forgotten that judges arc sometimes used to serve the
ends of government, not just by acting as courtroom adjudicators but
also by serving as members and chairmen of official inquiries into issues
of current concern and controversy. Some of the most prestigious of such
exercises are those held under the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act
1921 , and to origins and usage of this and comparable machinery are
considered in Trial by Tribunal, by G.W. Keeton (Museum Press, 1960).
There may indeed be public benefits in using the reputation for political
neutrality (Pace Griffith) and the interrogative and analytical skills of
judges in such ways, but arguably there are also dangers of tainting the
credibility of the judicial process if the practice is overdone-see 'Judges
and Political Jnquiries: Harnessing a Myth', by Gavift Drewry (Political
'Studies, XXIII, 49-6 1 ( 1975)).
What manner of men (use of the masculine gender is deliberate,
for only a derisory number of professional judges in Britain are women)
are British Judges? Apart from some useful material to be found in some
of the works already cited (e.g. Griffith, Stevens), the evidence is patchy,
largely because judges prefer and are encou raged to eschew public
exposure. Early work on the political backgrounds of the j~diciary can
be found in Studies in Law and Politics, by Harold Laski (Allen and
Unwin, 1932). More up-to-date studies include 'Judges: A Political
Elite', by Alan Paterson (British Journal of Law and Society, I, 118-
135 ( 1975)); and there is usefu l material in the work by Fred Morrison
(cited below). A very useful general sourcebook on the judiciary (though
it is written in ponderous style, and suffers from rather slack editing)
is Judges Of' Trial, by Shimon Shetreet (North-Holland, 1976). Courts
and Judges in France, Germany and England. by R.C.K. Ensor (Oxford
Uni versity Press, 193 3), still retains some of the freshness of a
pioneering and classical comparative essay, despite its antiquity.

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162 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

One judge who certainly did not hide behind a cloak of anonymity
was Lord Denning, whose retirement as Master of the Rolls in 1982,
at the age of eighty-three, marked the end an era: it was, however, a
turbulent era, since Lord Denning's idiosyncratic views and his advocacy
of an explicitly ' creative' approach to the judicial process did not meet
with unqualified approval, particularly among some of his fellow judges,
who saw in his efforts to ' repair' the legislative products of Parliament
an unacceptable usurpation of parliamentary functions and danger of
introducing uncertainty into the lives of citizens seeking to order their
legal affairs. Lord Denning himself has written a number of books about
his judicial philosophy, one of which, What 's Next in the Law
(Butterworths, 1982)--the absence of a question mark sums up his self-
confidence in his own views- played material part in accelerating his
long-delayed retirement, since it was found in its original form (which
was hurriedly withdrawn) to contain libellous and racially offensive
remarks, for which Lord Denning had publicly to apologize.
Almost everyone who has written in recent years about the British
courts has found himself obliged to single out Lord Denning for special
attention, if only as an exception who underlines various rules about
the judicial process. A group of young legal academics has produced a
radical critique of Lord Denning's contribution to various areas of law:
Justice, Lord Denning and the Constitution, edited by P. Robson and P.
Watchman (Gower, 181).
But perhaps the most eloquent (though implicit) riposte to Lord
Denning is to be found in an anthology of lectures by one of his fom1er
colleagues, The Judge by Patrick [Lord) Devlin (Oxford University
Press, 1979). Lord Devlin broadly approves of judges being 'activists'
by which he means ' the business of keeping pace with changes in the
consensus', but is hostile towards judges being ' creative' or ' dynamic'
lawmakers, using their position to ' generate change in the consensus':
in his view, ' the keepers of the boundaries [between rulers and ruled]
cannot also be the outriders.' He strongly favours t~e jury system, and
is against training judges in penology in the hope of making them into
more effective sentencers. His view that judges are 'an epitome of the
ordinary Englishman' and thus endowed with insight into the nature
of the 'consensus' will be take with a pinch of salt by many readers;
but this book, like his other writings, has much intellectual merit,
clothed in fine literary style.

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Judiciary and Government in Great Britain 163

Lord Devlin argues that judges simply are not qualified to take
important decision about issues of public policy. Th is argument is
developed, in much greater detail, in The Courts and Social Policy, by
Donald L. Horowitz (The Brookings Institution, 1977); although the
book is concerned primarily with the US, the arguments deployed have
much relevance elsewhere. The lawyers' literature on j udicial approaches
to statutory interpretation and 'judicial law making' is vast, and really
deserves a separate chapter: a taste of it, and indication of further
sources, can usefully be obtained from a sourcebook, the Lawmaking
Process, by Michael Zander (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980).

Judicial Institutions and the Machinery of Justice

Many competent books on the machinery of British justice (some
of which also contain outlines of areas of substantive Jaw- crime,
contract, tort, family Jaw, etc.) have been published to meet the needs
of law students, but few have any special claims upon the attentions of
those studying government and politics. It was discovered that an
introductory book on aspects of law that he had written for pre-university
politics students-Law, .Justice and Politics (Longman, 2nd edn,
1981 )--was also being used at university level, something that clearly
underlines the shortage of cross-disciplinary literature in this area. One
useful, but still quite elementary, book which tackles the subject from a
recognizable political science perspective, using a ' systems' framework,
was written (perhaps inevitably) by an American Courts and the
Political Process in England, by Fred L. Morrison (Sage, 1973). A new
edition is overdue.
Those seeking a comprehensive and lucid text on the legal system
need go no further than The Machinery ofJustice in England by R.M.
Jackson (Cambridge University Press, 7th edn, 1977). This covers the
civil and criminal courts (includi ng magistrates' courts) and their
procedures, the personnel of the law (includ ing jurist and such matters
as legal education), administrative tribunals and the cost of the law
(includi ng legal aid). ft nicely balances description with criticism and
prescription, and includes valuable references to other sources-
including an index of the numerous official publications cited in the
text.
The later point is important, Continuing efforts to reform, update
and consolidate law and legal institutions have, over the years, produced
numerous standing and ad hoc official inquiries (whose role and

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164 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

workings are themselves of potential interest to students of government,

as is the part played in this and other contexts by the legal professions
acting as lobbyists). The English and Scottish Law Commissions have
produced a steady flow of working papers, reports and draft Bills since
they were set up in 1965: the ir Report on Remedies in Administrative
Law (Cmnd.) 6407, 1976) is one example that is of interest to students
of public administration (see next section).
Other noteworthy official reports of recent years have included
The Report ofthe (Beaching) Royal Commission on Assizes and Quarter
Sessions (Cmnd. 4 153, 1969); Report of the (James) Committee on the
Distribution of Criminal Business between the Crown Court and
magistrates Courts (Cmnd, 1975); Report of the (Benson) Royal
Commission on Legal Services (Cmnd. 7648, 1979); and Report of the
(Philips) Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure (Cmnd. 8092,
1981 ). Those studying the machinery of justice should refer to such
reports and, in particular, to the usefu l volumes of evidence that often
accompany them.
The subject has generated a large historical literature. Rather than
plunging into the 'heavyweight' material (such as Sir William
Holdsworth's epic, multi-volume work, A History of English Law}, a
good place to start is Lawyers and the Courts by Brian Abel-Smith and
Robert Stevens (Heinemann, 1967). Two specialized studies that are of
relevance to students of government are The Law Officers of the Crown,
by J.LI.J. Edwards (Sweet and Maxwell, 1964); and R. F. V. Houston,
The Lives of the Lord Chancellors, 1885-1940 (The Clarendon Press,
1964). All these works contain useful bibliographical references.

Administrative Law

The present writer has discussed elsewhere the under-exploitation

of public law aspects of the study of public administration: ' Public Law:
' What's in it for Us?' by Gavin Drewry (Public Administration Bulletin,
27, 2-19 (1978). The reasons for the tardy and still incomplete evolution
of public law in Britain, in sharp contrast to the rest of Europe, make a
fascinating story in their own right.
The story begins with the distinguished constitutional lawyer, A.V.
Dicey, telling his readers and students at the turn of the century that
any movement in Britain towards the French system of a droit
administratif would threaten the ' rule of law' . His views, in the absence

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Judiciary and Government in Great Britain 165

of any significant counter-arguments, and despite Dicey's own pa11ial

recantation of some of his earlier, more dogmatic assertions about
Continental systems of administrative law, became the conventional
wisdom on the subject for several generations. Dicey's major work on
the subject is still worth consulting: Introduction to the Study of the
law oftire Constitution by A. V. Dicey (Macmillan, 1885; lOth edn, with
introduction by E.C.S. Wade, 1959). Those seeking to follow this story
further might usefully begin with the excellent biography, The Rule of
Law: Albert Venn Dicey. Victorian Jurist. by Richard C.Cosgrove
(Macmillan, 1980); but see the critical review of this work, by D.
Sugarman (Modern Law Review. 4·6, I02- 11 1 (1983). An article, 'The
Donoughmore Report in Retrospect ' by D.G. T. Williams (Public
Administration. 60, 273-292)), usefully examines the impact ofDiceyan
dogma on subsequent events. Looking more broadly at the history of
public law, there is a well-documented account of the divergent patterns
of early development in the US. Britain and the continent of Europe:
' Public Administration and Administrative Law' by John A. Fairlie, in
Essays on the Law and Practice ofGovernmental Administration,edited
by Charleys G.Haines and Marshall E.Dimock (Johns Hopkins Press.
1935). A much more recent comparison between Britain and the US in
this area can be found in Legal Control of Government, by Bernard
Schwartz and H. W.R. Wade (The Clarendon Press, 1972); and the state
of French droit administratif a century after Dicey first misinterpreted
it is usefully. outlined in French Administrative Law, by L. Neville Brown
and J.F. Gamer (Bunerworths, 3rd edn. 1983).
So far as the literary history of the subject in Britain is concerned,
suffice it to say that despite the appearance of two pioneering works in
the late 1920s administrative law found hardly any authors to advance
its cause until the 1950s. Those works still repay some attention even
today. They are Justice and Administrative Law, by W.A. Robson
(Macmllan, 1928), and Administrative Law, by F.J. Port (Longman,
1929). Robson's book was subsequently updated (Stevens, 3rd edn,
1951), but the later editions lost more than they gained from the author's
inclusion of understandable but over-lengthy complaints about his
treatment at the hands of the Donoughmore Committee on Ministers'
Powers. a body strongly moved by the spirit of A. V. Dicey (see
Williams's article, work cited). Another early work that still merits study
is a collection of lectures, delivered in the US by Sir Cecil Carr.
Conceming English Administrative Law (Oxford University Press,

