Robert Ford

Will Jennings

Tim Bale

Paula Surridge

The British General Election of 2019 is the definitive account of one of the most consequential and controversial general elections in recent times, when Boris Johnson gambled everything calling an early election to 'Get Brexit Done', and emerged triumphant. Drawing upon cutting-edge research and wide-ranging elite interviews, the new author team provides a compelling and accessible narrative of this landmark election and its implications for British politics, built on unparalleled access to all the key players, and married up to first-class data analysis. The 21st volume in a prestigious series dating back to 1945, it offers something for everyone from Westminster insiders and politics students to the interested general reader.

The British General Election of 2019

Elin Haugsgjerd Allern

Both parties and interest groups matter to democracy. Historically, examples of close relationships between the two abound. But perhaps the best known - because it was supposedly the most intimate and politically important - is the relationship between left-of-centre parties and trade unions. Whether rooted in a shared history, culture, and ideology or simply a 'marriage of convenience', the links between them helped socialist, social democratic, and labour parties win power and deliver huge gains to the working class in the post-war period. In recent decades, however, it has been widely argued that the links between left-of-centre parties and trade unions have declined as their collaboration has become less mutually beneficial, not least as a consequence of structural changes in the economy and labour market. This volume interrogates, qualifies, and even challenges that widespread assumption. Based on a brand new dataset, including organizational gathered by a cross-national team of experts, it uncovers and explores what turns out to be considerable variation in the strength of contemporary organizational links between parties and unions in twelve different countries that have been democracies since at least the mid- to late-1940s. Testing a series of hypotheses on the importance of on the impact of particular political systems and socio-economic factors, and on the costs and benefits for both parties and unions, detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis reveals that, left-of-centre party-trade union links are stronger where trade unions are larger, denser, and more unified and where parties are less able to rely on the state to finance their organizational activities and electoral campaigns. Moreover, it remains the case that the links between parties and unions still matter in policy terms.

Left-Of-Centre Parties and Trade Unions in the Twenty-First Century

In May 2010, Labour suffered one of its worst ever election defeats. A few months later it chose Ed Miliband as its new leader. His task? To win back power after just one term in opposition - a tall order given how many voters had come to blame Labour for the economic mess the country was in, and to see the party as a soft-touch when it came to immigration and welfare. Even those who were more sympathetic had their doubts. Was Ed Miliband really leadership material? Would he be able to overcome defeating his elder brother to get to the top? Would he have to do as he was told by the trade union leaders who had helped him win? Could he resolve the tensions between Blairites and Brownites, Blue Labour and New Labour? Might his desire to keep his colleagues united mean Labour stayed stuck in its comfort zone? Would he, in seeking to break from the party's recent past, take it too far to the left? Could he offer the electorate something really radical in 2015 or would he instead choose something safer but ultimately less inspiring? And what should twenty-first social democracy look like now that the money had run out? This book, by one of the country's foremost experts on party politics, seeks to answer all those questions and, in the run up to the 2015 general election, to ask one more: will Ed Miliband's five year mission turn out to be 'mission impossible'?

The Labour Party under Ed Miliband

Five Year Mission

This is the saga of Ed Miliband's attempt to put Labour back into power after just five years in opposition. It details the challenges he has faced, the difficulties - and the colleagues - he has had to deal with, some of the mistakes he has made, and the successes he has occasionally enjoyed along the way. Tim Bale tells the story of how a man whose leadership credentials and credibility were questioned from the outset has managed to hold together a partynotorious for in-fighting, and asks whether, in spite of this, he has managed to put together a platform that might still persuade voters to give Labour a chance to return to office in 2015.

The Labour Party Under Ed Miliband

The Conservatives are back - but how did they do it and what took them so long? What happened between the party's decision to dump one of the world's most iconic leaders, Margaret Thatcher, and the arrival in office of David Cameron at the head of the UK's new coalition government? Has Britain's prime minister really changed his party as much as he claims? Are they devotees of the Big Society or just the 'same old Tories', keen on cuts and obsessively Eurosceptic? The answers, as this accessible and gripping book shows, are as intriguing and provocative as the questions. Based on in-depth research and interviews with the key players, Tim Bale explains why the Tories got themselves into so much trouble in the first place and how they were finally able to get things back on track. In the new paperback version, he also explores their inability to win an outright victory at the 2010 election and looks at their decision to share power with the Liberal Democrats. The Conservative Party: From Thatcher to Cameron is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand what makes the Tories tick. And it contains valuable lessons about what to do - and what not to do - for their Labour opponents.

From Thatcher to Cameron

The Conservative Party

Using Labour's postwar welfare policy, it shows that we need to break down distinctions between the "symbolic" and the "substantial" in politics, that "cultural theory" has potential as a way of understanding party political culture, and that welfare policy has played a crucial but self-defeating role in Labour's efforts to manage itself, win hearts and minds and govern competently. It concludes by arguing that New Labour's attempts to rethink welfare is largely rhetorical if one recalls what Labour did in office rather than promised in opposition. Rather than a serious attempt to confront social realities, the rethink represents a continuation of past practice and a way of signalling the government's "soundnesss" to the market.

The Symbolic Statecraft and Political Culture of the British Labour Party

Sacred Cows and Common Sense

Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser

Cutting-edge comparative analysis of the challenges posed by the populist radical right to Western Europe's Conservative, Liberal and Christian Democratic parties.

Europe's Mainstream Right in Crisis

Riding the Populist Wave

Paul Webb

Monica Poletti

This accessible, rigorously researched and highly revealing book lifts the lid on political party membership. It represents the first in-depth study of six of the UK's biggest parties – Labour, the Conservatives, the Scottish National Party, the Liberal Democrats, UK Independence Party and the Greens – carried out simultaneously, thereby providing invaluable new insights into members' social characteristics, attitudes, activities and campaigning, reasons for joining and leaving, and views on how their parties should be run and who should represent them. In short, at a time of great pressure on, and change across parties, this book helps us discover not only what members want out of their parties but what parties want out of their members. This text is essential reading for those interested in political parties, party membership, elections and campaigning, representation, and political participation, be they scholars and students of British and comparative politics, or politicians, journalists and party members – in short, anyone who cares about the future of representative democracy.

Tim Bale

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