Abstract
The overwhelming Conservative victory at the British general election of May 1979 at first sight appears to confirm the genius for political survival of what J. S. Mill dubbed ‘the stupid party’. Despite powerful academic arguments in the 1960s that long-term electoral trends would work in Labour’s favour, the British Conservative party has retained its ability to compete successfully for office.’ In fact the Conservative party’s achievement in 1979 makes its record unique among Conservative and right-of-centre parties in Western Europe: for only twenty years in the period between 1918 and 1980 has it been excluded from participation in government.2 Thus neither the advent of a mass electorate nor the rise of a party specifically oriented towards the working class has dislodged the Conservative party from its central position in the nation’s political life.
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Notes
For a discussion of the basis of partisan alignment in the 1960s, see D. E. Butler and D. Stokes, Political Change in Britain (London: Macmillan, 1969).
For an excellent recent treatment of the party system in the context of the wider political system see S. E. Finer, The Changing British Party System (Washington: A.E.I., 1980).
See also M. Beloff and G. Peele, The Government of the United Kingdom (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1980).
C. A. R. Crosland, The Future of Socialism, 2nd edition (London: Jonathan Cape, 1963).
On this see S. Koss, Nonconformity in British Politics (London: Batsford, 1975).
See for example Lord Hailsham, The Conservative Case (London: Penguin, 1959);
but compare his statements there with the introduction to Lord Blake and J. Patten (eds.), The Conservative Opportunity (London: Macmillan, 1976).
See D. E. Butler and M. Pinto-Duschinsky, ‘The Conservative Elite 1918— 78’ in Z. Layton-Henry (ed.), Conservative Party Politics (London: Macmillan, 1980).
On this see J. Morgan, The House of Lords and the Labour Government (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975).
On Conservative foreign policy see G. Peele, ‘The Character of Conservat-ive Foreign Policy’ in International Security (Harvard University Press/MIT, Spring 1980).
See C. Mellors, The British MP (Farnborough: Saxon House, 1978).
‘Angels in marble’ refers to working-class Conservatives. See R. T. McKenzie and A. Silver, Angels in Marble (London: Heinemann, 1968).
On the Heath government see J. Bruce-Gardyne, Whatever Happened to the Quiet Revolution? (London: Charles Knight, 1974),
and Douglas Hurd, An End to Promises (London: Collins, 1979).
See P. Norton, Conservative Dissidents. Dissent Within the Conservative Party 1970–74 (London: Temple Smith, 1979).
Also N. Fisher, The Tory Leaders (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1977).
On the relationship between the CBI and the Conservatives see W. Grant and D. Marsh, The CBI (London: Hodder, 1977). Also S. E. Finer, op.cit., for a table of ‘top donors’.
See for example H. Wilensky, The Welfare State and Equality (Berkeley: California University Press. 1975).
See G. Peele and J. Francis, ‘Welfare State or Poor Law Guardians?’, forthcoming paper originally presented to the Western Political Science Association Meeting, San Francisco (1980).
This is taken from F. Craig (ed.), British Election Manifestos 1900–1974 (London: Macmillan, 1975).
S. E. Finer, Adversary Politics and Electoral Reform (London: Anthony Wigram, 1975);
M. Stewart, The Jekyll and Hyde Years (London: Dent, 1977).
See Wyn Grant, Independent Local Politics in England and Wales (Farnborough: Saxon House, 1977).
For a stimulating discussion of the race issue in British politics see Z. Layton-Henry, ‘Race, Electoral Strategy and the Major Parties’ in Parliamentary Affairs vol. xxi (1978) pp. 268–81.
For a discussion of the role of factions in the Conservative party see P. Seyd, ‘Democracy within the Conservative Party’ in Government and Opposition, 10, 2 (1975) pp. 219–37.
A preliminary analysis can be found in The Times Guide to the House of Commons (London: Times Books, 1979).
I have taken these figures from P. Pulzer, ‘The British General Election of 1979: Back to the Fifties or on to the Eighties?’ in Parliamentary Affairs, vol. xxxii (1979) pp. 361–75.
See Ivor Crewe, ‘The Results Surveyed’ in The Times Guide to the House of Commons (London: Times Books, 1979).
I have taken this point from Ivor Crewe and Bo Sarlvik’s article, ‘Popular Attitudes and Electoral Strategy’ in Z. Layton-Henry (ed.), op.cit. For a full discussion of the attitudes of the contemporary electorate see B. Sarlvik, I. M. Crewe and D. Robertson, A New Conservative Electorate (Cambridge University Press, 1982) esp. part 2.
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© 1982 Gillian Peele
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Peele, G. (1982). The Character of Modern British Conservatism. In: Layton-Henry, Z. (eds) Conservative Politics in Western Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-16252-9_2
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