Commentary No. 95, August 15, 2002
"Great Britain and the Modern World-System"
Does Great Britain matter today? Once, not so long ago, it was the empire on which the sun didn't set. During the Second World War, Winston Churchill said that he hadn't become the King's First Minister to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire. But soon after he was ungraciously and ungratefully evicted from office by the voters in 1945, his successors did precisely that. Today, the empire is reduced to a few scattered islands (and not even that much longer), and that exercise in nostalgia, the British Commonwealth of Nations, has dropped the adjective "British."
Since 1945, Great Britain has had only two Prime Ministers who made any difference - the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher; and the champion of the Third Way, Tony Blair. All the others (does anyone remember their names?) dithered. Now, Margaret Thatcher, I have to admit, was something. But what exactly did she accomplish? She wants to be remembered for being tough on the trade-unions. But trade-unions have been doing poorly just about everywhere in the Western world since the 1960s. It didn't require Margaret Thatcher's brutal hostility to reduce their power. What history will remember her for is destroying the Tory aristocracy and recapturing the Falkland Islands (one of those few surviving minuscule pieces of the Empire).
The Tories/Conservatives came into existence as a party in the first half of the nineteenth century. Until Margaret Thatcher, two elements are central to their history. They were always dominated by the British aristocracy. And they were the inventors of enlightened conservatism. This latter was a technique by which conservatives took the lead in implementing liberal centrism and reaped the rewards in a docile population and political power a good deal of the time. They also managed to preserve the most feudal social atmosphere in the modern world. Go see any of the many marvelous movies which show how this operated culturally.
Thatcher ended both. She ousted every last aristocrat from power and turned the party over to snarling nouveaux-riches entrepreneurs and upwardly mobile pseudo-yuppies. The Conservative Party will never be the same again, nor will the British aristocracy. Bye-bye feudalism! And, of course, enlightened conservatism has now been transmuted into the Third Way, except that Tony Blair is no aristocrat, and can't carry it off.
As for the Falkland Islands, Maggie sure showed she was tough. She got her islands back (a continuing costly investment for the British taxpayer, and a blessing for the resident population). In the process, and much to the dismay of the United States, she brought down the Argentine generals (for which we all should thank her) and started Argentina on the path to desperation on which it finds itself today. Since Argentine desperation is fueling a wave of radicalism across South America, the Latin American left may one day hail Margaret Thatcher as their unsung heroine (to balance Evita).
Tony Blair did to the Labor Party what Margaret Thatcher did to the Conservatives. He liquidated all the traditional bases of party power, threw out its entire program (even in its Fabian version), and latched on like a fawning puppy to the United States. True enough, all British Prime Ministers since 1945 have consoled themselves with being in a "special relationship" with the United States, but none has been as embarrassingly the puppet as Blair, first with Clinton and now with Bush. Once Bush and Blair invade Iraq, one wonders if the Labor Party can survive. Maybe the Liberals will at last return to center stage. Or maybe there will be political disintegration, as in Italy, followed by Lord Berlusconi of Albion.
So, does Great Britain really matter? Of course, Great Britain still has a few strong cards - The City, for one. But as Great Britain finally really integrates itself into Europe, it is not impossible that The City will simply move to Frankfurt. Perhaps not. Great Britain could become a European model of multiculturalism, although it may have to fight with its old rival, France, for that honor. It could flourish as a world center of the arts - London as Firenze. And Diana's son will make a splendid monarch. I can't wait for his wedding, not to speak of his coronation.
The Scots and the Welsh may find it not worthwhile in the end to actually secede, although I wouldn't bet on it. And personally, I shall continue to read Shakespeare.
Immanuel Wallerstein
[Copyright by Immanuel Wallerstein. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to download, forward electronically or e-mail to others and to post this text on non-commercial community Internet sites, provided the essay remains intact and the copyright note is displayed. To translate this text, publish it in printed and/or other forms, including commercial Internet sites and excerpts, contact the author at iwaller@binghamton.edu; fax: 1-607-777-4315.
These commentaries, published twice monthly, are intended to be reflections on the contemporary world scene, as seen
from the perspective not of the immediate headlines but of the long term.]
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