Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: What Difference Do Governments Make?
- 1 Thirteen Wasted Years (1951–1964)?
- 2 External Shocks
- 3 The Economy
- 4 Foreign and Defence Policy
- 5 Health
- 6 Education
- 7 Environment
- 8 Parting the Unions
- 9 Society and Health Inequalities
- 10 Science
- 11 Culture
- 12 Government, Parliament and the Constitution
- 13 The Conservative Party
- 14 The Realigning Party System
- 15 Elections and Voting
- Conclusion: Fourteen Wasted Years? The Verdict
- Acknowledgements
- Index
14 - The Realigning Party System
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2024
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: What Difference Do Governments Make?
- 1 Thirteen Wasted Years (1951–1964)?
- 2 External Shocks
- 3 The Economy
- 4 Foreign and Defence Policy
- 5 Health
- 6 Education
- 7 Environment
- 8 Parting the Unions
- 9 Society and Health Inequalities
- 10 Science
- 11 Culture
- 12 Government, Parliament and the Constitution
- 13 The Conservative Party
- 14 The Realigning Party System
- 15 Elections and Voting
- Conclusion: Fourteen Wasted Years? The Verdict
- Acknowledgements
- Index
Summary
How should we best characterise the UK party system in the wake of nearly a decade and a half of Conservative government? Has it undergone a significant and enduring realignment, or merely amounted to passing turbulence, after which things have returned to the seemingly eternal verities of stable two-party competition? The question for us to consider in this chapter is whether we can regard the period since 2010 in such terms: in particular, does the general election of December 2019 constitute a moment of critical realignment? Or is it more sensible to view this as the mere culmination of a relatively prolonged period of Conservative Party ascendancy based on a regular swing of the electoral pendulum – a swing which will inevitably reverse itself as the centre of electoral gravity shifts in favour of Labour once more? In other words, a simple affirmation of the age-old dynamics of the two-party system.
Keywords
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- Information
- The Conservative Effect, 2010–202414 Wasted Years?, pp. 446 - 465Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024