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Abstract: Abstract One of the characteristics of a successful electoral campaign is its ability to construct a consistent message over time, which can contribute to electoral gains. This paper analyses the political communication strategies of the two official campaigns (Britain Stronger in Europe and Vote Leave) during the 2016 UK referendum on EU membership. It does so by analysing their ability to remain on point during the speeches, press releases and interviews given by campaigners in the context of the core campaign frame. The analysis finds that throughout the official campaign Vote Leave remained on point both in terms of the key frame operationalised and the components within the frame; meanwhile, Britain Stronger in Europe subjected the electorate to no fewer than five different frames, which were often internally cluttered and, as a result, reduced the campaign benefits of repetition. The differences between the two campaigns represents a further explanatory variable to account for the outcome of the 2016 referendum. The findings also draw attention to the role of political differences within BSiE as an underlying cause of its inconsistent campaign. PubDate: 2022-03-24
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Abstract: Abstract In 2021, the UK and devolved governments tried to avoid the school exams fiasco of 2020. Their immediate marker of success was to prevent a similar U-turn on their COVID-19 school exams replacement policies. They still cancelled the traditional exam format, and sought teacher assessments to determine their grades, but this time without using an algorithm to standardise the results. The outcomes produced some concerns about inequity, since the unequal exam results are similar to those experienced in 2020. However, we did not witness the same sense of acute political crisis. We explain these developments by explaining this year’s ‘windows of opportunity’ overseen by four separate governments, in which the definition of the problem, feasibility of each solution, and motive of policymakers to select one, connects strongly to the previous U-turn. A policy solution that had been rejected during the first window became a lifeline during the second and a likely choice during the third. This action solved an immediate crisis despite exacerbating the problem that ministers had previously sought to avoid (‘grade inflation’). It produced another year of stark education inequity, but also ensured that inequity went from part of an acute political crisis to its usual status as a chronic low-attention policy problem. PubDate: 2022-03-23
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Abstract: Abstract In its 2019 manifesto, Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party pledged a Constitution, Democracy and Rights Commission, to consider far-reaching constitutional change. This appeared to signal a radical departure from UK precedent in approaching constitutional reform. In this paper, we examine the Johnson government’s initial proposals and subsequent actions, placing them in comparative context and contrasting them with UK precedent. We show that the government’s explicit pledge to appoint a single Commission to develop the reforms along with its emphasis on restoring public trust in politics through the constitutional reform process, reflected several internationally recognized principles and models for constitutional reform. In practice, however, the government abandoned these potentially radical procedural ambitions, and instead appointed several issue-specific elite-led reviews. We argue that the government’s procedural approach has so far closely followed recent UK precedent, and that the Commission turned out to be an opportunity not taken rather than the radical departure that initially seemed possible. PubDate: 2022-03-22
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Abstract: Abstract Territorial representation, the representation of local entities in the Westminster Parliament, lies at the heart of British democracy. In the recent academic debate, it has been asked whether local representation also needs a local representative and which specific characteristics would constitute ‘localness’ in this context. Investigating the biographies of 1108 Westminster MPs between 2010 and 2019 and exploring different dimensions of local base, this study examines the extent to which the demand for a local representative is actually fulfilled in the British Parliament. We discover a slow yet stable increase in the descriptive representation of the local (DRL) over time as well as notable variations across party and regions, especially among the constituent nations of the United Kingdom. Applying a genuine territorial perspective to our results, we link the detected DRL increase to the general territorialisation of politics in the UK. The fact that the political divergence of its constituent parts affects even the implementation of a core principle of British democracy is finally depicted as another indicator of the deep territorial divisions pervading British politics. PubDate: 2022-03-21
