The Conservatives since 1945: The Drivers of Party Change

by Tim Bale

What do we really mean when we say a political party has changed? And exactly what is it that drives that change? Political scientists working in the comparative tradition have come up with a general explanation that revolves around the role of election defeats and loss of office, and around changes of leader and factions. But how well does that explanation cope when subjected to a historically-grounded and therefore robust examination? This book tries to answer that question by subjecting the common wisdom to a real-world, over-time test using one of the world's oldest and most successful political parties as an in-depth case study. What do the periods spent in both opposition and government by the British Conservatives since 1945 tell us about what drives parties to change their sales-force, the way they organize, and the policies they come up with? Using internal papers, memos and minutes of meetings from party archives, along with historical and contemporary accounts,
memoirs and interviews, this book maps the extent of change and then explores what may have driven it. The conventional wisdom, it turns out, is not necessarily wrong but incomplete, requiring both qualification and supplementation. This approachably-written book suggests when, how, and why. Along the way, it provides a fresh and comprehensive account of the Conservative Party that should appeal equally to those interested in political history and those interested in political science.

386 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2012

Reviews

[David Civil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tim Bale explores the 'drivers' of Conservative Party change in the post-war period, sandwiched between the two crushing defeats of 1945 and 1997. In doing so he divides the Party's history into six main chapters: Disaster and Deliverance (1945-1951); Anxiety, Appeasement - and After (1951-1964); Amateur to Professional (1964-1970); Betrayal (1970-1974); Confrontation and Consensus (1974-1979); and Messiah to Meltdown (1979-1997). Within each chapter Bale analyses the extent of change, exploring the Party's public face, its organisation and its policy, and then the drivers of change, highlighting the relative role of election defeat, the leader and the dominant faction.

If one is evaluating Bale's approach on its own terms the book is an overwhelming success. Its structure is neat and tidy, allowing for an easy comparison between different points in the Party's history. For a political scientist, Bale writes with a fluidity and clarity which ensures the book will offer important insights for students of political history as well as appealing to a much wider audience. If we were to judge the approach itself, however, a different story emerges. Bale sticks to this exploratory categories rigidly and this prevents him from reaching larger conclusions about the changing nature of Conservatism in post-war Britain. The book fundamentally ignores the role of ideology and therefore changes in policy remain fundamentally disconnected from wider transformations in the nature of Conservative thought or society more broadly. Overall, however, Bale's book provides a useful starting point for those historians seeking to sketch out the largely successful electoral fortunes of the Conservative Party in the post-war period.