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The Pageant of Parliament: Politics in the Time of Modernism

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The Language of Progressive Politics in Modern Britain

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Abstract

This chapter explores competing ideas of progressive modernity in inter-war Britain. It focuses in particular on Parliament, and the way it inspired both Whiggish celebration and violent critique. Robinson traces these ideas across the political spectrum, and into the fringe parties and societies that proliferated at this time. She highlights the emergence of a cross-party progressive approach to ‘getting things done’, which gained credibility from the modernist politics of expertise, but also shaded into populism and extremism. Robinson shows that this co-existed not only with an avowedly anti-progressive critique of liberal democracy, but also with alternative versions of progressive politics, which rejected linearity in favour of more esoteric and experimental temporalities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Politics, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

    Emily Robinson

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  1. Emily Robinson
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Robinson, E. (2017). The Pageant of Parliament: Politics in the Time of Modernism. In: The Language of Progressive Politics in Modern Britain. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50664-1_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50664-1_4

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