Government and Politics

Course summary

Politics students are expected to be aware of subsequent developments, such as results of general elections, the appointment of new Prime Ministers, the impact of minority, coalition and majority governments, and the election of new US Presidents, with Brexit falling into the same category. In 2019, Boris Johnson won an election victory with a surprisingly large majority and proceeded to ‘get Brexit done’, while Donald Trump survived his impeachment and trial to carry on as the 45th president of the USA. However, it still took the UK until 31 January 2020 to exit formally from the EU. Why did the June 2016 decision take so long to be finalised? In many senses Brexit is the biggest political event in recent history, and therefore EU remains a key contemporary political issue. Moreover, the Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives and made narrow gains in the Senate in the 2018 mid-term elections. What does this show us about the state of dysfunctional, partisan and polarised American Politics? Both Johnson and Trump were elected with less than 50% of the popular vote which illustrates one of the main problems with using the Post electoral system. With an increase in voter apathy and the polarising politics of populism and nationalism, it will be interesting to see how the Conservative government having such a large parliamentary majority handles the new political landscape from Brexit negotiations and domestic policies to calls for another independence referendum for Scotland.