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In the face of a global demographic shift, an aging population and a 'crisis' in adult social care (ASC), this study analyses over 3000 pledges on ASC in political parties' manifesto discourse following the United Kingdom's move to a multi-level electoral politics in 1998/1999. Although often overlooked, attention to this formative phase of social policy-making reveals the discursive political antecedents of welfare interventions. The analysis shows a major increase in issue-salience and party politicisation of ASC policy. The discourse reveals political cleavages on welfare mixes and policy framing, and sub-state resistance to central government policies. Against the backdrop of the international rise of devolved governance, the present case is of wider international significance because it illustrates how the transition from state-wide to (quasi-)federal electoral practices gives rise to new territorial dynamics in the electoral discourse of welfare provision; in turn, promoting territorialisation, pressure for welfare state expansion and the rise of 'sub-state' welfare regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses a key knowledge-gap by exploring the role of electoral politics in shaping public policy on the arts. Analysis of the prioritisation and use of language in party manifestos in state-wide and regional elections in the UK reveals that over recent decades there has been a sharp increase in the attention parties give to arts policy as they compete for the political centre-ground. It also shows how the framing of arts policy has broadened from an initial concern with social policy objectives to emphasise economic benefits and boosting international standing. However, parties have generally failed to advance comprehensive arts strategies raising accountability issues in relation to future government policy. Against the backdrop of a global trend of state restructuring, the analysis reveals how devolution is leading to the territorialisation of policy – as framing is contingent on ‘regional’ party politics, including nation-building by civic nationalist parties. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mandate and accountability theory state that governments should implement the policies that they promised voters. Accordingly, this study addresses a key lacuna by exploring the role of electoral politics in shaping public policy on sport. Attention centres on issue-salience and policy framing in party manifestos in post-war UK elections. In an era of multi-level governance, the analysis also explores the impact of devolution in the UK where, since 1998, sport policy is mandated in four electoral systems in place of earlier, single state-wide ballots. The findings reveal that there has been a sharp increase in issue-salience over recent decades – thereby confirming the party politicization of sport as part of the wider rise of ‘valence politics’. They also show how parties increasingly frame sport proposals to achieve non-sport aims such as promoting social welfare and boosting international standing. Notably, the data underline the territorialization of sport policy following the UK’s move to quasi-federalism – as policy framing is now contingent on ‘regional’ socio-historical factors and party politics, including nation – building by civic nationalist parties. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study explores the formative origins of youth justice policy and the discursive process of mandate-seeking in party manifestos in Westminster elections. Analysis of issue salience and policy framing reveals: party politicization, a significant increase in issue salience from the 1990s onwards, and a shifting structural policy narrative with inherent contestation and contradictions. The past decade has seen some attempts to revisit pre-1970s welfarist approaches following an extended emphasis on criminalization, incarceration and punishment. This discursive shift has presaged an impressive reduction in levels of incarceration and numbers sentenced, yet international and historical comparative data suggest party programmes need to place continuing emphasis on diversion if full compatibility with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is to be secured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the level of attention (‘issue-salience’) and use of language (‘policy framing’) related to tourism in political parties’ manifestos in Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish elections in the UK. The findings reveal significant increases in the salience of tourism as an election issue—as well as parties’ contrasting use of language when placing policy proposals before voters. Notably, as part of their state-building agenda, civic nationalist parties put particular emphasis on tourism as an expression of national identity and means of boosting international standing. This study’s wider contribution to tourism scholarship lies in showing how public policy is grounded in the representative process and revealing the party politicization and contingent nature of tourism policy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, minority nationalist parties (MNPs) have employed the notion of Europe in order to advance an alternative to centralized administration within the unitary state. This study examines whether earlier claims of MNPs' repositioning on the European Union (EU) are supported by a discourse analysis of manifestos in UK meso-elections. The findings confirm a significant shift in MNPs' framing of EU policy at the regional level; no longer advanced as a principal route to autonomy, voters are latterly invited to view the EU more as a fiscal-support