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166 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

1941).
Titere are several reasons for the post-war resurgence of interest
(mainly among layers) in administrative law, and they are outlined in
the first chapter of The British Ombudsman, by Frank Stacey (The
Clarendon Press, 1971 ). The I 950s were the era of the Crichel Down
case, of the Franks Report on Administrative Tribunals and Enquiries
(Cmnd, 218, 1957) and of the first stages in a debate leading up to the
establishment of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration
in 1967. The academic journal Public Law (see below) was founded in
1956, and the earliest editions of what !JOOn became well-established
textbooks on adm inistrative (and usually constitutional) law also
appeared at around this time. An early Ham lyn lecture (see below),
Executive Discretion and Judicial Control by C.J. Hamson (Stevens,
I 954), a cogent comparison between the forms of jud icial review
provided by the French Conseil d'Et at and those available in the English
courts (a good deal of reform has taken place since then), helped to
dispel the wilder images of Diceyan mythology. Over a decade or so,
administrative law became 'respectable' even fashionable. In due course
the ultimate accolade was bestowed, in the shape of a separate entry on
the subject in the third ed ition of the multi-volume encyclopedia of
conventional legal wisdom, Hatsbury's Laws of England (Bunerworths,
1973).
However, respectable or not, and despite a number of important
reforms, English administrati ve law still retains a fragmented and
unsystematic quality which has been the despair of many critics, some
of whom have urged the establishment of a fully fledged administrative
court, perhaps on the pattern of the French Conseil d.Etate. Prominent
among such critics was the late. J.D.B. Mitchell, whose essays on the
subject include ' The Causes and Effects of the Absence of a System of
Public Law in the United Kingdom' Public Law 95- 11 8, (1965) and
•Administrative Law and Policy Effectiveness' in From Policy to
Administration, edited by J.A. Gri ffith (Allen and Unwin, 1976). See
also Administration Under Law, by a Committee of ' Justice' chairman,
Keith Goodfellow, QC (Stevens, 1971), and ' Thoughts on a British
Conseil d'Etat', by Maurice H. Smith (Public Administration, 45, 23-
42 ( 1967).
There is now almost an embarrassment of choice among textbooks
of administrative law, together with a good range of more specialized
works in the field. So far as textbooks are concerned, variety is largely

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Judiciary and Government in Great Britain 167

a matter of style, presentation and emphasis and choice is therefore a

matter of personal tastes and requirements. As with all books on law,
it is important to use an up-to-date edition, though all books in this
area will have been ovenaken by signi ficant events even on the say they
are published. Panicularly useful and well-established texts include
Government and Law, by T.C. Hanley and J.A.G. Griffith (Weidenfelf
and Nicolson, 2nd edn, 1981) Constitutional and Administrative Law,
by S.A. de Smith (Penguin, 4th edn, edited by Harry Street and Rodney
Brazier, 198 1); Administrative Law, by David Foulkes (Butterwonhs,
5th edn, 1982); and Administrative Law By H.W.R. Wade (The
Clarend on Press, 5th edn, 1982). Casebooks, which usefully bring
together disparate source material (not just case law), include A
Casebook of Administrative Law, by J .A .G. Griffith and H. Street
(Pitman, 1964)- wonh reading, if only for its material on the epic saga
of the Chalkpit case; and Cases and Materials on Constitutional and
Administrative Law, by Geoffrey P. Wilson (Cambridge University Press,
2nd edn, 1976). A readable monograph by an admin istrative lawyer,
which manages to break out of the stereotypical 'textbook' mould is
Administrative Procedures, by Gabrielle Ganz (Sweet and Maxwell,
1974).
The standard text on judi cial review has long been the
monumental Judicial Review of Administrative Action, S.A. de Smith
(Stevens, 4th edn, rev, by J.M. Evans, 1980). The latest edition takes
account of a major procedural overhaul that occurred in the wake of a
review by the Law Commission (see previous section). This is funher
discussed in 'The New Face of Judicial Review: Administrative Changes
in Order 53' by Louis Blom-Cooper (Public Law, 250-26 1 (1982)). But
procedural ru les provide only the framework of judicial review; the
substance develops increme:ttal.ly through the accumu lat ion of
precedents, reflecting the prevailing outlook of the judiciary and the
eagerness of litigants to bring their grievances before the couns. Anyone
seriously intending to study this area must keep up with recent trends
by examining law repons and case notes in legal journals (see below).
One imponant facet of the subject is covered in Natural Justice, by Paul
Jackson (Sweet and Maxwell, 1979).
A glance at the contents of any of the general textbooks one
administrative law cited earl ier makes it clear that the subject goes far
wider than 'judiciary and government '-which is the title of this
chapter. It is generally regarded as includ ing quasi-judicial bodies,

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168 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

administrative tribunals, set up mainly because the courts are regarded

as unsuitable (too forma l and e:xpensive) to resolve disputes in
specialized areas; public planning inquiries, which are not 'judicial' in
any real sense; and ombudsmen, who belong more in the realms of
'executive responsibility' than of ' judicial control'. Rather than
attempting to provide a mass of references on these important subjects,
the writer would suggest consulting the foot-notes and bibliographies
of the major textbooks already cite<!. This part of the subject is also in
a constant state of change. Developments in the tribunal and inquiry
systems can usefully be traced via the Annual Reports of the Council
on Tribunals; and in the work of the Parliamentary Commissioner for
Administration, via his annual and quarterly reports, and those of the
Select Committee on the Parliamentary Commissioner-all published
in the regular series of parliamentary papers.
· The spread of 'administrative law' far beyond the boundaries of
' law' is even more marked than has been so far discussed. Serious
students of the subject will need to relate their work to such matters as
the scope of state control public ac-cess to benefits in the welfare state,
the uses and abuses of administrative discretion, the role of public
bureaucracies and aspects of public participation in decision making: a
most to set the subject in its wider context is The State, Administration
and the Individual, by Michael Hill (Fontana, 1976). Another, more
explicitly concerned with the developing area of 'welfare law', is Welfare
Law and Policy, edited by Martin Partington and Jeffrey Jowell (Frances
Pinter, 1979); and see Justice in the Welfare State, by Harry Street
(Stevens, 2nd edn, 1975), one of an excellent set of monographs, many
of;.;tem with public law themes, in the annual series ofHamlyn Lectures,
dating back to 1949. Another well-established work by the latter author
links our subject to aspects of 'civil liberty' and State control: 'Freedom,
the Individual and the Law, by Harry Street (Penguin 5th edn, 1982).
And see The Protection of Liberty, by I.N. Stevens and D.C.M. Yardley
(Blackwell, 1982).
One area of government where law has, of necessity, loomed large
in the literature is local government. A strict ultra vires rule makes it
necessary for local authorities to find statutory authority for everythi.ng
that they do, and an important body ·o f case law has arisen from litigation
over the nature of their statutory powers. Traditional approaches to this
part of the subject can be found in Principles of Local Government Law,
by Sir lvor Jennings (University of London Press, 4th edn, J.A.G.

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Judiciary and Govemment in Great Britain

Griffith, 1960)-- now badly out of date; Hal'/ 's Introduction to the I, HI '
of Local Government, by Sir William 0. Hart and J.F. Garner
(Butterworths, 9th edn, 1973); and Principles (!f Local Governmem L<tll".
by C.A. Cross (Sweet and Max we II, 6th cdn, 1980). Probably the kst
source for keeping more or Jess abreast of this rapidly changing subie.:t
is to use the Encyclopaedia of Local Governmem Law, edited by C. •\
Cross, 2 vols, loose-leaf form, regularly updated (Sweet and Maxwell.
1980-). Bl!t political scientists will probably find more of immcd1a\C
interest in two recently published analytical essay, the first by a Ia'' y\!r
and the second by a political scientist, on the nature of the kg:.l
framework within which local government operates: The Role of !.f·u·
in Central-Local Relations. by Michel J. Elliott (Social Science Researd1
Council, 1981 ); and Laws and Orders in Cemrai-Local Govern men!
Relations, by Edward Page (University ofStrathclyde. Studies in Public
Policy No. I 02. 1982). The former includes some interesting reflections
on the present state of public law.

Present Trends in Law and Politics

The development of a literature on law and governmcu, h.•,
reflected >hifts in academic fashion; and the larter has in tum rc(kc ~.:d
changes itt the level of salience of 'legal' issues in the processes of
polir.ics and government. One obvious instance has been the incn:asing
'activism' of the courts in tackling issues of public law. This has gi ...en
rise to discussion about the meri ts of entrusting adjudication upon
matters of public policy to judges who are not democratically accountabl.:
for their actions and who may not be professionally equipped to tackle
complex issues, presented to them in isolation, in a competent and
rational way: the debate about Lord Denning's judicial philosophy h :J~.
brought such arguments into sharper focus in recent years.
Related to this has been some disquiet about features of
constitutional arrangements and assumptions, prompted by suet·
developments as Britain's membership of the European Conununitic~..
the debate about devolution of power to Scotland and Wale~ and tiH:
prospective disintegration of the two-party system. Some of th..: stresst ;
engendered by constitutional uncertainty are discussed iu C o llstitllliOJI<It
Fundamentals, by H. W.R. Wade (Stevens, 1980)- anothcr in th(;
Hamlyn Lecture series.
Two specific areas lll'IY be singled out for attention here. ,.he tif'l
(an cxtensiorr of the issue of how far judges should take an a..ti\·.: role

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in matters of public policy) is ihe debate about a Bill of Rights. The

radical idea of legislating to ·entrench' human rights in a formal
constitutional document, and making the judges custodians of such a
document, with a power to declare even the legislative products of a
hitherto 'sovereign' Parliament invalid as being in breach of
fundamental rights. has been floating around for many years. It received
a sharp revival in yet another Hamlyn Lecture-- English Law- The New
Dimension. by Lord Scarman (Stevens, 1974)-and has inspired a
considerable body of literature. Two items (both of which contain useful
references to further sources) may be singled out: A Bill of Rights, by
Michael Zander (Barry Rose, 2nd edn, 1980); and Enacting a Bill of
Rights, by Joseph Haconelli (The C larendon Press, 1980). The latter is
a technical guide to legal problems of enacting such a measure; the
former is a useful and balanced sum,nary of the many conflicting
arguments about the merits in principle of so doing.
A second area is Britain's membership of the European
Communities which has had the important effect of importing into
British law the legislative products of an extra-territorial and supra-
national body, and has assigned final powers of adjudication in matters
of European Communities Law to an international court. The relevant
literature is vast. Students of politics might usefully begin with broad
statements of jurisprudential principle before venturing into the daunting
morass of technicality. Inevitably, there is another Hamlyn Lecture. They
European Communities and the Rule of Law, by Lord Mackenzie Stuart
(Stevens, 1977); and a useful article ' Bri tain and the European
Economic Community', by David Sugarman (Texas International Law
Journal, 10. 279-320 ( 1975). Almost every issue of every mainstream
law journal contains at least one articled or ca~e note on some ispect
of European Communities Law, and a specialist series of law reports,
The Common Market Law Reports ( 1962 to date) caters for those seeking
to keep abreast of judicial decisions in this area.

