Abstract
Elections are occasional; government is continuous. The Manifesto model takes a long view of party politics. It is concerned not so much with the outcome of a brief election campaign as it is with what happens before and what happens after, especially when the opposition becomes the government. The Manifesto model takes a positive view of the policymaking role of parties. It asserts that a party newly elected to office will use the power gained to redeem the pledges and hopes that it raised in opposition.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Wilfrid Harrison, The Government of Britain (5th ed.; London: Hutchinson, 1958), p. 164.
For the evolution of practices that led to the modern manifesto, see Cecil S. Emden, The People and the Constitution (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1933), esp. chap. 1.
See F. W. S. Craig, British General Election Manifestos, 1900–1974 (London: Macmillan, 1975), pp. 2 ff.
S. E. Finer, “Manifesto Moonshine”, New Society, 13 November 1975.
Anthony S. King, “Death of the Manifesto”, The Observer, 17 February 1974. King’s views are echoed by Sidney Weighell, an NUR member of the Labour Party Enquiry, 1980, in “What Labour Must Do to Avoid Another Defeat”, The Times, 28 December 1979.
Geoff Bish, Secretary of the Research Department of the Labour Party, “Working Relations between Government and Party”, in What Went Wrong, ed. Ken Coates (Nottingham: Spokesman for Institute for Workers’ Control, 1979), p. 163.
In October 1974, 73 percent of Conservative and 62 percent of Labour candidates said they paid a “great deal” of attention to their party manifesto, and less than one-tenth said they gave it little or no attention. See D. E. Butler and Dennis Kavanagh, The British General Election of October, 1974 (London: Macmillan, 1975), p. 230.
See J. D. Hoffman, The Conservative Party in Opposition, 1945–51 (London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1964)
Harold Macmilllan, Memoirs, vol. 5, Pointing the Way, 1959–61 (London: Macmillan, 1972), pp. 4–5, and
Chris Patten, “Policy Making in Opposition”, in Conservative Party Politics, ed. Zig Layton-Henry (London: Macmillan, 1980), pp. 9–24, and other contributions to that volume.
Conservative Research Department, Politics Today, no. 15 (8 October 1979): 315–18.
For an exhaustive study of extraparliamentary Labour policy making in this period, see Lewis Minkin, The Labour Party Conference (London: Allen Lane, 1978).
The words of George Brown, In My Way (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972), PP. 252 f.
Geoff Bish, “Drafting the Manifesto”, in Coates, What Went Wrong, p. 189. Cf. Michael Hatfield, The House the Left Built (London: Victor Gollancz, 1978).
See R. H. S. Crossman, Inside View (London: Jonathan Cape, 1972).
See, e.g., The Campaign Guide 1974, p. 685; and the statement by Fred Corfield, House of Commons Debates, vol. 810, col. 1922–35 (4 February 1971).
Kenneth Harris, The Prime Minister talks to The Observer (London: The Observer, 1979), P. 11.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1980 Richard Rose
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rose, R. (1980). Testing the Manifesto. In: Do Parties Make a Difference?. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-05432-9_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-05432-9_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-05434-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-05432-9
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)