Why Is There No Affirmative Action in Britain?

Abstract

Political scientists generally pay great attention to the creation of policies, but relatively little to the absence of policies. This article examines the reasons why Great Britain has not developed affirmative action policies, and in doing so, tries to shed some light on why the United States has. The author finds that both institutional and cultural factors explain the absence of preferential treatment in Great Britain, in particular the salience of the immigration issue, the absence of a leading oppressed group, the structure of the Labour Party and the electoral system, and the centralization of the British political system. The author argues that Great Britain seems to be moving along a different trajectory from that of the United States and that although their antidiscrimination policies are less developed than those in the United States, they may be more effective in the long term. As a result, the British experience may hold lessons for the United States.