Law Reports and Lawyers' Journals

Lawlis a mobile commodity, and anyone trying to keep pace with
it must use: some of the basic tools of the lawyer's trade. Those intending
w make significant use of legal materials, and law libraries might
u>l' fully invest a day or so's work at the outset reading a lucid
introuuctory guidebook, Learning the Law, by Glanville Will iams
(Stev..:ns. lith edn. 1982).

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Judiciary and Government in Great Britain 171

Judicial decisions and pronouncements regarded as having some

innovative content worth recording as precedents (and this applies to
virtually every appeal heard by the House of Lords, to a substantial
minority of cases in the intermediate appeal courts and to hardly
anything decided in courts of first instance) arc published in one or more
of the many se~ies of law reports. Glanville Williams succinctly describes
the nature and use of these and other materials of his book (above).
The non-lawyer will probably obtain much of what he needs buy
following the daily law reports in The Times. Public law decisions will
in due course appear. along with a lot of other things, in the two main
'general' series of reports: the semi-official Low Reports, divided into
various subseries (published since m 865 by the Incorporated Council of
Law Reporting); and the All England Law Reports (Butterworths, 1936
to date). There is no specialized public law series, but students of local
government may usefully consult Knight 's Local Government Reports
( 1903 to date).
Lawyers' journals contain a significant proportion of articles, case
notes and reviews which are of potential interest to students of British
Government; Perusal of the cumulative indexes of the major journals
such as Law Quarter~v Review (Stevens, quarterly, 1885 to date) and
Modern Law Review (Sweet and Maxwell, is issues a year, 1937 to date)
can yield unexpected dividends. Probably the most useful of th ~
academic journals in this context is Public Law (Stevens, quarterly, 1956
to date); while a newer publication, the .Journal of Law and Society
(fonnerly British .Journal of Law and Society) (Martin Robertson, twice-
yearly, I 973 to date), is a social science journal rather than strictly a
' legal' one, and and usefully bridge an interdisciplinary gap. Examples
of articles published in both these journals can be found elsewhere in
this chapter. The weekly New Law Journal (Butterworths, I965 to date)
and the more explicitly radical LAG Bulletin (the monthly bulletin of
the Legal Action Group) are valuable sources of quick reference (spiced
with critical commentary) on current issues.

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 Public Administration and
Policy Studies

Introduction
Public administration is traditionally regarded as a subdivision
of political science. Almost without exception, the founding fathers of
the subject in the US were political scientists, including Woodrow
Wilson, whose famous essay on 'The Study of adm inistration' (Political
Science Quarterly. 2 ( 1887)) is generally regarded as the symbolic
beginning of public administration as a self-conscious subject. The
academic subject of public administration in Britain also has its roots
in the study of politics. But while the subject grew up under the wing
of political science, the study of public administration today draws many
of its theories and concepts from other social science disciplines,
including sociology, psychology and economics. Such is the movement
of public administration away from its mother discipline, especially in
the LIS, that F.F. Ridley maintains that it has become a true 'crossroads'
science, so interdisciplinary that its links with political science are now
outweighed by the range of its links with other disciplines ('Public
Administration: Cause for Discontent' , Public Administration, 50
( 1972)).
fo r some American scholars the problem of identifying th e
subject's disciplinary core is so intractable that its academic study is
said to be sufferi ng from what Dwight Waldo has termed a 'crisis of
identity' (Scope oft he Theory of Public Administration·. in The01·y and
Practice of Publtc Administration, edited by J.C. Chariesworth. The
American Academy of Political and Stv:ial Science, 1968). and there

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Public Administration and Policy Studies 173

has been an extensive literature of self-examination. a notable example

being Toward a New Public Administration. edited by Frank Marini
(Chandler, 1971). The American debate has been matched by a similar
self-examination in Britain, of which Ridley (1972, work cited) and L.A.
Gunn, ' Public Administration as Management' {PAC Bulletin, II
( 1971 )) are examples. Ridley's views on the nature of public
administration are developed in The Study of Government (Allen and
Unwin, 1975).
Public administration's identity problem ha:, undoubtedly been
compounded by the debate on the purposes of the subject. Should public
administration teaching provide a general education in the liberal arts
tradition, with an emphasis on what Ridley has described as a concern
with researching the how and theorizing about the why, or should it be
primarily concrned with training, practitioners and would-be-
administrators, with an emphasis on the how to- the techniques of
administration? Unlike the US, where the study of public administration
has long been recognized as a formal body of knowledge accepted as
the basis for a profession, British universities have traditionally aimed
to offer 'education for public administration', with public administration
being taught as part of wider courses on politics and government (see
Teaching Public Administration, by R.A. Chapman, Joint University
Council for Social and Public Administration, 1973). L.A. Gunn (work
cited), however, emphasizes public administration as 'administrative
studies' for future and practicing administrators, arguing that any
coherence that public administration possesses as an area of study
derives from a notion of an identifiable clientele.
Despite these identity problem, for some writers the variety of
approaches to the subject is one of public administration' s main
attractions. Thus R.A.W. Rhodes, in his review of developments in
Britain and The US (Public Administration and Policy Analysis, Saxon
House, 1979), concludes that the search for the ' holy grail' of
disciplinary status will, in all probability, fail, defeated by the range and
complexity of the subject matter. In Rhodes' view, the diversity of the
subject should be regarded as its main defining characteristic rather than
treated as a problem. For Ridley, however, public administration is
growing in so many directions and has become involved with so many
other disciplines at its periphety that it is in danger of disappearing as
a recognizable focus of study, with the risk of overlooking the very aspect
of public administration of which earlier political scientists were so

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174 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

aware' the importance of ' forma l institutions and formal procedures'

( 1975, work cited).

Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

There is much truth in R idley's conclusion that public

administration has advanced in so many directions ' that it is almost
impossible to pattern the current literature' (1975, work cited, p. 178).
Thus R.G.S. Brown's outline of approaches to the study of the subject
in The Management of Welfare (Fontana, 1975) deals successively with
the formal structure of administration, the perspective of political
sociology, organization theory, the sociology of professions quantitative
analysis and policy analysis. A recent Open University course on the
subject was organized around the forma l structural approach, the
administrative process as a decision-making and goal-attaining process,
incrementalism, history and law (Social Sciences: A Third Level Course:
Public Administration, Open University Press, 1974). A distinction can
be made between the traditional institutional and descriptive approaches
which still characterize much of the study of the subject in Britain, and
the organizational analysis and policy-oriented approaches primarily
associated with the subject in the US.

Traditional Approaches
One way of approaching the study of public administration is to
concentrate on the formal machinery and processes of government.
Historically, much of the work in this tradition has consisted of
descriptions of the history, structure, powers and relationships of public
bodies, and the methods of controlling them. Representative examples
of this tradition are A Primer of Public Administration, by S.E. Finer
(Frederick Muller, 1950), and the works of E.N. Gladden, which include
An Introduction to Public Administration (Staples Press, 1961).
This institutional/descriptive approach still colours much of the
writing on British Public administration, and has rather unfairly earned
the subject a reputation as the Cinderella of the political science family.
But although this approach is largely descript ive. many studies in this
tradition do have a prescriptive ·o rientation, and the institutional/
descriptive approach is often associated with what Rhodes (work cited)
calls the approach of the 'social critic' : i.e.a concern to descri be
institutions and/or policies with a v iew to affecting change in them. as

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Public Administration and Policy Studies 175

represented in W.A. Robson' s work on local govern ment (see for

example. Local Government in Crisis Allen and Unwin, 1966).

