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This thesis examines the social reforms ushered in by the prewar Asquith cabinet. It deals with the progressive intellectual environment and how it related to the budget of 1909 and the National Insurance Act of 1911. The following demonstrates how ideologies contribute to a public policy process riven by political, personal and administrative forces.

This study traces the imperial ideas of Lord Salisbury (1830--1903) who was both British prime minister and foreign secretary in 1885, 1886--1892, and 1895--1900. In 1900 he resigned as foreign secretary but remained prime minister until 1902. Previous research on Lord Salisbury has neglected his imperial thought and has seen him as essentially a pragmatist. Instead, this work argues that his outlook consisted of High Anglican Christian faith, and Tory beliefs which were modified by contemporary liberalism. This trilogy of convictions can be seen in his view of British domestic politics and in each of the issues which are examined in detail: namely, his reaction to the American Civil War, his view of India, his reflections on nationalist movements, his role at the Congress of Berlin, his perspective on the civilizing mission and the partition of Africa, his ideas on race, his thoughts on Ireland, Egypt and the Sudan, his opinion on the colonies of settlement, Imperial Federation, and the South African War in 1899. Essentially, this study revises the existing historiography by demonstrating that Salisbury's Christian faith was a central feature of his approach to diplomatic and imperial affairs.

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This study is a cross-examination of the theory of revolution and the historical view of English society and politics in the late eighteenth century. Historical research focused upon the most respected (if not the most recent) works containing theory and information about the effects of the French Revolution on English society and politics. Research into the theory of revolution was basically a selection process whereby a few of the most extensive and reasonable theories were chosen for use.The cross-study of the two fields revealed that, although historians view it as politically conservative and generally complacent, English society, fettered by antiquated political institutions and keenly aware of the recent French Revolution, contained all the elements conducive to rebellion listed by the theorists of revolution. In the final analysis, research indicated revolution did not occur in England because of the confluence of political, military and social events in England and France. / Department of History

This thesis deals with the challenge posed to post-imperial British identity by the rise of Scottish political nationalism and its voice the Scottish National Party (SNP) from the late 1960s to 1980. With the ultimate decline of the British Empire in the decades following the Second World War, Britishness, which had been forged through the imperial experience, was fundamentally challenged by older national identities within the United Kingdom. Scottish nationalism was one of these identities which had been subsumed by an imperial British identity for over two hundred years. A combination of the collapse of the industry of empire in Scotland, relative economic deprivation in the 1960s and 1970s, and other Scottish political grievances prompted increased support for the SNP. Scots, viewing themselves as a nation and as distinct in many ways from the rest of the United Kingdom, reacted to the decline of the British unitary state and encouraged the growth of Scottish political nationalism. The political success of the SNP in the late 1960s and 1970s forced the main Westminster parties to address the issue of Scottish nationalism and Scots' sense of alienation from the centre of power. The Royal Commission on the Constitution and the resulting debate over devolution in the late 1970s, prompted by the growth of nationalism, represented the greatest challenge to the legitimacy of the United Kingdom since the Treaty of Union of 1707.

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