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This study offers an analysis of the UK´s current economic policy options and a plan for improving life for ordinary citizens via a sensible and realistic understanding of governments´ limited ability to manage economic performance. It provides a manifesto which political parties could immediately adopt to make life better for all.

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Introduction 1. A British Economy? Boxing with Shadows 2. Globalization and its Effects 3. What National Governments Can and Can´t Do Well 4. Providing Citizen Support 5. Paying for Support 6. Focusing on Action: A Model Manifesto 7. Putting Policies into Practice

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"This is a hugely timely book. All countries need to face up to the implications of racing globalisation without losing sight of the crucial things national governments can do to improve their societies and economies. This is a fascinating primer for our times." - Lord Hennessy, Baron Hennessy of Nympsfield

"This book should set the cat among the pigeons, if the pigeons can still fly. The authors´ radicalism and they are radical is matched by their deep understanding of the world market economy. No one has written along remotely the same lines." Anthony King, Co-author of The Blunders of Our Governments

"Vigorous, iconoclastic and hard-hitting, Budge and Birch´s attack on the phantom idea of a national economy - so tenaciously adhered to by politicians and policy-makers - opens up a radical prospect for thinking about the priorities of public policy, concluding with a call to action. Agree or disagree, you should not ignore it." Albert Weale, Professor Of Political Theory And Public Policy, University College London, UK

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Ian Budge is Professor Emeritus at the University of Essex. He has written some thirty books and numerous monographs on various aspects of democratic policy-making for which he received a European Award last year.

Sarah Birch, Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Glasgow, UK, is an acknowledged authority on processes of democratization, including political corruption, and election systems and their effects. Her current research focuses on globalization and its impact on democratic practice.

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