Public Administration as the Study of Organizations

Another approach to the study of public administration is to treat
its problem as ones of organizations and to relate them to the ideas of
organization theory. There is a good general discuss ion of the subject,
which is mainly American, in The Theory of Organisations. by David
Silverman (Heinemann, 1970), Administration: the Word and the
Science, by Andrew Dunsire (Martin Robertson 1973), provides a useful
overview of the literature in the context of a wider discussion of the
development of ' administrative science', while the utility of this body
of knowledge to the study of public administration is discussed by R.G.S.
Brown, ' Public Administrat ion and the Study of Adm inistrative
Organisations' (PAC Bulletin, 11 ( 1971 )).
One way of studying organizations is to see them as hierarchies
of formal and well-defined positions. This is the approach of the classical
school of organization theory, which attempted to show that there are
certain principles of administratio n to guide the structuring of
organizations. Drawing much of its inspiration fonn F. W. Taylor's work
on industrial management (The Principles of Scientific Management.
Harper, 1911 ), the classical school is best represented in the Papers on
the Science ofAdministration, edited by Luther Gulick and Lyndall F.
Urwick (Institute of Public Administration, New York, 1937). The
student of British Public administration will find an excellent example
of this approach in the Haldane Report ofthe Machinery of Govemment
Commiuee Cd. 9230, HMSO, 191g). Many of the ideas of the classical
school are similar to the prepositions advanced by Max Weber in his
work on bureaucrac.y (The Theory ofSocial and Economic Organisation,
translated and edited by A.M. Henderson and T. Parsons, Free Press,
1947).ln contrast to his ideal type bureaucracy, modern sociologists have
concentrated attention on the unanticipated consequences of this form
of organization. Particularly influential is R.K. Merton's 'Bureaucratic
Structure and Personality' in Reader in Bureaucracy, edited by R.K.
Merton et al. (Free Press, 1952), which declared that Weber's ide;,)
bureaucracy had irnponant dysfunctional consequences, a theme echoed
by later sociological studies, notably TVA and the 0rasJ No()Js hy 1'.
Selznick (UniversiW ofCalifornia Press. 1949) and Patterns uj !llllu~triaf

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I '7(, Modem Meilwds ofTeaching Political Scie1n-e

Buro::cw cracy. by A. W. Goldener (Free Press, 1954). Another infl uential

~:ontribution is that of the French sociologist, Michel, Crozier, The
Bureaucratic Phenomenon (Tavistock Publications, 1964).
The importance of informal patterns of group behaviour in
organizations has been the subject of attention by writers in the human
rel:ltions school, which examines organizations as social institutions.
The beginni ngs of this school are usually identified as the ' Hawthorne'
experiments of the late 1920s and early 1930s, reported in Management
and the Worker, by F.J. Roetl1lisberger and W.J. Dickson (Harvard
Uniw rsiiy Press, 1939). Although the term 'human relations' is now
much less commonly used, research and literature continues to be
focu sed upon the ' needs' of organizational members, in particular the
worl; of such American organizational psychologists as C. Argyris
(Personality and Organisation, Harper and Row, 1957), D. McGregor
(Thc Human Side of £1/lerprise, McGraw-Hill, 1960 and R. Likert (New
Pau.:rns of Management, McGraw-Hill. 196 1), who arc much more
sophisticated about the complexity of individuals' Psychological needs.'
Other writers look at organizations as ' systems' which are
continually interacting with their environment, one important
application being, that which describes organizations as 'socio-technical
systems', stressing the interrelationships of technology, environment,
the sentiments of part icipants and organizational form. Of particular
importance are the works of three leading British Organizational
theorist: Industrial Organisation: Theory and Practice, by Joan
Woodward (Oxford University Press, 1965), and The Management of
Innovation, by T. Bums and G.M. Stalker (tavistock Publications, 196 I),
which introduces the famous distinction between ' mechanistic' and
'organic' management systems. More recently, several writers have
developed the study of the internal characteristics and environment of
organizations into 'contingency theory', British work in this field can
be found in the Aston studies: Organisational Structure in its Context,
edi ted by D.S. Pugh and D.J. Hickson (Saxon House, 1976,) and
Organisational Structure: Extensions and Replications. edited by D.S.
Pugh and C.R. Hinings (Saxon House, 1976).
Another important branch of organization th~ory is that wh ich
discusses organizations as decision-making structures. Decision making
is primarily associated with H.A. Simon, who, in an argument begun
in Administrative Behaviour (Free Press, 3rd edn. 1976), which has

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Public Administration and Policy SJudies 177

become a classic. argues that while the pursuit of rationality is a

desirable aitr. in decision mak:ng, decision makers will always be subject
to ' bounded rationality', and obl.iged to ' satisfies· and search for
solutions that are satisfactory or 'good enough.'
Simon's work has inspired a whole generation of writing on
decision making, notably that of C. E. Lindblom, who argues that for
complex policy problems no-one can approximate to Simon's synoptic
ideal, and formulates the very important concept of 'incrementalism'
to describe decision makers' reactions to complex problems. The origins
of this work can be found in 'The Science of "Muddying Through";
Public Administration Review, 19 (1959), but the most complete
statement of his ideas is The Intelligence of Democracy (Free Press,
1965).
Other important contributions to the literature include A.T.
Etzioni, who sees Simon and Lindblom's approaches as complementary
('Mixed Scanning: a "Third" Approach to Decision-making', Public
Admil?istration Re vie w, 27 (2967)), and an important British
Contribution is The Art ofJudgment. by Sir Geoffrey Vickers (Chapman
and Hall, 1965). which, acknowledging a great debt to Simon, depicts
policy making as being concerned with the regulation of systems through
governing ' norms' or relations, and not in terms of the setting of goals.

Policy Studies
Vickers' book is recognized as one of foundations for a relatively
new app roach in public administration: the study of public policy,
emphasis upon which has brought the subject of public administration
much closer to political science. Tite origins of polic)' studies can be
traced back at least as far as the writings of Harold Lasswell in the 1950s
(The Policy Sciences, edited by D.. Lerner and H. Lasswell, Stanford
University Press, 1951 ), but the interest in policy as a central organizing
concept only really began to emerge in the 1960s partly as a reaction
against what was seen as an excessive conc::ern by political scientists
with the inputs of the political system, and partly as an at-empt to
provide political science with an applied function (W.I. Jenkins and G.K.
Roberts. ' Policy Analysis: a Wider Perspective on Public
Administration' . PAC Bulletin, II (197 1)). The growing c::oncern with
policy studies has not. however, been accompanied by agreement on how
such studies should be conducted, and there are many different

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178 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

approaches to the study of public policy, ranging from essentially

descri ptive and explanatory studies (such as studies of policy content,
studies of the policy process and studies of policy outputs) to studies
which are essentially prescriptive, such as the work of Y. Dror (see, for
example, Public Policymaking Re-examined, Chandler, 1968). The
distinction is discussed further by .I Gordon et al. 'Perspectives on Policy
Analysis' (Public Administration Bulletin, 25 (1977}). A useful tour
d' horizon of the literature on policy studies will be found in Policy
Analysis, by W.l. Jenkins (Martin-Robertson, 1978).
For many writers the central focus of the study of public policy is
the policy process. Writers examine the policy process in terms of a
systems framework derived from the writings of David Easton, a
perspective favoured by Thomas Dye Understanding Public Policy .
(Prentice-Hall, 1972). Another commonly presented framework suggests
a number of stages through which issues proved: agenda setting, problem
definition, policy fonnation , policy implementation and so on. Typical
of this approach is Public Policy-Making. by J.E. Anderson (Newlson,
1975). Analysis of the policy process draws heavily on the literature of
decision making discussed in the previous section, especially Lindblom's
discussion of incrementalism. There are also important links with the
literature on power, a particularly important concept being that of ' non-
dectisons: It being necessary, as P. Bachrach and M. Baratz point out
in a famouse article, not only to look at decisior.s, but also at how
potential issues are kept of the policy agenda by those in political power
('Two Faces of Power', American Political Science Review, 56 ( 1962).
Although the literature on the policy process has traditionally
emphasized the policy-formation stage, and there are a vast number of
what H. Heclo, in his discussion of the case study approach (' Policy
Analysis', Britt:fh Journal ofPolitical Science. 2. 1972)). calls 'who
did what' accounts, the policy process is being increasingly studied from
a broader perspective. Following the publication of J.L. Pressman and
A. Wildavsky's classic lmplemelllaiivn (University of California Pre~s.
1973), there has been a developing interest in the implementation stage.
the literature of which is reviewed by M.J Hill et al., ' Implementation
and the Central-Local Relationship' (Appendix II in Cemrai-Locaf
Government Relationships. SSRC. 1979). and in Implementation in a
Bureaucracy, by A. Dunsire (Marti n Robertson, 1978). Studies of policy
implementation need to be distinguished from policy impact studies,
which attempt to evaluate policies by measuring the amount of change

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Public Administration and Policy Studies 179

brought about by them. The literature on policy impact is reviewed by

A. King. 'On Studying the Impacts of Public Pol icies' , in What
Governmelll Does. edited by M. Holden and D.L. Dreasang (Sage,
1975). There has also developed a literature on th e termination of
policies following evaluation, an overview of which is provided by Peter
de Leon. ' A Theory of Policy Termination' , in The Policy Cycle, edited
by J.V. May and A. Wildavsky (Sage, 1978). The Concept of policy
succession, whereby existing policies are replaced by ' news' is discussed
in Policy Dynamics, by Brain Hogwood and B. Guy Peters (Wheatsheaf,
1983).
A d ifferent perspective on the policy process is provi ded by
Theodore Lowi, who suggests that we shou ld examine the outputs of
policy making and then relate them back to policy processes. In a famous
article, ' American Business, Public Policy, Case Studies and Political
Theory' (World Politics 16 (1964), Lowi argues that each of three
categori es of typo logy of policy outputs indicates a different kind of
policy process. While accepting that all policies are not handled in the
same way, others have suggested that it is equally true to say policies
are not so distinctive as to prevent them being accommodated in a basic
simp le typology of ' policy styles'. This is the theme of Policy Styles in
Western Europe, edited by Jeremy Richardson (Allen and Unwin, 1982);
which defines policy style as the interaction between the government's
approach to problem-solving and its relationship with the other actors
in the policy process. Such a defin ition ena b les soc ieties to be
categorized into four basic policy styles, the book concluding, on the
basis of case studies of several Western European systems, that th ere
appears to be a drift towards ' a consensus relationship between
government and other actors combined with a reactive, rather than an
anticipatory, approach to problem-solving'.
Ru chardson' s book exemplifies the increasing awareness of the
importance of comparative studies of public administration and public
policy in broadening the critical appraisal of one' s own system. An
assessment of the state of the comparative study of public admin istmtion,
together with bibliographical details of the literature, will be found in
Public Administration: A Comparative Perspective by Ferrel Heady
(Marcel Dekker, 2nd edn, 1979), and references to the literature of
vari ous overseas adm inistrati ve systems will be found in the chapters
in Part 4 of this book.