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Abstract: Abstract In his rhetoric on Britain and Britishness, David Cameron sets out a vision of the nation and its national story built upon the premise of exceptionalism. I argue this was challenging to reconcile with continued EU membership. His efforts to rhetorically define the nation and his ethos subsequently came to undermine his stewardship of the Remain campaign and Britain’s EU membership. In this article, I analyse Cameron’s party conference rhetoric on Britain and Britishness between 2006 and 2015 using the framework of Rhetorical Political Analysis. I argue that Cameron styles the nation as in possession of an exceptional history, spirit, and set of values. The British people are said to be uniquely principled, generous, and tolerant, with an uncommon aptitude for leadership. Additionally, the country is framed as having an exceptional past, present, and future. His conception of Britishness, built upon the myth of exceptionalism, jars with continued membership of the EU due to contrasting values, and along with his Eurosceptic credentials, ultimately left a weak foundation for the Remain campaign in 2016. PubDate: 2022-03-18
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Abstract: Abstract This exploration of UK fiscal rules and the establishment of an independent UK fiscal watchdog focuses on the practical enactment of rules-based fiscal policy to analyse the politics of technocratic economic governance. Analysing UK macroeconomic policy rules and their operation unearths numerous dimensions of the politics of technocratic fiscal policy-making. Firstly, policy rules are marshalled for partisan purposes. Secondly, a politics of economic ideas surrounds the invention, revision and interpretation of fiscal rules. Thirdly, technocratic economic governance entails a ‘politics of method’, selecting methodological approaches necessarily built on particular political economic assumptions. Finally, a ‘politics of numbers’ sees politicians cooking the books to present their economic record favourably against fiscal yardsticks. Successive governments have altered UK fiscal rules, informed by different political economic principles. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) sees itself as a technocratic and apolitical institution, yet its operational work entails contrasting accounts of the economy and policy. The scale of discretion and judgement inherent in operating fiscal rules is under-appreciated. This article finds technocratic economic governance to be a much more social and political process than many advocates of economic rules-based policy acknowledge. It engenders new forms of distinctive fiscal politics within elite statecraft and expert technocracy. PubDate: 2022-03-09
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Abstract: Abstract This article examines the complex relationship between neoliberalism and the Brexit campaign. It proposes to move beyond simplified explanations that see in Brexit a ‘populist’ revolt against the neoliberal status quo by drawing attention to neoliberal ideas surrounding Europe and the free market. The article contends that from the 1990s onwards, many prominent neoliberal thinkers came to see the European Union as a threat to free trade and individual liberty, prompting them to support Brexit as a means of subverting the growing influence of European federalism. In building this argument, the article maps and analyses the key theoretical elements of neoliberal Euroscepticism, focusing in turn on the neoliberals’ interpretation of the European project, their critique of European Monetary Union, and their approach to the question of national sovereignty. It then documents how several neoliberal think tanks came increasingly to support and spread this neoliberal form of Euroscepticism. In closing, the article reflects on the influence of neoliberal Euroscepticism on the current Conservative government. PubDate: 2022-03-01
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Abstract: Abstract Brexit has caused a chasmic divide in the UK. Voters and Parliament are divided, as are the UK’s major political parties. Such divisions may not be so surprising, however, given that Brexit crosses traditional party lines. Preferences to leave or remain do not fit neatly onto the traditional Left/Right dimension. Instead, the idea that European integration constitutes a new dimension in party competition has been gaining ground. This article creates a typology of Brexit ‘clusters’ through a discourse analysis of Conservative and Labour MPs, building an intricate picture of the archetypal positions of parliamentarians during the cacophonous Brexit period. Six clusters of MPs are found, crossing party lines and indicating that a Europe-related dimension is taking hold in British politics. Proposals for future research using the typology are also put forward. PubDate: 2022-03-01
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Abstract: Abstract This article explores the importance of constructions of temporality within the UK government’s discourse on the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis across the first six months of 2020. Drawing on over 120 official texts, it traces the emergence of discontinuous, linear, and cyclical conceptions of time in representations of the virus’ pasts, presents, and futures. Three arguments are made. First, constructions of temporality were fundamental to the social, political, and historical positioning of the virus. Second, these constructions were constitutively important in producing, explaining, justifying and celebrating the UK government’s response to the virus. And, third, tensions and inconsistencies between these constructions of temporality highlight the contingent, and constructed, character of official discourse, pulling into question the inevitability of the UK’s response and opening opportunity for critical intervention. PubDate: 2022-03-01
