#4392 - The Conservatives And Mass Democracy Notes - 20th Century British Politics

BRITISH POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT SINCE 1900

THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY IN AN AGE OF MASS DEMOCRACY: 1918 TO 1964

How were the Conservatives able to maintain themselves as the dominant party in British politics from 1918-64?

With the emergence of mass democracy in 1918...

Introduction

Inter-war years – class/economics/Labour failure/Liberal impact/Baldwin

Post-1945 – rejuvenation/class/economics/Labour/Liberal/Attlee

1951-1964 -

Conclusion

The Attlee Years: N. Tiratsoo

- The Reconstruction of Conservatism:

- The Conservatives were not consistently dominant. The 1945 election saw the loss of 60% of the old Tory MPs.¹

- Rab Butler saw merit in the 1945 defeat, arguing that it was good for the country and for the party. After 1951, the Labour Party was not so naïve and the Conservatives not so complacent and anachronistic.

- The radical populism which had reached its zenith in 1945 was all but undone by 1947, thanks to the demands of the Cold War and Labour Statism. The Conservatives were attracting the support of anti-socialists who were by no means natural Tories.

- Conservative party reforms: introduced the training and payment of party agents - subsequently reconstructed both their organisation and policy.

- Party membership doubled between 1947 and 1948.

- The experience of the war and the emergence of the Welfare State was a server challenge for Conservative policy makers. ‘Progressive’ Conservatism was adopted, with begrudging acceptance of the new mixed economy.

- The 1944 White Paper on Employment Policy provided a boost to the Conservatives. It advocated an export-based economy, wage and price stability, union restraint, and the regeneration of manufacturing.

- Formulated the ‘Industrial Charter’ in 1947.

- Emphasised the importance of the individual and the consumer. Symbolised a gradual return to Conservative unity along its newly adopted principles².

- Conservatives benefited from not being in office during the period of retrenchment from Empire, particularly the loss of India. Churchill retained outmoded attitudes to Empire.

- The emerging Cold War landscape did much to neutralise the politics of the Left. Conservative recovery was contingent on partial reversal of radical populism.

- 1945-51 the Conservatives adopted the language of the people. The arrival of 93 new MPs in 1950 cemented the party’s shift in narrative.

Social Relations in Britain, 1880-1950: R. McKibbin

- Class and Conventional Wisdom:

- By 1918, society’s relationship with the working-class had become the central political problem. Middle-class strength rebounded in inter-war Britain to the electoral advantage of the Conservative party³.

- During the inter-war years the Conservatives assembled a coalition of social groups.

- By the mid-1920s, the Conservative Party had c700,000 members – more than twice as many as Labour – and predominantly middle-class.

- 1945-79 – following the post-war coalition, both the Labour and Conservative parties were in office for 17 years.

- After 1918, the ‘old’ Liberal vote was initially divided almost equally between Conservative and Labour. Yet, by the 1930s, it was almost entirely Conservative. The anti-Labour majority continued to exist post-1945, but the Conservatives failed to consistently mobilise it⁴.

- Post-1918 electoral boundary changes resulted in a gain for the Conservatives of around 30 seats. At the same time, Irish MPs, left-leaning, withdrew from Westminster (c70 MPs).

- Conservative defeat in 1929 meant they had the good fortune of being in opposition at the height of the depression.

- pre-1914 and post-1945 it would be disingenuous to classify the Conservatives as the ‘normal’ vote.

- McKibbin argues that the Conservatives represent the predominant value order, and only those with an objection to that order vote against it.

- Deflationary fiscal policy kept tax low and restrained wage-growth pressure. In 1929, a middle-class family earning 500pa paid only 8 tax. Tax bands were set up to the advantage of those on low and middle incomes.

- Anti-inflationary policies in the 1920s subordinated manufacturing in favour of finance – managed currency, protection, debt controls.

- The Liberal party was the greatest threat to Conservative predominance in the inter-war years:

- It spoiled the Conservative vote to Labour advantage in 1923 and 1929.

- Became a special interest party that distorted political debate.

- Still won 29% of the vote at the 1929 election.

- In 1929, Labour splitting of the Left vote cost the Liberals c40 seats to Conservative advantage.