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180 Modern Methods ofTeaching Political Science

British Public Administration

Traditionally, the study and literature of public administration in

Britain has been characterized by tile inst itutional/descriptine approach,
an emphasis which has been the subject of much criticism. Thus Ridley
(1972, work cited,) writing in the early 1970s referred to ' a missing
literature' , and expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of theoretical
contributions to the subject by British scholars, Increasingly, however,
the study of public administration in Britain has begun to incorporate
broader approaches, notably the organizational and policy perspectives
discussed in the previous section. The Literature has also seen the
addition of several important theoretical contributions. Ridley himself
refers to R.G.S. Brown's pioneering The Administrative Process in
Britain (Meth uen, 1970), which attempted to more away from a
'commonsense' approach to pub lic admi nis tration to see whether
organization theory could provide a more satisfying perspective, and
this was soon followed by Administrative Theories and Politics, by Peter
Self (Allen and Unwin, 1972}, relating theories of the administrati ve
process to the actual functioning of governmental systems. Other
significant contributions include R.J.S. Baker's attempt to develop a
theory of pubic administration in Britain in Administrative Theory and
Public Administration (Hutchinson University Library, 1972), and The
Sociology of Public Administration, by Michael Hill (Weidenfelf and
Nicholson, 1972). Suggesting ways in which modem developments in
sociology can be applied to the study of British public administration.
An important contribution by a serving civil servant is Management in
Government by Desmond Keel ing (Allen and Unwin, 1972), wh ich,
although mainly about the use of resources in public administration,
develops an interesting discussion of the characteristic features of
adm inistration.
Although the literature on British public administration now
compares more favourably with the US in respect of theoretical
contributions, unlike the US, there are few British textbooks which serve
as an introduction to the whole subject. There are several introductory
textbooks which are aimed at the level of professional courses and fi rst-
year undergraduates, but the only comprehensive account of the system
is Administering Britain, by B.C. Smith and J. Stanyer (Marting
Robertson, 1976), whic h attempts, inter alia, to discuss the
interrelationships between the separate parts of the British administrative
system . It is to the literature on the separate parts that we now tum .

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Public Administration and Policy Studies 181

Central Administration
A major problem in discussing the British central administrative
system is the absence of an up-to-date survey of the field. The standard
work is The Organization of BRitish Central Government: 19/4-1964,
by D.N. Chest.er and F.M.G. Willson (Allen and Unwin, 2nd edn, 1968),
but this deals only with changes in departmental structure and functions
up to 1964. As Christopher Hood an Andrew Dunsire point out in
Bureaumentrics (Gower. 1981 ), Chester and willwn also belongs to an
era when machinery of government problems were studied almost
entirely historically and descriptively, and before the development of
techniques of large-scale systematic comparison of organizations.
Bureaumetrics pioneers the use of such methods in the examination of
central administration, and argues for a well-developed set of analytical
and measuring techniques for assessing and characterizing the
organizational stallls quo.
Although Hood and Dunsire' took breaks new ground in the study
of what they tenn the ' meso' level of central government, most of the
literature on the 'micro' level is embedded tinnly in the descriptive
t~adition , with the emphasis upon constitutional relationships, and
saying little about the internal structure and functioning of government
departments. A few authors ha.ve written about the working of
departments from experience within them, including H.E. Dale's classic
pre-war study, The Higher Civil' Service of Great Britain (Oxford
University Press, 1941), but this is now of historical interest only, and
there are no comparable modern-day accounts. The New Whitehall
Series, published under the auspices of the Royal Institute of Public
Administration, and a successor to the inter-war Whitehall Series, covers
(to date) some sixteen departments, including The Treasury, by Lord
Bridges (Allen and Unwin, 1964), but the books in this series are
essentially descriptions of the departments concerned and, inevitably,
they are in many cases seriously outdated. One book that does move
away from fonnal description is Government Departments, by D.C. Pitt
and B.C. Smith (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981 ), which attempts to
show how departments took when concepts of organizational analysis
are applied to such issues a.s organizational environment, goals, structure
and management.
Whilst Chester and Willson found it possible in the late 1960s to
define 'central administration' as 'the government departments whose
spiritual if not physical headquarters are to be found in whitehall'. the

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182 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

position today is much more complicated. Of particular importance has

been the growth of central non-departmental bodies outside the
traditional departmental structure. Various terms have been used to
describe such bodies, but the word which has entered most popular usage
is ' quango'. originally an acronym for ' q uasi-non-governmental
organizations. Non-departmental bodies, in their various guises, have
been part of the Brit ish administ rative system since the nineteenth
century, but their importance has grown dramatically since the end of
the Second World War, as reflected in the substantial literature on the
public corporation (see, for example, The Nationalized Industries since
/960, edited by L. Tivey, Allen and Unwin, 1973). This traditional area
of study has broadened to include quangos, and several publications have
followed on from the Anglo-American Carnegie Accountability Project,
1968-1972. Including Public policy and Private Interests, edited by D.C.
Hague and others (Macmillan, 1975), and several papers by Christopher
Hood, includ ing 'Keeping the Centre Small. Explanations of Agency
Type' (Political Studies, 26 (1978)). Hood is also a contributor to a
collection of valuable essays edited by A. Barker, Quangos in Britain
(Macmillan, 1982), which also contains a substantial bibliography.
The ' functional decentralization of central govl!rnment funct ions
to non-departmental bodies is only one aspect of a .wider process of
decentra lization. Geographical decentralization is also an important
feature of the British administrative system. but although there is a vast
literature on local government, and regionalism has been recurring
theme in the literature of British Government (see for instance, The Case
for Regional Reform, edited by W. Thornhill, Nelson, 1972), there have
been few detailed descriptions of how government operates at the
regional level, a gap which has now been partly filled by a collection
of essays on the main regional arms of central government: Regional
Government in England, edited by Brian Hogwood and Michael Keating
(The Clarendon Press, 1982). Regional administration in Scotland and
Wales is discussed in J .G. Keillas and P. Madgwick, 'Terri torial
Ministries: the Scottish and We lsh Offices', in Peter Madgwick and
Richard Rose (eds), The Territorial Dimension in United Kingdom
Politics (Macmillan, 1982), while the 'Stormont' experience, together
with the succeeding phase of direct rule, is d iscussed in Policy and
Government in Northern Ireland, D. Birrell and A. Murie (Gill and
Macmillan, 1980). Useful inforntation on regional adm inistration in all
four countries of the UK can be found in the evidence to, and reports

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Public Administration and Policy Studies 183

of, th e Kilbrandon Commission: Royal Commission on the Constillltion.

1969-1973 (Vols 1-11, Cmnd. 5460 HMSO 1973).
The growing complex ity of the central administrative system
underlines the need for coordinat ion. The British Cab inet, by J .P.
Mackintosh (Stevens, 3rd edn, 1977), remains the classic study o f the
major instrument of coordination at the centre of British Govemmcnt,
whilst a useful ' insider' account is The Cabinet. by P. Gordon Walker
(Jonathan Cape, rev. edn, 1972). Another ' insider' account, The Diaries
ofa Cabinet MinLvter, by Richard Crossman (Vols 1-11, Hamish Han1ilton
and Jonathan Cape, 1975, 1976 and 1977), confirms the longstanding
criticism that policy at the centre of British Government is made th rough
a process of departmental pluralism rather than through the im position
of consistent priorities by the Cabinet. Material on the most recent
attempt to improve the strategic capacity at the centre, the Central Policy
Review Staff (abolished in 1983), is sparse, but William Plowden, ' The
Brit ish Central Policy Review Staff, in Policy Analysis and Policy
Innovation, edited by P.R. Baehr and B. Wittrock (Sage, 1981), is an
interesting overview by a former member.
One area where is an expanding literature on the processes as
opposed to the structu re, of coordination is that of public expenditure
planning and control. Detailed discussion on the origins, mechanisms
and problems of the PESC cycle introduced after the important Plowden
Report (Report of the Commillee on the Control of Public Expenditure,
Cmnd. 1432, HMSO, 1961) can be found in C.Pollitt, ' The Public
Expenditure Survey 1961-72', and Maurice Wright, ' Public Expenditure
in Britain: the Crisis of Control ' ( both in Public Administration, 55
( 1977)). Wright develops his study of PESC and the application of cash
limit in 'From Planning to Control: PESC in the 1970' s', in Public
Spending Decisions, edited by Maurie Wright (Allen and Unwin, 1980).
A mandarin's-eye view of the process can be found in Gelling and
Spending: Public Expenditure, Employment and Inflation, by Leo
Pliatzky (Blackwell, 1982), while Jnsiae the Treasury, Joel Barnett
(Andre Deutsch, 1982), is an account by an ex-Chief Secretary to the
Treasury. But it takes two Americans, H. Heclo and A. Wildawsky, in
one of the most important books on British public administration of the
last decade, The Private Government of Public Money (Macmillan, 2nd
edn. 1981 ), to tell us how Treasury officials, spending departments and
Cabinet ministers actually interact with each other in th e public
expenditure 'community' to produce the pattern of pubic spending.

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184 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

The Civil Service

At present no book provides a comprehensive introduction to the

British civil service. Central Administration in Britain, by W.J.M.
Mackenzie and J.W. Grove (Longaman, 1957), describes in detail the
structure of the service, its recrui tmeni and tra ining procedures, its
conditions of employment, its tasks, its history and its relationship to
other parts of British Government, but is now mainly of historical
intere st . The on ly book that begins to cover the ground is The
Administrative Process in Britain, by R.G.S. Brown and D. R. Steel
(Methuen, 3nd edn, 1979), which contains chapters outl ining the main
features of the civil service as it was at the beginning of 1977. An up-
to-date statistical profile can be obtained by reference to the latest
volumes of Civil Service, Statistics and Annual Reports of the Civil
Service Commission.
There are several good surveys of the historical development of
the modern civil service. The development of the service in the
nineteenth century is discussed in Constiflltional Bureaucracy, by H.
Parris (Allen and Unwin, 1969), and Treasury Control of the Civil
Service 1854-1874, by Maurice Wright (The Clarendon Press, 1969).
The nineteenth-century civil service classic, the Northcote-Trevelyan
Report on the Organi~ation of the Permanent Civil Service (C. 1713,
1854), which had such an impact on the ' generalist' philosophy, is
reprinted as an appendix to the Fulton Report (Report of the Committee
on the Civil Service, 1966-68, Cmnd. 3638, HMSO, 1968). Statesmen
in disguise, by G .K. Fry Cmnd. 3638, HMSO, 1968). Statesmen in
Disguise, by G.K. Fry (Macmillan, 1969), discusses the changing role
of the Administrative Class up to Fulton.
As Parris reminds us, for many years the literature was almost
unanimous in extoling the virtues of the civil service. Typical was
Herman Finer's view in The British Civil Service (Allen and Unwin,
1937), that the service was ' rightly the envy of the world.' There were
occasional criticisms, notably H.J. Laski's questioning of the political
neutrality of the service in Parliamentary Government in England (Allen
and Unwin, 1938), but it was ' almost always possible to show that the
critics were either misinformed or that they had an axe to grind' (Parris,
work cited, p .285). By the m id- 1960s, however, the literature had
become increasingly characterized by criticisms that the service was
amateurish and incapable of deal:ng with the jiroblems of a modern