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Abstract: Abstract Now that Corbynism has passed, an institutional explanation for his sudden control of the British Labour party allows for a richer understanding of the process by which his leadership came about. In particular, this analysis develops on the established institutional theory ideas of reactivation, invasion and veto players and adds to these the role of “veto complacency”. These theoretical mechanisms are key to understanding why the British Labour party changed so radically after its 2015 electoral defeat, and why it is suspect to argue that its then leader, Jeremy Corbyn, represented merely a return to the past, as some have suggested. The ideas of the Corbyn movement can be understood as having been a contemporary adaptation of socialism, namely “new socialism”. This case study highlights the usefulness of applying institutional theory mechanisms to explanations of party change and seeks to expand on current dominant theories of institutional change that appear less capable of explaining sudden radical endogenous change—as exhibited here by the British Labour party. PubDate: 2022-03-01
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Abstract: Abstract All four UK and devolved governments performed a ‘U-turn’ on their COVID-19 school exams replacement policies. After cancelling exams, they sought teacher estimates on their grades, but supported an algorithm to standardise the results. When the results produced a public outcry over unfair consequences, they initially defended their decision but reverted quickly to teacher assessment. We explain these developments by comparing two ‘windows of opportunity’ overseen by four separate governments, in which the definition of the problem, feasibility of each solution, and motive of policymakers to select one over the other lurched dramatically within a week of the exams results. These experiences highlight the confluence of events and choices and the timing and order of choice. A policy solution that had been rejected during the first window, and would have been criticised heavily if chosen first, became a lifeline during the second. As such, while it is important to understand why the standardisation process went so wrong, we focus on why the policymaking process went so wrong. PubDate: 2022-03-01
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Abstract: Abstract This paper attempts to provide better understanding of which factors shaped UKIP electoral support in local elections using borough-level data from London, as well as individual-level survey data from respondents residing in London. Results from this study display rising crime, falling turnout, and falling Conservative party vote share led to rises in UKIP vote share. These findings show that while perceptions of immigration and the economy may affect voter choice for Eurosceptic, nationalist, and populist parties, actual change in migration and economic conditions had no effect on voter support for UKIP in local elections. Additionally, there is substantial evidence that rising rates of local crime, and perceptions of rising local crime rates, lead voters to seek out parties, such as UKIP, with a policy platform supporting strengthened criminal justice measures. Finally, UKIP support in local elections is shown to have drawn heavily from former Conservative voters, as opposed to disenchanted Labour supporters. PubDate: 2022-01-22 DOI: 10.1057/s41293-021-00200-9
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Abstract: Abstract Metro mayors heading a combined authority represent the most recent innovation in English devolution. City-region devolution has been a key way in which successive Conservative governments have sought to boost local economic growth against a background of local authority austerity, and now form a part of the Johnson government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda. However, the perspective of voters is often overlooked in these debates. City-region devolution is a top-down innovation, with a focus on city-region economics rather than democratic renewal or engagement, and there is so far very little academic literature on identifying the drivers of public support for mayoral combined authorities. This study draws on survey responses of voters in the Liverpool City Region and explores a number of potential drivers of support for the Liverpool City Region combined authority, including party support, English, British and European identity, left–right and other value positions, and the role of place in driving support. It finds that support for devolution to the Liverpool City Region is driven by whether one lives in the centre or periphery of the city region, support for the Labour Party, left-wing, socially liberal and European identities, as well as being female and older. This paper also lays the groundwork for further research into drivers of public support for city-region devolution in England. PubDate: 2022-01-11 DOI: 10.1057/s41293-021-00199-z
