Do Parties Make a Difference?

186 Pages·1980·16.678 MB·English

by  Richard Rose (auth.)

DO PARTIES MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
Also by Richard Rose
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Can Government Go Bankrupt? with Guy Peters
What Is Governing? Purpose and Policy in Washington
Managing Presidential Objectives
Northern Ireland: A Time of Choice
The Problem of Party Government
International Almanac of Electoral History, with T. T. Mackie
Governing without Consensus
People in Politics
Influencing Voters
Politics in England
Must Labour Lose? with Mark Abrams
The British General Election of 1959, with D. E. Butler
Edited by Richard Rose
Presidents and Prime Ministers, with Ezra Suleiman
Electoral Participation
Britain: Progress and Decline, with William B. Gwyn
Challenge to Governance
Elections without Choice, with Guy Hermet and Alain Rouquie
New Trends in British Politics, with Dennis Kavanagh
The Dynamics of Public Policy
Comparing Public Policies with Jerzy Wiatr
The Management of Urban Change in Britain and Germany
Electoral Behavior: A Comparative Handbook
Lessons from America
European Politics, with Mattei Dogan
Policy-Making in Britain
Studies in British Politics
DO PARTIES
MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
Richard Rose
© Richard Rose 1980
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1980
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission
First published 1980 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 978-1-349-05434-3 ISBN 978-1-349-05432-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-05432-9
To ROSEMARY who certainly makes a difference
Contents
Introduction
I
1 Parties and Public Policy
The Basic Assumptions. The Historical Context. 9
2 Adversary or Consensus Politics?
Government and Opposition. The Test of Office.
The Contingency ofI nfluence.
3 The Choice at Elections
What the Voters Think. What the Parties Think. 33
4 Testing the Manifesto
The Evolution of the Manifesto. What Is Said and What Is Done.
Are Manifestos Adversary or Consensus Documents? 52
5 Adversary Parliament and Consensus Legislation
What MPs Think. What MPs Do. From Tacit Consent to
Moving Consensus. 74
6 Reorganizing Government:
Partisanship without Technocracy
Changing the Rules of the Game. Change and Resistance at the Centre.
Good Government: Intentions Are Not Enough. 92
7 Managing the Economy:
Neither Technocracy nor Ideology
Expanding the Alternatives. Government Inputs. Economic Outcomes.
The Force ofC ircumstance. Io6
8 Something Stronger Than Parties
The Models That Fit. Votes Count, Resources Decide.
The Dynamics ofa Moving Consensus. Into the 1980s.
Notes
Index
173
List of T abies
3.1 Class Differences in Party Loyalties, 1979 34
3.2. How the Electorate Divides by Class and Party, 1979 37
3·3 The Policy Preference of Partisans during the 1979 Election 40
3·4 Interparty Disagreement and Intraparty Cohesion on Issues, 1979 41
3·5 Voters' Perceptions of Differences or Similarities between the Parties,
1951-79 43
3.6 The Consensual Titles of Party Manifestos, 1945-79 45
3·7 Positive and Negative Rhetoric in the Speeches of Party Leaders, 197o-74 49
4.1 The Growing Length of Election Manifestos, I9QO-I979 55
4.2. The Number and Subject of Manifesto Pledges, 197o-74 63
4·3 How Parties Act upon Their Manifestos, 197o-79 65
4·4 Partisan and Nonpartisan Manifesto Pledges, 197o-74 69
4·5 Legislative Initiatives and Consensus Responses, 1970-79 70
5.1 The Infrequency of Opposition Divisions against Government Legislation,
197o-79 80
5.2. The Subject Matter of Consensus and Adversary Bills, 197o-79 81
5·3 Divisions on Policy and Administration Bills, 197o-79 82
5·4 Backbench Dissent, 1945-79 84
5·5 The Opposition Use of Supply Day Motions, 197o-79 86
7.1 Increases in Public Expenditure by Programme, 1957-78 122
List of Figures
3.1 The Narrowing Distance between Party Manifestos on Major Economic Issues,
192.4-66 46
5.1 Contrasting Levels of Partisan Hostility, Britain and Italy 78
7.1 The Secular Trend Upwards in Minimum Lending Rate, 1957-79 115
7.2. The Secular Trend Upwards in Public Sector Borrowing, 1957-78 117
7·3 The Secular Trend Upwards in Public Expenditure, 1957-78 119
7·4 The Secular Trend Upwards in the National Product, 1957-79 127
7·5 The Secular Trend Upwards in Take-Home Pay, 1957-78 130
7.6 The Secular Trend in the Distribution of Income, 1961-]6 132
7. 7 The Secular Trend in the Distribution of Wealth, 196o-77 133
7.8 The Secular Trend Upwards in Unemployment, 1957-79 135
7·9 The Secular Trend Upwards in the Annual Rate of Inflation, 1957-79 136
Acknowledgments
This study concentrates on what parties do in office. Does the
record of a Conservative government differ significantly from that of
a Labour government? In many respects, this book is thus a sequel to
The Problem of Party Government, in which I analyzed how parties
compete at elections and act as organizations, and the problems poli
ticians face on entering the dark corridors of government office.
The immediate stimulus to write this book came from Italy,
where the advent of Fascism in I922 demonstrated to Italians that
there is a big difference between some parties. Since then Italians
have speculated, at times optimistically and at times apprehensively,
about how much difference can result from a change of party control
of government. Today, the only alternative to the long-reigning
Christian Democrats are the Communists. Following the ambiguous
compromeso storico between Christian Democrats and Communists,
the Agnelli Foundation of Turin decided to commission studies of
the influence of party government in major European societies. A
paper written for that project led me to examine the question more
fully, and this book is the result.
In writing about party government in Britain, I have been able
to draw upon firsthand knowledge acquired over a quarter-century
of research in British party politics. But in no sense is this book a
personal recollection or an inside dopester's account of what high
ranking politicians thought they were doing. As the chapters demon
strate, selective and subjective observations can often be misleading.
The conclusions of this book are based upon a rigorous and system
atic sifting of the evidence of what government (and opposition) ac
tually did. The book is short because it concentrates on the forest
rather than particular trees.
The compilation of many of the tables herein was untertaken by
Richard Parry of the Centre for the Study of Public Policy, who
worked with the meticulousness of an ex-civil servant and the intel
lectual concerns of a promising scholar. Data from unpublished as
XI
DO PARTIES MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
well as published annual surveys of parliamentary legislation were
made available by lvor F. Burton and Gavin Drewry of Bedford Col
lege, University of London, whose work merits the careful scrutiny
of persons interested in contemporary parliamentary affairs. Unpub
lished as well as published data from public opinion surveys have
been made available by the Gallup poll and National Opinion polls.
Useful comments on portions of the work in progress were received
from Dennis Kavanagh of Manchester University, Philip Norton of
Hull University, and Malcolm Punnett of Strathclyde as well as from
practising politicians. Mrs. R. West, with assistance from colleagues,
has once again produced the necessary typescripts of a book with
both speed and accuracy.
In case an inquisitive reader might wish to know something
about my own political party bias, it is outside the main alignments
of the British party system, being that of a border-state Truman
Democrat. The experience of studying party politics in Britain through
the years has generated a liking for the people involved, and a
respect for the system they operate. But it has also produced too
much evidence of things gone awry for me to commit myself to any
party. My personal concern is more with the issues of British politics
than the parties that deal with them, and this is probably the view of
the majority of the British electorate today.
RicHARD RosE
Bennochy
Helensburgh
xii