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Public Administration and Policy Studies 185

state, the classic indictment of the service's 'generalist' philosophy being

provided by Thomas Balogh, who argued in ' The Apotheosis of the
Dilettante', in The Establishment, edited by Hugh Thomas (Anthony
Blond, 1959), that 'in a planned economy, the cross-word puzzle mind,
reared on mathematics at Cambridge or Greats at Oxford, has only a
limited outlets'. Although an elegant insider' defence of the role of the
'geru~ral ist' was provided in The Spirit of British Administration, by C. H.
Sisson (Faber, 1959), Balogh's theme was taken up by others, notably
the polemical British Government Observed. by Brian Chapman (Allen
and Unwin, 1963). These, and other, attacks were given official
recognition in the report of the Fulton Committee (work cited).
Attacks on the service have not subsided with the publication of
Fulton. In The Civil Sen•ants (Macdonald Futura, 1980), Peter Kellner
and Lord Crowther-Hunt (the latter a member of the Fulton Committee)
continue the attack on the 'generalist' philosophy. The book's subtitle,
' An Inquiry into Britain's Ruling Class', indicates its general approach,
which argues that the power of the civil service is substantial and that,
like ruling classes in the past, it has constructed an elaborate system of
defenses to protect that power from erosion, as evidenced by the blocking
of the Fulton reforms. Another account of what has (or rather what has
not) happt:ned since Fulton is Managing the Civil Service, by John
Garret (Heinemann, 1980). Garrett's earlier book. The Management of
Government (Penguin, 1972), discusses ' the managerial revolution' in
central government of the 1960s and early 1970s. In addition to being
a member of the Management Consultancy Group which advised the
Fulton Committee, Garrett later became a member of the House of
Commons Select Committee which produced a critical report on
developments in the civil service since Fulton (The Eleventh Report from
the Expenditure Committee, 1976-77 HC 535 HMSO, 1977). The
Minutes of Evidence and Appendices to this Report contain a wealth
of information on the civil service.
The alleged sabotaging ofthe Fulton proposals by the civil service
has been seen by Kelber and Crowther-Hunt as 'the insidious operation
of civil service power at its most triumphant', and there has been much
discussion as to whether it is ministers or their officials who control
policy making. According to constitutional convention the position is
clear: ministers decide policies and take responsibility for them; civil
servants. who are anonymous, advise their ministers and execute their
decisions. These traditional assumptions are being increasingly

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186 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

questioned. The validity of the traditional convention of ministerial

responsibility has been challenged by several writers, notably S.E. Finer
in his classic anicle 'The Individual Responsibility of Ministers' (Public
Administration, 34 ( 1956), and there are also signs that the related
convention of civil service anonymity is being attenuated. A fuller
discussion of the assumptions underlying the minister-civil service
relationship is Maurice Wright, 'Ministers and Civil Servants: Relations
and Responsibilities' (Parliamentary Affairs, 30 (1977)).
In recent years, various writers have questioned the view that
ministers decide policies, maintaining that civil servants can actually
obstruct policies, of which they disapprove and push ministers into
adopting policies that the depanments want to adopt. Laski's misgivings
about the political neutrality of the civil service have given way to the
more sophisticated view of Tony Benn that the civil service ' sees itself
as being above the party battle with a political position of its own to
defend against all- comers, including incoming governments'
('Manifestoes and Mandarins', in Policy and Practice, Royal Institute
of Public Administration, 1980). Similar criticisms have been made by
other former Labour ministers, notably Richard Crossman (work cited).
The arguments about civil service power are not, of course, one-
sided. Former ministerial colleagues of Mr. Benn question his thesis,
with Shrilly William rejecting both the traditional constitutional doctrine
and the alternative thesis that the bureaucracy rules, concluding that
'power consist of intersecting rings: it resides in areas where people
are able to come together between the civil service, ministers, and to
some extent...pressure groups' ('The Decision-makers', in Policy and
Practice. work cited). Other antidotes of the 'bureaucracy rules' thesis
can be found in the discussions by ministers, ex-ministers and civil
servants in No Minister, edited by Hugo Young and Anne Sloman (BBC,
1982). The view that civil servants actually prefer a decisive minister
is one of the many valuable points to emerge from Bruce Headey's
appraisal of ministerial roles in British Cabinet Ministers (Allen and
Unwin 1974).

Control of the Administration

The control of the administration is an imponant and familiar
pan of the literature of British public administration. The main control
of public administration in Britain is political, as enshr ined in the
constitutional convention of ministerial responsibility (see S.E. Finer,

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Public Administration and Policy Studies 187

1956, work cited), and enforced through the operation of various

parliamentary procedures. Ministerial responsibility is complemented
by legal responsibility enforced by the the courts. There is a substantial
literature on both these aspects of control, and detailed discussions can
be found in Chapters 9 and II.
Increasingly, however, many disputes between the citizen and the
administration are heard and decided outside the traditional arenas of
Parliament and the courts, b)' what H.J. Elcok terms ' the machinery of
administrative justice'-administrative tribunals and public inquiries
(Administrative Justice, Longmans, 1969). The procedures of tribunals
have been the concern of lawyers since the publication in the late 1920s
of W. A. Robson's classic Justice and Administrative Law (Macmillan,
1928; Stevens, 3rd edn, 1951) and the more dramatic The New
Despotism, by Lord Heart (Benn, 1929), which denounced tribunals as
' administrative lawlessness.' Although Robson' s book remained the
standard work for many years. The last edition was overtaken by the
publication of the Franks Report (Reports of the Committee on
.Administrative Tribunals, and Enquiries, Cmnd. 218, HMSO, 1957),
and Administrative Tribunals. by R.E. Wraith and P.G. Hutchession
(Allen and Unwin, 1973) is now the most comprehensive study.
Although many of the most fruitful contributions in this area continue
to be made by lawyers (for instance, H. Street's Justice in the Welfare
State, Stevens, 2nd edn, 1975), there have been a number of important
research-based studies by social policy specialists on the major (in tenns
of cases heard) social security tribunal, including the Research Study
on Supplementary Benefit Appeal Tribunals, by Kathleen Bell (HMSO,
1975), which prompted important changes in the rules concerning these
tribanals. The major place of work on public inquiries in Public
Inquiries as an Instrument of Government, by R.E. Wraith and G.K.
Lamb (Allen and Unwin, 1971 ).
Although constitutionally separated from the courts and
administrative tribunals, and operating as an extension of the apparatus
of parliamentary scrutiny of the administrative process, the work of the
Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration is generally recognized
as falling within the ambit of administrative justice. The Parliamentary
Commissioner has been the subject of a burgeoning literature since the
establishment of the office in 1967, the major work being The
Parliamentary Ombudsman by Roy Gregory and Peter Hutchesson
(Allen and Unwin, 1975), now, sadly, out of print. Two books by the

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 188 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

late Frank Stacey are also major contributions: The British Ombudsman
(The Clarendon Press,· 1971 ), which describes in detail the campaign
for an Ombudsman in Britain and the drafting and passage of the
Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration Bill, and Ombudsmen.
Compared (The Clarendon Press, 1978), which compares the operation
of the British system with systems in Scandinavia, the Canadian
provinces, and France. Both books are examples of the survival of the
'social critic' approach to the study of British public administration,
making clear Stacey's commitment to the Ombudsman concept and to
, the changes which he though necessary in the terms of reference and
organization of the British version. The Parliamentary Commissioner's
two major Causes celebres are discussed by G .K. Fry. ' The
Sachesnhauses Concentration Camp Case and the Convention of
Ministerial Responsibility' (Public Law (1970)), and R. Gregory, 'Court
Line, Mr Benn and the Ombudsman' (Parliamentary Affairs, 30
(977)).The shortcomings of the Parliamentary Commissioner system
have been thoroughly surveyed by a Committee of 'Justice' in the aptly
entitled Our Fettered Ombudsman (Justice, 1977). The published reports
of the Parliamentary Commissioner contain a wealth of material on the
processes of administration and policy making in government
departments.
The original exclusion from the Parliamentary Commissioner's
jurisdiction have been partially corrected by the extension of the
Ombudsman model to local government and the National Health
Service. Apart from a chapter in Stacey's Ombudsmen Compared (work
cited), there is no substantial account of the Health Service
Commissioner, although there is a growing literature on the Local
Commissioners for Administration, notably the evaluation by ' Justice',
The Local Ombudsmen; A Review ofthe First Five Years (Justice, 1980).
The office of the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Complaints is the
subject of K.P., Poole's 'The Northern Ireland Commissioner for
Complaints' (Public Law (1972)).

