| Contemporary British Conservatism |  | Creators: Steve Ludlam, Martin J. Smith
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Category: Book
List Price: $65.00
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Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 6782443
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Pages: 322
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.9
ISBN: 0312129351
Dewey Decimal Number: 324.24104
EAN: 9780312129354
ASIN: 0312129351
Publication Date: February 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
For those involved in the study & practice of Conservatism. May 28, 1999
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book comes out of the same Sheffield University politics department as did the True Blues survey of Conservative Party grassroots members' views. It concentrates on assessing events after 1975 and in particular the impact of the Thatcher years on John Major's premiership. The key question addressed is the extent to which the Thatcherite inheritance has been protected or diluted by a return to a more consensual Conservatism. The issues which interest the co-editors are: whether the Thatcher revolution has survived the sacking of its leader, and whether Major has been able to develop a distinct programme of his own? More pressing for Conservative party members they ask - "What state is the party in?" They consider the varying assessments of the Thatcher inheritance: that Major is constrained by the Thatcher agenda; or that Major has re-jigged the Conservative philosophy to meet the circumstances of the present day; or that Thatcher was not the radical she is made-up to be and that Major is following her example of governing by conservative statecraft. The various chapters inform us that: the average age of party members is 62 years; Thatcherism effected a "substantial ideological shift"; the Parliamentary party remains socially exclusive; the MPs' rebellion over Maastricht was widely supported, if not followed; New Right thinking influences the structure of government; "selective interventionism" has been hidden by the rhetoric of a free-market approach to policy; and, the "heroic" promise to roll back the state has been replaced by "the more mellow promise of greater choice". In their concluding chapter Ludlam and Smith present a powerful analysis of contemporary British conservatism. The situation is so bad that by the mid-1990s: "The basis of its electoral triumphs was visibly weakening, its membership and funding were falling alarmingly, and its reputation for unity in defence of the British state lay in tatters as it divided from top to bottom over Europe and national sovereignty". So how has the Thatcher legacy been dealt with by Major? They suggest that in being constrained by the economic and political inheritance, Majorism's political change is "more style than substance". Although, the remarkable thing about his premiership, they go on to argue, is that: "... it has been precisely in those areas where Thatcherism was incomplete that Major has remained most faithful to the Thatcher project". Further: "Major's direction has been one of implementing Thatcherism rather than challenging its key precepts. In policy after policy area, Major has maintained the Thatcherite agenda." Their final remarks of all address the issue at the core of contemporary Conservative politics; Britain's relationship with the European Union. Forthrightly they express the opinion that: "... contemporary Conservatism has not yet discovered how to reconcile the party's deep-rooted and popular tradition of defending the sovereign British Parliamentary state with active membership of the EU", adding: "By the mid-1990s fundamental issues of national sovereignty raised by European integration and unresolved since the 1950s could no longer be evaded; they produced almost unmanageable divisions inside Parliament, the government and the Cabinet, and threatened to overwhelm Major's disunited party". The European fault-line may yet manage to bring the "broad" church crashing down. This is a book which those involved in the study and practice of Conservative politics should welcome, and it easily fulfils its aim to constitute a good general reader for non-specialists. More pertinently for the participant it offers an outsider's assessment of their party's recent performance, and discusses possible future directions - a key introduction for those wishing to understand the main themes shaping Contemporary British Conservatism.
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