Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T21:16:03.009Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Popular Conservatism in Britain: Continuity and Change, 1880–1987

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2014

Martin Pugh
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

During the century that has elapsed since Gladstone's famous Midlothian Campaigns of 1879–80, the British political parties have had to adjust to a series of major changes and developments in both the structure and the substance of politics: the extension of the parliamentary vote to all men and women over the age of eighteen; the move toward the direct taxation of incomes; the rise of a “welfare state”; the steady, if unspectacular, decline of British industry; two debilitating world wars; the retreat from empire; and the loss of major-power status. At first sight every one of these changes represents a problem for British Conservatives: they appear to have been perpetually working against the grain of history. Yet in the general election of 1885 the Conservatives achieved a 43.5 percent share of the popular vote, while in the election of June 1987 they won just 43 percent. Far from being pushed to the margins by more adaptable or more popular parties, they appear to be as strong and as central in the British political system as they ever were.

Of course, Conservative support has not been quite as stable as a comparison between 1885 and 1987 suggests. Their vote has indeed fluctuated, though within a fairly narrow range; the minimum is usually 38 percent to 39 percent, and the maximum around 48 percent (table 1).

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 3: The Dilemmas of Democratic Politics , July 1988 , pp. 254 - 282
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Smith, F. B., The Making of the Second Reform Act (Cambridge, 1967), pp. 214, 225Google Scholar.

2 Westminster Gazette (December 30, 1910). See also Blewett, Neal, “The Franchise in the United Kingdom, 1885–1918,” Past and Present, no. 32 (1965), pp. 46–51Google Scholar.

3 Kinnear, M., The British Voter: An Atlas and Survey, 1885–1964 (London, 1969), pp. 70–71Google Scholar.

4 Ibid., pp. 122–24.

5 Pugh, Martin, The Tories and the People, 1880–1935 (Oxford, 1985), pp. 35–38Google Scholar.

6 Pinto-Duschinsky, M., British Political Finance, 1830–1980 (Washington, D.C., 1981), pp. 72–77Google Scholar.

7 Pugh, pp. 25–35.

8 Ramsden, John, The Age of Balfour and Baldwin, 1902–40 (London, 1978), pp. 254–55Google Scholar.

9 McLean, Ian, “Party Organisation,” in The Labour Party, ed. Cook, C. and Taylor, I. (London, 1980), p. 36Google Scholar.

10 Women's Unionist Organisation, Annual Conference Reports (London, 1930–1939)Google Scholar.

11 McKenzie, R. T., British Political Parties (London, 1967), p. 187Google Scholar.

12 Tanner, Duncan, “The Parliamentary Electoral System, the ‘Fourth’ Reform Act and the Rise of Labour in England and Wales,” Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 61, no. 134 (November 1983): 215Google Scholar.

13 Pugh, pp. 40–41, 183.

14 McKenzie, p. 249

15 Franklin, Mark N., The Decline of Class Voting in Britain (Oxford, 1985), pp. 170, 174Google Scholar.

16 Pugh (n. 5 above), pp. 39–40, 49–50.

17 Primrose League Gazette (December 15, 1888).

18 Pugh, p. 49.

19 Conservative Agents' Journal, no. 40 (April 1916); “Notes on the Report of the Speaker's Committee” (February 3, 1917), Steel-Maitland Papers, Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh, box 202; Joseph Lawrence to Earl Grey (April 2, 1917), Grey Papers, University of Durham Library, Durham, box 236/7; see also Pugh, Martin, Electoral Reform in War and Peace, 1906–18 (London, 1978), p. 149Google Scholar.

20 Benney, M., Gray, A. P., and Pear, R. H., How People Vote (London, 1956), p. 107Google Scholar.

21 Ibid.; Butler, David and Stokes, Donald, Political Change in Britain (London, 1971), p. 164CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 NUCCA, executive minutes, April 9, 1918; Women's Unionist Organisation, annual report, 1927.

