Managing the UK Economy - Professor Peter Sloman
Economic management lies at the heart of political debate in modern Britain. This module will explore the politics of economic policy-making since the early 1960s, when Harold Macmillan’s government embarked on an ambitious attempt to boost economic growth through public investment, indicative planning, and the UK’s first application for EEC membership. The intervening six decades have witnessed a succession of economic ‘crises’, many of them related to the value of sterling (e.g. in 1967, 1976, 1992, and 2022); several ‘paradigm shifts’ in prevailing economic thought; and far-reaching structural changes such as deindustrialization, financialization, and globalization, which have themselves created major policy challenges. The module will draw on a rich historical and economic literature in order to help students understand these developments and the ways in which UK politicians and Treasury officials have responded to them.