Informing and engaging citizens
The takeover: Prime Ministers without a popular mandate 1916-2016
There are more or less two routes to becoming Prime Minister. You can either win a General Election or win a party leadership election to become head of the largest party when a Prime Minister leaves. Having just achieved the second route, Theresa May has become our ‘takeover’ leader. Here, Ben Worthy discusses the history […]
What do the Tory grassroots want from Prime Minister Theresa May?
Andrea Leadsom’s withdrawal from the Conservative race took the final leadership decision out of the membership’s hands. In the absence of a vote, Paul Webb, Monica Poletti and Tim Bale draw on a recent survey to reveal the composition and attitudes of Tory supporters, as well as their views on the party’s leadership. Similar Posts
Labour’s century-old problem: Leadership performance
Party leadership requires rhetorical performance – but the Labour party has broader issues with leadership: it doesn’t understand it, writes John Gaffney. Those challenging Corbyn must therefore grapple with questions of what leadership entails, what the relationship(s) between leader and the parliamentary party, the electorate, and the media should be – not least because the […]
When anti-Islamic protest ends: Explaining the decline of the English Defence League
There are been multiple studies exploring the rise and fall of the English Defence League, which attribute failure to factors including the lack of vision, internal infighting and the state’s responses. William Allchorn argues that although these explanations are useful, they fail to acknowledge how changes in the external political and security environment may have […]
Why there should be a general election before Article 50 is triggered
The Conservative Party is currently selecting a new leader who is expected to trigger Article 50 and begin the process of the UK leaving the European Union. Kenneth Armstrong writes that as the UK will need to set out what sort of new relationship it wants with the EU, there is a clear case for an […]
Between the system and lifeworld: Despite adopting social media tools, public administrators remain in a legitimacy dilemma
Social media platforms theoretically align with many aspects of Habermas’ ideal of “authentic communication”. However, Claire Knox writes that this does not make them automatically applicable to public participation in governance structures. For example, while we see evidence of “cautious experimentation” among public administrators, there remains a lack of “institutional imagination” to maximise the democratic […]
Parliamentary arrangements after a Labour split might be easily solved, but bigger questions will be more difficult
In the post-referendum turmoil facing the Labour Party, there are increasing questions about whether the party might split. Despite shadow cabinet resignations and a Parliamentary Labour Party vote of no confidence, Jeremy Corbyn seems determined to hang on, and to force a contest if necessary. If that proceeds, a split looks very likely. But what […]
The EU’s response to Brexit is just as important as the UK’s
The UK’s decision to leave the European Union in the recent referendum on EU membership has sent shockwaves through the political, economic, and financial worlds. Here, Vivien A. Schmidt discusses what kind of a deal might emerge, and argues that how the EU responds to Brexit is of just as much importance as the UK’s […]
Long Read: Brexit, the Referendum and the UK Parliament: Some questions about sovereignty
The Leave campaign fought the referendum with the slogan of ‘taking back control’, but what does this mean in practice? Sionaidh Douglas-Scott writes that there are at least three notions of sovereignty that are relevant in the context of Brexit, namely parliamentary, popular and external sovereignty. Here she outlines in detail the extent to which they conflict with each […]
The constitutional settlement of the UK has been thrown into flux – an overarching polity is urgently needed
The Brexit result has revealed the weaknesses of the liberal outlook and highlighted the endurance of identity politics, a pattern that has been seen across the globe in recent years. But Sean Swan writes that while global issues are important, we need to focus on the local and recognise the UK state is no longer […]
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