Public Intellectuals and the Question of British Decline

Abstract

This article proposes a refocusing of the debate on British decline, to concentrate attention on declinism rather than on historical decline itself. In particular, it addresses the ways in which intellectuals have perceived, diagnosed and proposed remedies for decline. Public intellectuals have exerted significant influence on British politics in ways not usually acknowledged in scholarly analysis. We explore three key themes in intellectual declinism: ideology, methodology and national identity. Declinism has proved rhetorically enriching to intellectuals of a variety of ideological hues, the latter drawing on a paradoxically shared reservoir of cultural and symbolic resources. Declinist intellectuals have influentially framed arguments about the English nation, the British state and the supposedly exceptional British developmental experience.