IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/iecepo/v17y2020i3d10.1007_s10368-020-00469-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

British exceptionalism: pride and prejudice and Brexit

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew J. Crozier

    (London Faculty of New York University)

Abstract

The root cause of the current crisis in the United Kingdom is British Exceptionalism which assumed its classic form in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars. During the nineteenth century, the British state focused upon the creation of a global empire and by the 1890s was in a state of ‘splendid isolation’ with respect to Europe. Simultaneously, the rise of Germany meant that Britain could not ignore Europe. During the first half of the twentieth century, Britain became involved in two major wars, which to a considerable extent revolved around the need to curb German power. After the First World War, Britain wanted to focus upon her global interests and this was reflected in her reluctance to embrace integrationist initiatives such as the Briand Plan. Although the Second World War destroyed the basis of Britain’s imperium, the feeling that British superiority had saved the world only reinforced the sense of exceptionalism by adding to it a sense of ‘pride’. After 1945 British power steadily waned and the British state came increasingly under pressure from Washington to join the European Economic Community. The potential of Germany to dominate this grouping and British apprehension of such a development led to prejudice in respect of Germany which later transmitted itself into prejudice against Europe as a whole. Once inside the European Community, Britain accordingly became an awkward partner. Never entirely comfortable within the European Union, a secessionist movement grew which ultimately forced the referendum of 2016.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew J. Crozier, 2020. "British exceptionalism: pride and prejudice and Brexit," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 635-658, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:iecepo:v:17:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s10368-020-00469-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s10368-020-00469-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10368-020-00469-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10368-020-00469-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dell, Edmund, 1995. "The Schuman Plan and the British Abdication of Leadership in Europe," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198289678.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nauro F Campos & Fabrizio Coricelli, 2017. "EU Membership, Mrs Thatcher’s Reforms and Britain’s Economic Decline," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 59(2), pages 169-193, June.
    2. Wolfram Kaiser, 2022. "Destined to Brexit? British Pathways to Membership in the European Communities 1945–73," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 13(S2), pages 9-19, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Integration; Brexit; Economic history;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F02 - International Economics - - General - - - International Economic Order and Integration
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • N00 - Economic History - - General - - - General
    • N44 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Europe: 1913-

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:iecepo:v:17:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s10368-020-00469-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.