Governing England: English Identity and Institutions in a Changing United Kingdom

England is ruled directly from Westminster by institutions and parties that are both English and British. The non-recognition of England reflects a longstanding assumption of 'unionist statecraft' that to draw a distinction between what is English and what is British risks destabilising the union state. The book examines evidence that this conflation of England and Britain is growing harder to sustain, in light of increasing political divergence between the nations of the UK and the awakening of English national identity. These trends were reflected in the 2016 vote to leave the European Union, driven predominantly by English voters (outside London). Brexit was motivated in part by a desire to restore the primacy of the Westminster Parliament, but there are countervailing pressures for England to gain its own representative institutions, and for devolution to England's cities and regions.

The book presents competing interpretations of the state of English nationhood, examining the views that little of significance has changed, that Englishness has been captured by populist nationalism, and that a more progressive, inclusive Englishness is struggling to emerge. We conclude that England's national consciousness remains fragmented due to deep cleavages in its political culture, and the absence of a reflective national conversation about England's identity and relationship with the rest of the UK and the wider world. Brexit was a (largely) English revolt, tapping into unease about England's place within two intersecting Unions (British and European), but it is easier to identify what the nation spoke against than what it voted for.


Author: Michael Kenny
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 01/29/2019
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.40w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9780197266465

About the Author

Michael Kenny, Professor of Public Policy, University of Cambridge, Iain McLean, Professor of Politics and Official Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford, Akash Paun, Senior Fellow, The Institute for Government

Michael Kenny is Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. He has written extensively on British politics and political ideas, and is the author of The Politics of English Nationhood (Oxford University Press, 2014) which won the W.J.M. Mackenzie prize awarded by the Political Studies Association of the UK in 2015. He is currently working on a project, funded by ESRC, examining the implications of Brexit for the UK's territorial constitution.

Iain McLean is a fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, and a specialist in UK devolution since his time as a senior member of Tyne & Wear County Council in the 1970s. He has published widely on the Barnett Formula and alternative transfer mechanisms, including those used in Australia. He has served on the Independent Expert Group advising the Calman Commission in Scotland, and an expert group advising the Minister of Finance in Wales on local taxation.

Akash Paun is a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Government in London, leading research on devolution and constitutional change. He was Expert Adviser to the British Academy Governing England programme, out of which this book emerged. Recent publications include Four Nation Brexit: How the UK and Devolved Governments Should Work Together on Leaving the EU (2016) and chapters on devolution to four English regions in Governing England: devolution and mayors in England (2017).



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