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Abstract: Abstract The political party rally was reinvented by Jeremy Corbyn. Despite retaining the rally as an election campaign strategy, Labour calamitously lost the 2019 general election. Did something go wrong with this strategy' This paper analyses the results of a survey of participants in a Corbyn rally in Camborne, Cornwall in 2017, close to two marginal constituencies. It finds that very few participants were not already dedicated Labour voters. The paper warns of the danger of advertising these rallies only through closed mobilisation channels. For improved efficacy, rallies in marginal constituencies might more widely advertise using open channels to a broader range of people. PubDate: 2021-12-01 DOI: 10.1057/s41293-020-00143-7
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Abstract: Abstract Critique of “neoliberalism” is generally thought of as a preoccupation of the political Left. Here it will be argued that the British Right has also been developing a distinctive critique of neoliberalism and its failure, whether they thought about it in these precise terms or not. This represented an attempt by Conservative intellectuals to grapple with the enduring legacy of Thatcherism in the party. The objectives of this paper are threefold. Firstly, it will examine the contours of a distinctively Conservative description of neoliberal society by drawing on the work of Jesse Norman. Secondly, it will explain and contextualise their account of neoliberal economic failure and a possible avenue to its rehabilitation. And, thirdly, it will explain why this rehabilitation was itself a failure through a critique of Norman’s attempts to read Hayek through Burke. It concludes by observing that what civic forms of conservatism fail to offer is a thoroughgoing examination of functions that markets are unable to perform. PubDate: 2021-12-01 DOI: 10.1057/s41293-020-00141-9
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Abstract: Abstract Prime Ministers who want to improve the likelihood of their political survival must increase their approval ratings. To do so, they must rely on their party’s popularity, their own reputation for competence and their ability to strategically set the public agenda. This paper focuses on strategic agenda setting and its contribution to Prime Ministers’ approval rating. Strategic agenda setting includes heresthetic moves that set the public agenda and rhetoric that frames the policy options that the agenda includes. Prime Ministers in competitive political environments use heresthetic moves to anchor the public agenda around policy dimensions they dominate and use rhetoric to frame policies as hopeful and certain in comparison to competing policies. I verify this claim using an extensive dataset of British Prime Ministers' approval ratings between 1960 and 2000. PubDate: 2021-12-01 DOI: 10.1057/s41293-020-00137-5
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Abstract: Abstract Interest groups campaign to influence public opinion on climate change, yet few studies have empirically examined whether they are successful in their aims. The current study investigates the extent to which characteristic arguments used by environmental and industry-backed interest groups are able to influence the public’s climate policy preferences. Using an original online survey experiment conducted in the UK (N = 796), we find that interest group messages can affect climate policy preferences. After reading an argument supporting a policy, respondents were significantly more likely than the control group to support the (strong or weak) policy endorsed by the argument, although broader policy views were unaffected. Policy endorsements had the same effect on policy preferences whether or not emphasis frames were used, and the effects were not moderated by the personal importance of climate change. Overall, the moderate effect sizes suggest that interest groups have limited influence over the public’s climate policy preferences. PubDate: 2021-12-01 DOI: 10.1057/s41293-020-00144-6
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Abstract: Abstract The article seeks to assess to what extent the Trump presidency damaged the Anglo-American special relationship. By drawing on a theoretical framework that is broader than much of the existing literature, this article argues that the Trump presidency inflicted largely short-term damage on the special relationship. Though common interests, common sentiments and mutual utility between the US and the UK were weakened in the Trump era, the institutionalized underpinnings of the special relationship were sufficiently robust to withstand the corrosive effects of the ‘Trump doctrine’. While President Biden cannot undo the negative impact of Brexit on the UK’s utility to the US, the early period of his presidency has witnessed the special relationship’s rapid recovery from most of the damage inflicted by the Trump presidency. PubDate: 2021-11-30 DOI: 10.1057/s41293-021-00198-0
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