Overview
- Investigates the creation and evolution of electoral promises over the past century in Britain
- Offers fresh insights into the development of political communication and democratic representation
- Brings together historians and political scientists, with chapters covering a wide range of electoral pledges
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About this book
Nobody doubts that politicians ought to fulfil their promises – what people cannot agree about is what this means in practice. The purpose of this book is to explore this issue through a series of case studies. It shows how the British model of politics has changed since the early twentieth century when electioneering was based on the articulation of principles which, it was expected, might well be adapted once the party or politician that promoted them took office. Thereafter manifestos became increasingly central to electoral politics and to the practice of governing, and this has been especially the case since 1945. Parties were now expected to outline in detail what they would do in office and explain how the policies would be paid for. Brexit has complicated this process, with the ‘will of the people’ as supposedly expressed in the 2016 referendum result clashing with the conventional role of the election manifesto as offering a mandate for action.
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Keywords
Table of contents (14 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
David Thackeray is Associate Professor of History at the University of Exeter, UK. He is author of Forging a British World of Trade: Culture, Ethnicity and Market in the Empire/Commonwealth, c.1880-1975 (2019) and has published extensively in the field of British political history, including Conservatism for the Democratic Age: Conservative Cultures and the Challenge of Mass Politics in Early Twentieth Century England (2013).
Richard Toye is Professor of Modern History at the University of Exeter, UK. He has published widely in the fields of British, international, and imperial history. His books include Rhetoric: A Very Short Introduction (2013), The Roar of the Lion: The Untold Story of Churchill’s World War II Speeches (2013) and (with Martin Thomas) Arguing about Empire: Imperial Rhetoric in Britain and France, 1882-1956 (2017).
Richard Toye is Professor of Modern History at the University of Exeter, UK. He has published widely in the fields of British, international, and imperial history. His books include Rhetoric: A Very Short Introduction (2013), The Roar of the Lion: The Untold Story of Churchill’s World War II Speeches (2013) and (with Martin Thomas) Arguing about Empire: Imperial Rhetoric in Britain and France, 1882-1956 (2017).
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Electoral Pledges in Britain Since 1918
Book Subtitle: The Politics of Promises
Editors: David Thackeray, Richard Toye
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46663-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-46662-6Published: 05 August 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-46665-7Published: 06 August 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-46663-3Published: 04 August 2020
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 327
Number of Illustrations: 7 b/w illustrations
Topics: History of Britain and Ireland, Modern History, Political History, Social History