Polley Studies in Britain

One of the most exciting and significant developments in the study
of British public administration in recent years has been the discovery
of policy studies, and several useful books have appeared in this area.
An introductory text is Policy Making in British Government, by Brian
Smith (Martin Robertson, 1976), which employs the two dimensions

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Public Administration and Policy Studies 189

of power and rationality in an attempt to relate political and

administrative processed to the making of public policy. More ambitious
in its conception is Policy and Politics in Britain, by Dough las Ashford
(Blackwell, 1981), which analyses six major policy areas in an attempt
to see how established political constraints have affected policy making
in Britain.
In an earlier section we referred to the attempt by Jeremy
Richardson et al. (work cited) to develop the concept of ' policy style'.
An important book which attempts to describe the dominant style of
policy making in Britain is Governing undr Pressure, by J.J. Richardson
and A.G. Jordan (Martin Robertson, 1979), which, heavily influenced
by Lindblom's model of decision making, characterizes the British policy
process as essentially incremental, with policy making reflecting
arrangements between groups and government departments which are
intended to minimize conflict. Throughout their book, Richardson and
Jordan examine the policy process as not one process, but as a series of
subprocessed which are closely linked: issue emergence, processing of
issues, decision and implementation, and there is growing British
literature on each of these subprocesses. Richardson's own article,
' Managing the Political Agenda: Problem Definition and Policy-making
in Britain ', Co-written with Joan Stringer (Parliamentary Affairs, 33
( 1980)), provides an overview of agenda management in Britain, while
W. Solesbury, 'The Environmental Agended (Public Administration, 54,
( 1976)), although specifically concerned with the emergence of
environmental issues, is a valuable analysis of the tests which nascent
issues must pass in order to invoke action. As Solesbury' s analysis
rem inds us, issues are often helped on· to the policy agenda by
commissions and comm ittees of inquiry, and there is a wide literature
on this traditional area of British public administration. The classic
discussion remains Government by Committee, by K.C. Wheare (Oxford
University Press, 1955), now nearly thirty years old, but still full of
insights. Some of Wheare's ideas are drawn upon in Committees of
Inquiry, by Gerald Rhodes (Allen and Unwin, 1975), which is a general
survey of the field, whilst Social Research and Royal Commissions,
edited by M. Bulmer (Allen and Unwin, 19800, is a useful set of case
studies.
Although as Richardson and Jordan remind us, political scientists
have tended to neglect the study of policy implementation and policy
delivery because they have been almost totally absorbed in the study of

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190 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

the legislative process, there is a widening literature on policy

implementation in Britain. Two major theoretical contributions are The
Limits of Administration. by C. Hood (Wiley, 1976), which examines
the factors which prevent the achievement of the 'perfect administration'
required to produce perfect policy implementation, and A. King's
discussion of the relationship between non-compliance and the popular
thesis that central government is 'overloaded' in ' Overload: Problems
of Governing in the 1970s' (Political Studies, 23 (1975)). A useful
' insider' case study by a serving civil servant is Dorothy Johnstone 's
study of the introduction of VAT, A Tax Shall be Charged (Civil Service
College Studies, No. I , HMSO, 1975).
tess has been written on the impact of public policy. One Well-
known study is The Politics ofLegislation, by M.J. Barnett (Weidenfelf
and Nicholson, 1969), which goes beyond the origins and passage of
the 1957 Rent Act to examine the political. economic and social
consequences, but, as King points out (in M. Holden and D.L. Dresang
(eds), work cited), Barnett's account is largely vitiated by the failure to
' factor-out those observed changes which are government-specific. One
study which does attempt to do this is H.A. Scarrow, 'The Impact of
British Domestic Air Pollution Legislation' (British Journal ofPolitical
Science, 2 (1972)).
Our understanding of the nature of the policy process in Britain
has also been enriched by the availability of large number of case studies
covering particular policy issues ,o r legislative enactments (see, for
example, Barnett, work cited). A good bibliography of case study
material published in article form can be found in British Government
and Politics, by R.M. Punnett (Heinemann, 4th edn, 1980, pp. 477-480),
and references to the literature on pressure groups and policy making
will be found. Despite Hecla's pessimistic conclusion that the inheritance
from the majority of case-studies ' is a series of isolated, episodic
descriptions ... which are apparently though to be of intrisic interest'
(work cited, p.90), there are a growing number or case studies with a
rigorous theoretical framework, which contribute to our understanding
of policy-making in genera l. Two important books, both in the area of
social policy-making, are Change, Choice and Conflict in Social Policy,
P. Hall et al. (Heinemann, 1975), and Poverty, Politics and Policy. by
Ke ith Banting (Macmillan, 1979). Hall et al. apply a systems model
based on the work of David Easton to six case studies of policy change
in an attempt to formulate middle-range propositions about how and

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Public Administration and Policy Studies 191

in what particular circumstances certain issues attain predominance over

others and become the source of new policy,' while Banting advances a
general interpretation of the politics of social policy-making on the basis
of th ree case studied arguing that policy making is 'both an intellectual
activity and an institutional process'.

Other Literature and Information Sources

Current trends in academic research can best be traced through
journals. The principal British journals are Public Administration
{1923-), Public Administration Bulletin (1972-) (formerly the PAC
Bulletin, 1964-1972), Policy and Politics (1972-) and the Journal of
Public Policy (198 1-), the latter two j ournals being particularly
concerned with the development of public policy studies. Other journals
which sometimes carry articles dealing with public administration
include Public Law ( 1956-), Political Quarterly {1930-) and
Parliamentary Affairs (1948-). The American perspective is provided
by Public Administration Review {1940-) Administrative Science
Quarterly ( 1965-) and Policy Studies Journal ( 1972-). Articles on
various countries are published in International Review of
Administrative Sciences (1957-). Abstracts of these and other journals,
together with newspapers and their indexs are discussed in Chapter I.
Abstracts of many books and articles are provided in Sage Public
Administration Abstracts. and the International Political Science
Abstracts contain a section on governmental and administrative
institutions. Policy and Politics also contains and abstracts section. It
is also possible to identify articles on public administrati<m which have
appeared in other j ournals by referring to the British Humanities Index
(Library Association), which is published quarterly, and the American
Public Affairs Information Service Bulletin (PAIS), which includes a
selective list of the latest literature relating to public administration in
English throughout the world.
Valuable infonnation about and the ' feel' of, administration and
policy making can also be acquired through reading political biographies
and memoirs. A useful bibliography so such works is provided by Jeremy
Moon, ' Post-war British Political Memoirs: a Discussion and
Bibliography' Parliamentary Affairs. 35 (1982). Although many such
works claim to reveal the secrets of how administration and policy
making really works (see instance, Richard Crossman, work cited), as

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192 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

Moon warns us, it should always be remembered that this kind of

literature inevitably sees events and personalities from one particular
point of view, and that the subjectivity of such works is different from
that of a conventional political scientist or historian.
Although ministerial memoirs and biographies ' must remain the
servants of analysis and not substitutes for it' this kind of literature does
provide information and insights not normally available to academic
researchers, who have found it notoriously difficult to surmount the
barriers imposed by the 'closed' system of British central government.
A fuller discussion of government secrecy' in Britain, and the movement
to 'open up' British Government, is The Politics of Secrecy. by James
Michael (Penguin, 1982). The relaxation in 1967 of the rule whereby
public documents were closed to inspection for a period of fifty years
to one of thirty years makes comparatively little difference to students
of contemporary and recent history, although access to documents within
th..: closed period is sometimes given to scholars. The circumstances and
conditions of such access are contained in a Civil Service Department
Memborandum of 1970 (reproduced in PAC Bulletin, 8 1970)). Many
governments departments also have Academi.: Liaison, Officers who
can put researchers in touch with the appropriate sections of their
department when researching unpublished information. Current details
can be found in Public Administration Buffetin, 37 (1981)).
Offic ial publications are, of course, readily avaibble, and
constitute the most important class of primary material available to
students of public administration.

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 The Future of Teaching
Political Science

It has been our main object, in writing this book, to put forward a
certain theory of Public School Education, and to place on record two
or three pieces of work by which that the<?ry is being tested. Progress
from this point must necessarily be made slowly and cautiously; but lest
critics should urge that it cannot be made at all- th at the ideal of
political education, admirable though it may be for boys of seventeen
and eighteen, cannot Possibly be applied to lower forms-it will be well
at this points to suggest certain de velopments, some of which might
even now be tried without danger, while others must fonn the later
stages of a lengthy process oftransfom1ation. Not that, because the need
for caution is recognised, we consider the application of these principles
in the case of lower forms an y less important than at the top of the
school; in some respects we consider them infinitely more so. But
everything is to be gained by a careful testing of alternative methods
and a continuous investigation of results; provided always that the one
aim be steadily held in view- to produce a man capable of independent
thought, and of applying that thought to political and social questions.
It wou ld be easy to draw up detai led programmes and time-tables, in
which every item should seem to fit perfectly into its place; but such a
labour, though amusing, would be valueless. That education should be
in the main political--this cannot be too strongly urged: the only
purpose of the few suggestions which follow is to show that the ideal is
as capable of being realised in the Lower Fourth as it is in the Upper
Sixth.

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194 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

The weekly essay obviously provides the first point of attack. Tea
Parties, and Speech Day, and The Happiest Thing You Did Last
Holidays-ail these tedious subjects must be abolished once and for all,
and their place taken by more vital stuff. Of what possible value can
such compositions be? They inevitably bore the boy who is compelled
to write them; they stir no joy, no though, no first questionings about
right or wrong. From the point of view of mere style they are fatal;
evoked by no need of self-expressi on, they are as likely to result in a
capacity for writing nervous English as is a perpetuity of grammar
papers. It is not through such trivialities as these that the minds l)f
master and boy can achieve that intellectual sympathy without which
teaching is impossible. To put yourself in a boy's position as he
establishes his first slight contact with awful issues; to force your brain,
brought down to the level of his, through the narrow and mud-clogged
passage that leads from darkness to light; to keep your eyes behind you,
so that you may be sure that he is following (and if he is not, to go
back and try another path- ) this is an agony from which many may
justifiably shrink. But if they do so, they should choose an easier
profession than that of the schoolmaster. Boys themselves seem, for the
most part, to have a quite definite preference for the solid and even the
'moral' type of subject, provided they are assured that their essays will
be treated as confidential documents. A boy will express himself to his
form-master, unless, of course, he regards him as a fool, much more
frankly than he will express himself to a chance collection of his school
fellows. One of the present writers takes the essays of the Modern Middle
Fifth. The present form is a very ordinary collection of boys from the
intellectual point of view. There is not a single boy in it who by any
stretch of terms could be called brilliant and not a few might
uncharitably be described as the reverse. llte master had occasion to
talk of Hinduism and found himself hampered by the vagueness of his
form 's ideas about Christianity (which brings us back to the subject of
Divinity teaching again).
So without attempting to expound Christianity to begin with, he
set as the next essay, to be done out of school. ' Faith, Hope, and Love:
their application in ordinary life.' The batch of essays returned was
extremely interesting. Many of the jdeas were crude in the extreme, but
there was much honest puzzling out of things, much extremely candid
writing, and-an interesting point- there quarters of. the essays went
well beyond the statutory minimum of 500 words. Such a set of essays,