- A help or a hindrance?

- The ‘dole’, aided by 1931 and 1934 employment legislation, helped to portray the unemployed as scroungers – a useful stereotype for the Conservatives. The ‘dole’ was seen as a Labour benefit, grudgingly accepted by the Conservatives as the least worst alternative.

- The Liberal party failed to appeal to middle-class interests, leaving this demographic free for the Conservatives.

- Keynes made the distinction between the ‘public’ and ‘labour’ or working-classes.

- Conservatives were exploiting this distinction.

- The ‘public’ felt threatened by the organised working-class.

- The Conservative lead among newly-enfranchised female voters was huge – why?

- The 1939-45 shift from the Conservatives to Labour may have been complete by 1942, by-election results suggest.

- There was an almost complete shift among the working-class, where Conservative share of their vote fell from 50% to 30%.

- Those who worked in large factories, increasingly prevalent post-1945, were more likely to be unionised and to vote Labour.

- The Conservatives provoked and defeated the General Strike to demoralise and weaken the unionised working-class.

- Working-class interests were portrayed as opposed to ‘public’ interests.

- It became much more difficult to exploit class differences post-1945.

- Conservative dominance in the inter-war years was achieved by creating a coalition of opinion hostile to the working-classes – whilst relying on a significant fraction of the working class vote.

The Working-Class Tories: E.A. Nordlinger

- Hierarchy and Deference:

- As late as 1960, the working-class vote provided the Conservatives with half of their electoral strength.

- There remained a high-degree of correspondence between occupational and class positions.

- Bagehot thought it logical that the numerous unwiser part of a nation should want to delegate authority to the less numerous wiser part.

- He foresaw universal suffrage sweeping away deferential obligation.

- ‘If you once permit the ignorant class to begin to rule, you may bid farewell to deference forever.’⁵

- After each electoral defeat, the Conservatives conducted an inquiry, evolving the party to the changing political landscape and allowing renewed success.

- They shunned permanent attachments to principle and policy in order to ‘optimise their electoral attractiveness.’⁶

- Political Leaders and Authority:

- Originating from high social status is thought to confer leadership qualities, and this is especially true within the Conservative party.

- Workers were observed to prefer upper-class leaders.

- Working-class men in positions of power were thought to be more susceptible to flattery and bribery, and also lacked the political connections of the upper-class.

- Conservative voters were more willing than Labour to allow their political leaders to deviate from election pledges, because they were confident of the abilities of party leaders to make the right decisions on their behalf⁷.

- The Elitist Political System:

- During a period of Conservative government and Labour opposition, working-class voters saw their votes translated into parliamentary majorities and some of their economic and social values realised in the form of legislation. This reinforced the positive beliefs about the distribution and exercise of power that Conservative voters hold.

- Political Activism:

- Trade union membership dramatically increases the chance of political activism among Labour voters; yet the same cannot be said for Conservative voters.

- A full-employment economy gave workers the bargaining power to stand up to their superiors. Trade union membership provided protection under which dissatisfaction could be freely expressed.

Party, State, and Society: Lawrence, Taylor et al

- Conservative hegemony, 1918-39:

- Over the period the Conservatives came to terms with new democracy, Labour, and secular, class-conscious society.

- They were in office for all but three of the inter-war years as a result, and retained the majority of the popular vote at all seven general elections.

- Yes, the Conservatives lacked confidence in policy making, perhaps as a result of ideological shortcomings during the period.

- The Conservatives had always feared mass-democracy, believing it would tend to socialism.

- The emergence of totalitarianism in the 1930s changed attitudes, and democracy became something to defend, not merely accept.

- Electoral reform and the loss of Irish MPs turned the Conservatives into a ‘natural majority party’⁸ during the inter-war years.

- Also important: boundary changes, decline of the Liberals, enfranchisement of women.

- We would be mistaken to think that all the Conservatives had to do was to ‘mobilise’ their electorate to win.

- The Conservatives made themselves the ‘defenders’ of the social order, and sought to label Labour its ‘attackers’⁹.

- ‘Public’ conventional wisdom vs. the threat of organised labour.

- The Conservative reaction to the new electorate:

- Tried to educate the voters and party...