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The election of more than 60 British National Party (BNP) councillors across England from 2002-2007 does not sit easily with the conventional analysis of far-right parties in the UK, which has tended to dismiss the extreme right as an insignificant political force. Building on a recent Democratic Audit report on the BNP by Peter John et al. (The BNP — The Roots of its Appeal, University of Essex: Democratic Audit, 2006), this paper examines the dynamics of local party competition in the localities where the BNP has achieved greatest local representation. Through this analysis, the paper challenges the dominant view of the BNP, arguing that the BNP's breakthrough in English local elections must be understood as a warning signal about the state of local democracy in England and, in particular, an indicator of the advanced decay of local political parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The former Prime Minister's review of party-funding reforms, chaired by Sir Hayden Phillips, reported in March 2007. It was followed in June 2008 by a White Paper from the Ministry of Justice. This article considers these proposals in the context of both previous reforms in Britain and trends in party-funding reform across the rest of Europe. It seeks to establish whether these proposals represent continuity in the British case, and the extent to which Britain arguably remains 'exceptional' in terms of party funding. It concludes that the Phillips review represented a potential partial break from British exceptionalism, whilst the White Paper represents a continuation. Both, however, provide further evidence of the fragility of the cartel model in respect of Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The House of Lords is recognised as unusual among modern party-dominated parliaments for its method of composition—comprising appointees, hereditary peers and Bishops of the Church of England. However, equally interesting but less often noted is the presence in the chamber of around 200 members who do not take a party whip. Drawn from various walks of life, including the law, civil service, academia, science and the voluntary sector, these 'Crossbenchers' have their own group organisation and ethos. Given their numbers, they potentially hold the balance of power in the chamber. In this paper we examine the backgrounds, organisation and political activity of the Crossbenchers, asking what impact they have on the policy and culture of the House of Lords. We also examine the recent changes in the Crossbench group following reform of the chamber in 1999-including an influx of more active peers, resulting in changing beliefs and style. We find that the Crossbenchers have a subtle and changing influence, much of which is difficult to quantify. Their presence is widely valued, and most proposals for House of Lords reform suggest that an independent element should be retained. But this raises difficult questions about how political independence should be defined, and where such members are to be found. The paper provides some reflections on the challenges to independent membership of modern party-dominated parliaments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using mixed methods this paper explores issue salience and the policy framing associated with the substantive representation of ethnic minorities. Its focus is party programmes in Westminster (1964-2010) and Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish elections (1998-2011). The analysis reveals a significant increase in issue salience driven by parties of the Left. This applies to both state-wide and meso-elections, thereby providing evidence of political reprioritisation in the wake of ethnic minority activism in the 1970s and 1980s. At the meso-level new political opportunity structures are shown to be leading to the territorialisation of policy. However, the analysis also reveals significant shortcomings, including parties'failure to adopt a systematic approach consistent with the post-1997 discourse on mainstreaming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people populate a uniquely strategic position within society in general and particularly in party political debate about the future development of citizenship and the national community. Political parties in the UK have however been historically reluctant to engage with young people or represent their interests in the formulation of policies, instead prioritising older voters. However, the political resonance of issues linked to youth citizenship and democratic engagement has risen recently as political parties have sought to address steep declines in levels of civic and civil activism and the preparedness of young people to vote in elections. This paper explores the emerging party politics associated with such shifts, assessing the extent to which political parties have sought to reform how they engage with young people or reassert traditional modes of citizenship and political participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition government has announced its intention to hold a referendum on the possible introduction of the Alternative Vote (AV) for future elections to the House of Commons. This paper uses survey data from the 2010 British Election Study to simulate what the effects on the seat distribution in the House of Commons would have been if AV had operated in May 2010. The results suggest an outcome for the three main parties of Conservatives 284, Labour 248 and Liberal Democrats 89. This outcome would have radically changed the arithmetic of post-election coalition building, with the Liberal Democrats being able to form a majority coalition with either Labour or the Conservatives. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Wales is one of the principal cases in Europe where the stateless nation enjoys relatively high levels of identification relative to the state, and is a key focus for addressing identity politics in the UK following devolution in 1997–1999. However, the development and political consequences of Welshness and Britishness are currently relatively neglected in the research literature. This article explores these issues in relation to post-devolution Wales. Part one examines survey evidence on national identities, governmental reference to identity in policy development, and public attitudes to constitutional reform. Part two examines the approaches of the political parties, as key agents of identity politics, to Welshness and Britishness in their political strategies. Overall, the paper argues that since 1999 civic Welshness has become predominant in public discourse and support for further devolution has grown. The political parties have all converged on the politics of a civic Welshness in their political strategies. At the same time the underlying extent of identification with Welshness and Britishness since devolution has in fact changed little and the increased assertion of Welshness has not led to a rise in support for independence. Devolution appears to have both enhanced Welsh identity loyalties as a framework for political life and sustained a stable basis for Wales within the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The reconstruction of past trends in party membership can be fraught, especially when parties themselves kept no aggregate records. This was the case with the British Conservative party prior to 1946. The aggregate figures never existed, and the data that would be required to construct no longer exist to the required extent. Nonetheless, this article argues that it is methodologically possible to offer more detailed analysis than hitherto, by analysing local as well as national-level Conservative sources, triangulating with the national-level Labour party statistics and taking insights from more explicitly political science literature. This paper's substantive argument is that although Conservative membership fell after 1939, it did not collapse; that it recovered somewhat from early 1943 onwards and that recovery then afforded the party a base from which it was able to build, with spectacular success after 1945. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Democracy in Britain would appear to be in decline. Fewer people are joining political parties; fewer people are participating in general elections; and mass protest on a wide variety of issues is rising. This apparent breakdown in formal political engagement in Britain and other liberal democracies has led to a renewed claim by many critics inside and outside of academia that traditional representative forms of democratic governance have had their day and need to be replaced by a more direct model of democracy. This paper argues that this would be a mistake, and that [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]