The Political Quarterly 

About: The Political Quarterly is an academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Politics & Government. It has an ISSN identifier of 0032-3179. Over the lifetime, 2920 publications have been published receiving 30047 citations. The journal is also known as: Political Quarterly.

Political aspects of full employment1

Abstract: First, Kalecki's affirmation that full employment adversely affect profits represents a radical departure from the classical Marxist theoretical tradition within which he wrote. Indeed, the argument that profits undergo a wage-induced decline during an economic upswing actually reinforces Kalecki's basic thesis that full employment is not generally in the interest of business. The assumption that a Government will maintain full employment in a capitalist economy if it only knows how to do it is fallacious. In this connection the misgivings of big business about maintenance of full employment by Government spending are of paramount importance. The attitude was shown clearly in the great depression in the thirties, when big business opposed consistently experiments for increasing employment by Government spending in all countries, except Nazi Germany. And the policy of full employment based on loan financed Government spending does not encroach upon profits because it does not involve any additional taxation.

Our Common Interest: Report of the Commission for Africa

Abstract: n 11 March 2005, the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, launched the Commission for Africa report, ‘Our Common Interest’, at the British Museum in London. The Commission, which comprised 17 people (the majority from Africa) drawn from politics, public service and the private sector, had been set an ambitious task: to define the challenges facing Africa, and to provide clear recommendations on how the developed world could support the changes needed to reduce poverty. Its report was widely welcomed as one of the most thorough and rigorous analyses of Africa’s problems ever undertaken. Its detailed and practical set of recommendations – directed, most immediately, to the G8 Summit in Gleneagles in July, the UN High Level Plenary on the Millennium Development Goals in New York in September, and the WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong in December – constitutes a comprehensive programme for collective action to lift Africa from poverty, famine and disease, and to unlock its productive potential. At the outset, the report makes a strong case for urgent action. It highlights the positive developments already underway in Africa, in areas such as governance and economic growth, and argues that rich countries should support this progress to ensure that precious gains are not reversed. While encouraged by these signs of progress, the Commission is realistic about the challenge facing many African countries. On current trends, Africa is set to halve poverty, not in 2015 as envisaged with the Millennium Development Goals, but in 2150. Referring to African poverty and stagnation as “the greatest tragedy of our time”, the Commission cautions that failure to act now could lead to irreversible damage to the prospects of future generations. In its analysis of the causes of the current crisis, the report argues that the present situation is the result of a complex interplay of numerous interrelated factors, which form interlocking cycles that affect each country in different ways. Action is therefore required in several areas at once if vicious circles are to be broken. Subsequent chapters provide details of specific actions required in each of these areas. The subject of cultural awareness is given prominence in an early chapter, setting the Commission’s approach apart from many that have gone before. The report calls on the international community to make greater efforts to understand the values, norms and allegiances of the cultures of Africa, and in policy-making to display greater flexibility, open-mindedness, willingness to learn, and humility. An action plan that fails to take proper account of the role of culture is doomed to failure.

The 2016 Referendum, Brexit and the Left Behind: An Aggregate-level Analysis of the Result

Abstract: Why did Britain vote for Brexit? What was the relative importance of factors such as education, age, immigration and ethnic diversity? And to what extent did the pattern of public support for Brexit across the country match the pattern of public support in earlier years for eurosceptic parties, notably the UK Independence Party (UKIP)? In this article we draw on aggregate-level data to conduct an initial exploration of the 2016 referendum vote. First, we find that turnout was generally higher in more pro-Leave areas. Second, we find that public support for Leave closely mapped past support for UKIP. And third, we find that support for Leave was more polarised along education lines than support for UKIP ever was. The implication of this finding is that support for euroscepticism has both widened and narrowed—it is now more widespread across Britain but it is also more socially distinctive.