23 Conservative Party, Annual Conference Reports (London, 1927, 1930)Google Scholar.

24 Women's Unionist Organisation, Annual Conference Reports, 1931, 1933Google Scholar.

25 Guardian (March 22, 1983), p. 2Google Scholar.

26 Viscountess Astor Papers, Reading University Library, Reading, 1416/1/1/1526, 1527, 1638.

27 See Conservative party, Campaign Guides, 1922, 1929.

28 See Banks, Olive, Faces of Feminism (Oxford, 1981), pp. 166–70Google Scholar.

29 Campbell, Beatrix, The Iron Ladies (London, 1987)Google Scholar.

30 Wells, H. G., Experiment in Autobiography (London, 1934), pp. i, 46Google Scholar.

31 Sarlvik, Bo and Crewe, Ivor, Decade of Dealignment (Cambridge, 1983), pp. 132–33Google Scholar.

32 Heath, A., Jowell, R., and Curtice, J., How Britain Votes (Oxford, 1985), p. 23Google Scholar.

33 See Cornford, J. P., “Parliamentary Foundations of the Hotel Cecil,” in Ideas and Institutions of Victorian Britain, ed. Robson, R. (London, 1967)Google Scholar; McEween, J. M., “The Coupon Election of 1918 and the Unionist Members of Parliament,” Journal of Modern History 34 (1962): 294–306CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 Abrams, Mark, “Social Class and British Politics,” Public Opinion Quarterly 20, no. 3 (Autumn 1961): 343Google Scholar.

35 Parkin, Frank, “Working Class Conservatives,” British Journal of Sociology 18 (September 1967): 278–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

36 MacKenzie, R. T. and Silver, A., Angels in Marble (London, 1968)Google Scholar; Nordlinger, E., The Working-Class Tories (London, 1967)Google Scholar.

37 See MacKenzie and Silver.

38 See Pelling, H., Popular Politics and Society in Late Victorian Britain (London, 1968)Google Scholar; Price, Richard, An Imperial War and the British Working Class (London, 1972)Google Scholar; MacKenzie, John M., Propaganda and Empire (Manchester, 1984)Google Scholar.

39 See Pugh, , Tories and the People (n. 5 above), pp. 87–88Google Scholar.

40 Dean, Dennis, “The Contrasting Attitudes of the Conservative and Labour Parties to Problems of Empire, 1922–36” (Ph.D. diss., London University, 1974), pp. 7–8Google Scholar.

41 Foot, Michael, Olsen, Frank, and Howard, Peter, Guilty Men (London: Gollancz, 1940)Google Scholar.

42 Pugh, , Tories and the People, pp. 72–80Google Scholar.

43 Rose, R. and Cavanagh, D., “The Monarchy in Contemporary Political Culture,” Comparative Politics 8 (1976): 554–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

44 See Abrams, M. and Rose, R., Must Labour Lose? (London, 1960)Google Scholar; Butler, D. and Rose, R., The British General Election of 1959 (London, 1960)Google Scholar.

45 Vincent, J. R., Pollbooks: How Victorians Voted (Cambridge, 1967)Google Scholar.

46 Joyce, Patrick, Work, Society and Politics (Brighton, 1980), p. 211Google Scholar; Pugh, , Tories and the People, p. 123Google Scholar.

47 Green, C., “Birmingham's Politics, 1873–91: The Local Basis of Change,” Midland History 2 (1973): 92CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

48 Middlemas, K., Power, Competition and the State (MacMillan, 1986), 1:257–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

49 Goldthorpe, J. H., Lockwood, D., Bechhofer, F., and Platt, J., The Affluent Worker (Cambridge, 1968), p. 20Google Scholar.

50 Ibid., chap. 3.

51 McBride, Theresa M., The Domestic Revolution (London, 1976), pp. 83–98Google Scholar.

52 Butler and Stokes (n. 21 above), pp. 136–46.

53 Franklin (n. 15 above), p. 125.

54 Sarlvik and Crewe (n. 31 above), pp. 140–48.