Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
995
result(s) for
"Elections Great Britain History."
Sort by:
British General Elections Since 1964
Despite a recent decline in voter turnout, British general elections are still the centrepiece of Britain's liberal democracy and their results make a real difference to every British citizen. They command strong media interest long before their dates are announced and even uneventful campaigns dominate the headlines. The 2010 general election saw the first direct televised debates between the main party leaders, adding further interest to a battle which was always likely to be close. The result was a ‘hung parliament’ and the first British coalition government since 1945. However, as this book shows these were only the latest manifestations of a transformation in British elections which began in the early 1960s. While some election rituals remain intact — the counting of votes by hand, the solemn declaration of individual constituency results and, most importantly, the peaceful handover of power if the incumbent party loses — almost everything of significance has changed. Voters have very different attitudes; fewer of them have party loyalties which are more than skin deep, and they tend to base their choices on ‘short-term’ factors such as the perceived competence of the parties and the image of the leader. The parties themselves are barely recognisable from the institutions of 1964 — not least because their membership figures have dwindled dramatically. Election campaigns are now heavily centralised and focus obsessively on a handful of target seats.
eBook
Electing Our Masters
This book covers the history of British electioneering from the 18th century right up to the present day. It explores the relationship between British politicians and their public as well as the important changes that have taken place, especially in the television age. It examines what the current state of electioneering in Britain implies for the future, asking questions as to how the media can shape that future. The book argues that in the past, British politics has been characterized by public rituals, intended to make politicians more legitimate by obliging them to face an often irreverent public. In 18th-century politics and Victorian and Edwardian elections, face-to-face interaction was central. This continued between the wars, despite the emergence of the new mass communication media of radio and cinema. However, the same cannot be said of the post-war era and the rise of television. Today, most politicians are content to offer the semblance of meaningful engagement with the public — hence, meetings are designed to ensure that politicians only come into contact with their party. Where Lloyd George and Churchill relished a tumultuous public meeting, their modern counterparts are more risk-averse. This book questions whether we can persuade our broadcasters that encounters with the public must form a staple of modern politics.
eBook
The Oxford handbook of modern British political history, 1800-2000
A new title in the Oxford Handbooks in History series, offering an authoritative view of British political history from 1800 to 2000, engaging with the sweeping changes in the ways in which Britain was governed, the duties of the state, and its role in the wider world, and suggesting avenues of future research.
Book
Democracy and the Vote in British Politics, 1848-1867
The Second Reform Act, passed in 1867, created a million new voters, doubling the electorate and propelling the British state into the age of mass politics. It marked the end of a twenty year struggle for the working class vote, in which seven different governments had promised change. Yet the standard works on 1867 are more than forty years old and no study has ever been published of reform in prior decades.
This study provides the first analysis of the subject from 1848 to 1867, ranging from the demise of Chartism to the passage of the Second Reform Act. Recapturing the vibrancy of the issue and its place at the heart of Victorian political culture, it focuses not only on the reform debate itself, but on a whole series of related controversies, including the growth of trade unionism, the impact of the 1848 revolutions and the discussion of French and American democracy.
eBook
Affluence, austerity and electoral change in Britain
\"Investigates the political economy of party support for British political parties since Tony Blair led New Labour to power in 1997. Using valence politics models of electoral choice and marshalling an unprecedented wealth of survey data collected in the British Election Study's monthly Continuous Monitoring Surveys, the authors trace forces affecting support for New Labour during its 13 years in office\" --Provided by publisher.
Book
Waiting for the revolution
Waiting for the revolution is a volume of essays examining the diverse currents of British left-wing politics from 1956 to the present day. The book is designed to complement the previous volume, Against the grain: The far left in Britain from 1956, bringing together young and established academics and writers to discuss the realignments and fissures that maintain leftist politics into the twenty-first century. The two books endeavor to historicise the British left, detailing but also seeking to understand the diverse currents that comprise ‘the far left’. Their objective is less to intervene in on-going issues relevant to the left and politics more generally, and more to uncover and explore the traditions and issues that have preoccupied leftist groups, activists and struggles. To this end, the book will appeal to scholars and anyone interested in British politics. It serves as an introduction to the far-left, providing concise overviews of organisations, social movements and campaigns. So, where the first volume examined the questions of anti-racism, gender politics and gay rights, volume two explores anti-nuclear and anti-apartheid struggles alongside introductions to Militant and the Revolutionary Communist Party.
eBook
Parties and People
This book, the sequel to Classes and Cultures, is a historical reinterpretation of British politics in the first decades of universal suffrage. It reveals how the British democratic system developed and more importantly, it challenges its success and suggests reasons why it is flawed. The book targets significant questions, such as what it means to be a democratic society and to what extent voters really make up their own minds on politics. Exploring the political culture of these extraordinary years, the author shows that class difference became one of the principal determinants of political behaviour. It argues that the kind of democracy that emerged in Britain was far from inevitable, was as much historical accident as design, and was in many ways highly flawed.
eBook