mechanism. The wider significance of the findings is in pointing to post-devolution instrumentalism and an ideologically fluid phase in MNP attitudes to the European project. In the wake of state restructuring, meso-elections present new discursive opportunities for MNPs to seek a mandate to build on the degree of self-government already attained through the (re)creation of regional polities without principal reliance on the goal of ‘independence in Europe’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study addresses a key lacuna by exploring the role of electoral politics in shaping public policy on rail transport in (quasi-)federal systems of governance. Attention centres on issue-salience and policy framing in party manifestos in state-wide and regional elections. The findings reveal a significant rise in issue-salience in parties׳ Westminster election programmes; with right- and left-of-centre parties increasingly advocating mixed economy approaches to rail transport as part of the wider rise of 'valence politics'. The analysis also reveals how devolution may lead to the territorialisation of rail transport policy. In contrast to parties׳ Westminster programmes, regional manifesto discourse evidences a general rejection of neo-liberalism and stronger support for state control and/or not-for-profit rail operators. Overall, the findings underline the formative nexus between political representation and public policy - and show how, in the wake of state decentralisation, policy framing is contingent on 'regional' socio-economic factors and party politics, including state-building by civic nationalist parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite sustained public demand for parties to act, the environment has been subject to limited issue salience in UK state-wide elections. This article uses qualitative and quantitative methods to explore party politicisation of the environment in regional elections 1998-2011. Contrary to earlier suggestions, the present findings indicate that multi-level systems may facilitate increasing environmental issue salience at the meso level. In part this is a function of nationalist parties' prioritisation of the environment. Overall, electoral discourse is shown to have a key formative role in driving policy divergence owing to inter-polity and inter/intra-party contrasts in salience and framing. From a normative perspective this suggests that the pluralising effect of (quasi-)federalism has the potential to foster greater responsiveness in party programmes through enhanced choice for the environmental issue public. This is an outcome of the expansion of electoral politics following state decentralisation and associated party competition to advance distinctive proposals over rivals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the policy discourse of the Commonwealth in Wales, UK general election manifestos 1945–2010. It reveals party politicization in the immediate post-war period underpinned by contrasts in policy framing and a Left–Right cleavage spanning a range of issues including immigration and development. A significant post-1970 decline in salience is shown to be accompanied by a shift from substantive to symbolic policy-making and cross-party convergence around residual policy frames whereby the Commonwealth is used to evoke past influence and a normative vision of international governance. This has wider significance for the present electoral discourse approach provides a transferable methodology to inform understanding of party dynamics and policy framing in the formative stage of international relations policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the principal parties' manifestos in UK statewide elections 1970–2010. It makes an original contribution by using a mixed methodology to examine the electoral discourse, issue-salience and policy framing associated with civil conflict resolution (CCR) proposals for Northern Ireland. Mandate and accountability theory suggest that party programmes may play an important role in understanding CCR. Accordingly, a series of hypotheses is tested and the findings used to advance an Electoral Discourse Model of Civil Conflict Resolution. The findings show that electoral politics matter in shaping CCR. Statistically significant inter-party differences in issue-salience and policy framing are revealed as parties seek to secure ‘issue-ownership’, influence voter preferences and secure a mandate for action. An iterative inter-party process is shown to lead to frame convergence over time, thereby providing an indicator of progress towards conflict resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over recent decades there has been an international shift towards multi-level governance. Against this backdrop, many comparative welfare studies take government policy outputs as the starting point for their analysis. However, the associated pluralization of electoral systems in unitary states means that welfare choices are no longer exclusively informed by single state-wide ballots. Accordingly, this study makes an original contribution by exploring the formative role of electoral discourse in shaping social policy divergence in (quasi-)federal states. It does this through an examination of party politicization and the issue-salience of homelessness in manifestos for UK state-wide and regional elections. The findings reveal how electoral discourse is a key driver of policy divergence. These territorially-specific structural narratives are used to propose a model of welfare divergence in multi-level systems, one that is cognizant of the formative role of electoral discourse in shaping the development of welfare regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]