Consumers and citizens, market and state, gender inequality and family values, national sovereignty and international cooperation. Contemporary political debate is full of ideas and principles which are at one and the same time both novel and traditional. Britain has always had a rich tradition of political argument, but this argument has increasingly been part of a wider, international debate as the politics of this country become more and more embroiled in the politics of the world.

How have the main lines of debate changed in the twentieth century? Does socialism - or conservatism - retain any of its old meaning? What kind of challenge does feminism pose to more 'conventional' political ideas? How can liberals appear amongst the fiercest supporters and the most vehement opponents of the 'New Right'

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Rodney Barker surveys recent political debates in the light of the traditions which have contributed to them: conservatism, liberalism, socialism and feminism. At the same time he presents an overview of the principal themes in political thinking since the beginning of the nineteenth century, and discusses how they have contributed and adapted to the changing concerns of politics in a democracy.

Placing political ideas in their historical context, he shows how by the end of the twentieth century a fundamental realignment had taken place as conservatism became increasingly radical, liberalism fragmented, socialism rediscovered its scepticism towards the state, and feminism both subverted old orthodoxies and made more innovations to the ways in which we think about government and politics.