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The Future of Teaching Political Science 195

twenty in number, are exhausting work to correct, and one would like
fifteen minutes with each boy alone for 'giving back.' A literary subject
from Shakespeare, set the following week, fell very flat by comparison,
so the form were asked to send in their own suggestions as to essay
subjects. The following list is boiled down from the sixty odd suggestions
received:
I. The best treaty for ending the war (Several).
2. Peace by victory, peace by strike, or peace by agreement.
3. A forecast of three years afterthe war.
4. The future of the British Empire
5. The Russian crisis.
6. Merits and defects of Lloyd George and his secret treaties.
7. The value of America in the war.
8. Gild Socialism.
9. The advantages and disadvantages of modem machinery.
10. Religion and Patriotism.
II. Conscientious objectors (several).
12. The public school system, or spirit (several).
13. The 'play the gante' morality.
14. Compulsory chapel.
15. Poetry and Art (various ambitious suggestions).
16. Truth.
17. The Human Face.
18. Fads and Fancies.
19. 'The Joy of Life, or, Why not commit suicide?
It is not pretended that all these suggestions were suitable, but
what is clo.~imed is that they were all very creditable to their authors.
Not more than five came from any one boy. All the form contributed.
It might be supposed that the form-master himself had ranged over most
of this ground in advance. Not at all: the inspiration, when not original,
came no doubt from sixth form boys and members of the Politics Class.
One of the great values of politics in education is that boys become so
vitally interested that the process of education is transferred firm class-
room to study, and the prefect, unconsciously in some cases. consciously
in others, teaches his own fags. Several of the best suggestions we can

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196 Modern Methods ofTeaching Political Science

trace to the influence of one particularly enlightened prefect on the boys

in his house. But the suggestion, be it understood, was indirect; the form
was asked to propose essay subjects at the beginning of an hour in which
private reading and easy-returning was in progress, and the suggestions
were collected at the end of the same hour.
For boys in the lowest forms some of the despised essentials of
Christian ethics might well be chosen as the subject-matter for essays.
Not many men in this or any country love their enemies; never thinking
about the matter, they grow up into a careless habit of hatred, and for
the most part find in the wisdom of Chirst only the delusions of an
' idealist.' But in the character of a very young boy there is a vast store
of floating and ' unfounded' good, and not much evil; and if the vague
goodness of his mind and soul can be directed, before it is dissipated,
towards the good as fixed and crystallised in a definite attitude of spirit
and a definite code of conduct, it will greet the kinsman it recognises,
and a firm foundation will have been laid on which much building may
be done. It the Kingdom of Heaven is ever established in this sick world,
it will be by men who have not been allowed to lose what they possessed
as little children.
..
Soon the question of Liberty (the starting point for all political
speculation) can be raised; and the boy led on the consider why his own
freedom is being restricted in so many ways. And before long the first
faint stirrings may be given to the social conscience, by asking, ' Is there
anything you have noticed in the world about you, that offends your
sense of what is right and good? It is essential, of course, that these
essays should be given back to each boy individually, and some time
sent in the discussion of them. At least four hours each week should be
set aside-one for general remarks (and perhaps a debate) and three
for ' looking over.' The spear time thus made available for the class as
a whole, while each boy was having his work discussed, would give
valuable opportunity for private reading. Few boys acquire any real
delight in literature at a Public School; the deadly dullness of the
Shakespeare play, read in snippets and largely unintelligible, makes
'English' appear a subject as detestably mechanical as Latin grammar,
and sometime even more boring. If boys are to enjoy their reading, they
must have a number of hours for it, sufficient to allow of continuous
and sustained interest; and they must feel, not like children compelled
to do something distasteful, but like a grown man as he sits down with
a pipe before a roaring fire to open a new and eagerly-awaited volume.

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The Future of Teaching Political Science 197

There is hard ly a boy in whom such a love of literature cannot be

fostered, if the attempt is not deferred until it is too late; and the best
method of fostering it is to give him three or four hours in school every
week in which he can read more or less what he likes. It does not greatly
matter whether he starts with Stevenson or Mr Arthur B. Reeve; it does
not greatly matter even if, when he is introduced to the former, he finds
that the latter has been more to his taste. Once cultivate a love of reading
for its own sake-a love of the very appearance of a printed page for
what it recalls and what it promises-and in the great majority .of cases
the boy who began by reading trash will end as a worshipper of Meredith
or Dostoievsky. And even if he doesn' t-well, it is better to be thrilled
by M. Pathe than to be bored by Shakespeare, better to frequent the
cinemas than never to have known the joy of a single hour's make-
believe. One of the present writers has already experimented in this
direction with the Modem Middle Fifth, and, though the form is rather
above than below the middle of the school it may be interesting to give
some idea of the books the boys prefer to read. The form-master exercises
no suasion in the matter beyond forbidding absolute rubbish (since the
form is not strictly a low one) and showing interest in an intelligent or
unusual choice. Kipling seems the favourite author, and popular war-
books are widely read; Dickens and Scott are not uncommon; but more
interesting is the appearance of Browning, Georgian poetry, Adam Bede,
and John lnglesant.
If the public Eng lish Literature hour is to be retained at all
probably the best way of utilising it is for the master to read lyric poetry
to his form. The appeal here is to the musical sense; and the music of
words often makes the first appeal. to a still dormant sense of beauty.
Some time ago a colleagues tried reading a certain amount of Keats
every week to the Middle Fourth. It was completely successful. The
opening passage of Endymion, in particular, has lingered in their
memory; and one of the class confided to me a week or so ago that,
though he has read a lot of poetry s ince the Middle Fourth days (1 fear
that, in spite of a goodly lapse of time, he has not yet got higher than
the Lower Fifth) his favourite lines are still
An endless fountain of immortal drink
Pouring unto us from the Heaven's brink.
Of course, he may be pulling my leg, and be making a veiled
reference to ginger beer; but I don' t think so.

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198 Modern Methods of Teaching Political Science

But we are wandering from the subject. Can formal lectures be

given to lower forms on Political Science and Economics? Abstract
principles must undoubtedly be allowed to emerge from the discussion
of essays; a logical exposition of the nature of Rights would be as tedious
for the boy of fourteen as it is interesting to a member of the Upper
Sixth. But the same objection cannot be urged against a plain description
of constitutional and legal facts. How is England ruled? Who really
selects the Prime Minister? Is the German system similar to ours? What
was meant by Russian bureaucracy? The answer to such questions is as
fascinating to young boys as their ignorance of them is abysmal. A
similar method may be applied to Economics. One the one hand, there
are the Bagdad Railway, Persian Oilfields. Mesopotamian Wheat; on
the other, the simplified n iceties of hulling and bearing. In the interest
aroused by actualities such as these, geography begins to lose its
tediousness, and mathematics become a thing almost of splendour and
romance.
There remain History and Divinity, encrusted to-day with old
pedagogic traditions, and not least by the awful tradition that any one
can teach them to small boys, provided he prepare a text-book lesson
in advance of his pupils. Such Historians as the staff contains usually
have their work cut out to cater for the upper forms; and as for Divinity,
we live under the law of Moses, and since the teaching of the subject is
limited for all forms to certain sacred hours, there can be no specialists
at all. But History teaching is nothing unless it creates a sense of the
solid rea lity of the past, and Divinity is nothing unless it creates a sense
of the solid reality of God, and a teacher cannot impart a sense of
realities he does not himself possess.
As regard History teaching, the skeleton outline is probably a
necessity, just like any other skeleton. But a skeleton unclothed with
flesh is a sorry object: it seems almost superfluous to say that it is not
alive. Side by side with the skeleton outline, the lowest and humblest
forms must be studying a period, or better still, a subject. Let it be the
Crusades, the medieval manor, the Elizabethan seamen, the Puritan
rebels, the East Indian pioneers, or what you will; the one thing needed
is that the subject should live and that the form should live in it.
Accuracy of detail is quite unessential; a good historical novel will tell
more than much dry analysis; all that is needed is that the boys should
catch some of the spirit of an age, and feel all unconsciously the unity
of human nature in the variety of human experience.

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The Future o,(Teaching Political Science 199

We have left till last the most important subject of all. So to

describe Divinity is the platitude of the priest, but it is the wild paradox
of the public schoolmaster, who knows what Divinity teaching is to·
day For in truth Divinity is the most difficult of subjects. The easiest
part of it is that which belongs to history. The Bible is a progressive
revelation of God, and the forces of religion and formalism, light and
darkness. can be traced from the th inly disguised rivalry of Moses and
Aaron to the final conflict of Christ and the Pharisees. But something
more than that is required. Either Divinity teaching is a mockery, or
else it will strike a note deeper than that struck by any other subject. It
will go beyond the political instinct, beyond the artistic instinct: it will
touch 'the human individuality- that is, the human soul imprisoned
in the human body; the shivering human soul with its own awful
problems. its own august destiny, lonelier in its house of clay than any
prisoner in any Bastille in the world. The true teacher will recognise
in each of his pupils and individual human soul distinct and different
from every other human soul that has ever been fashioned by God, miles
and miles apart from the soul that is nearest and most akin to it, corvine,
indeed, comradeship and sympathy and pity, needing also, it may be,
discipline and guidance and a restraining hand. but imperiously
demanding to be allowed to live i'ls own life, to be allowed to bring
itself to its own perfection.'
We quote the words of one who must have been a great school·
master, for he won the reverent love of his pupils.

Copyngh!ed rna ria

In the modern scientific and technological,
industrial world the teaching of political
science has acquired a very important
discussion. Besides theoretical background,
lessons in practical politics through student
pOlitics, seminars, workshops and elections,
can be given.
These topics have been discussed very lucidly
in this book.
The book has following chapters in it
1. Teaching of Political Science
2. The Political Principle
3. The Political Methods
4. Two Experiments in Teaching Political
Science
5. Training for Teaching Political Science
6. Organizatioos and Teaching of Political
Science
7. The Problem of Bias in Teaching
Political Science
8. Political Parties and Elections
9. Parliament and Ministers
10. Local Government
11. Judiciary and Government in Great
Britain
12. Public Administratioo and Policy Studies
13. The Future ofTeaclring Political Science

Rs.32S
CopyrtQhlcd m lcria
 ($)
Sarup &Sons
I PUBLISHERS '- - - - -
4740/23, ANSARI ROAD, DARYA GANJ, NEW OELH1· 110002