Partners Publishing
Livres Canada Books
View Rights PortalFor a brief moment in 2019 Britain's politics looked like it might be transformed. Just when it seemed that the divisions within and across British political parties over Brexit could not get any more intense, 7 Labour and 3 Conservative MPs broke away to form The Independent Group (TIG) - later Change UK. This is the first book to explore the meteoric lifespan of that party, within the wider context of the experiences of other small political groupings in the House of Commons. Ultimately, it shows why the party failed and disbanded after just a few months. Timely and thoroughly researched, Louise Thompson's book takes us deep inside the struggles facing MPs who leave behind the comforts of the large political parties. Drawing on interviews with current and former politicians, it explores the practicalities of being a small party MP in the Commons. What challenges face you? Who can you turn to? And just how can you make an impact? Crisply written for the non-specialist reader, this fascinating book opens a window onto the perilous world of parliamentary politics.
The labour movement in Lebanon: Power on hold narrates the history of the Lebanese labour movement from the early twentieth century to today. Bou Khater demonstrates that trade unionism in the country has largely been a failure, for reasons including state interference, tactical co-optation, and the strategic use of sectarianism by an oligarchic elite, together with the structural weakness of a service-based laissez-faire economy. Drawing on a vast body of Arabic-language primary sources and difficult-to-access archives, the book's conclusions are significant not only for trade unionism, but also for new forms of workers' organisations and social movements in Lebanon and beyond. The Lebanese case study presented here holds significant implications for the wider Arab world and for comparative studies of labour. This authoritative history of the labour movement in Lebanon is vital reading for scholars of trade unionism, Lebanese politics, and political economy.
This book explores how regional political parties use Europe to advance their territorial projects in times of rapid state restructuring. It examines the ways in which decentralization and supranational integration have encouraged regional parties to pursue their strategies across multiple territorial levels. This book constitutes the first attempt to unravel the complexities of how nationalist and statewide parties manoeuvre around the twin issues of European integration and decentralization, and exploit the shifting linkages within multi-level political systems. In a detailed comparative examination of three cases - Scotland, Bavaria and Sardinia - over a thirty-year period, the book explores how integration has altered the nature of territorial party competition and identifies the limits of Europe for territorial projects. In addressing these issues, this work moves beyond present scholarship on multi-level governance to explain the diversity of regional responses to Europe. By providing important new insights and empirical research on the conduct of territorial party politics, and an innovative model of territorial mobilization in Europe, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of comparative politics, European studies, regionalism and federalism, political parties and devolution. ;
The book is a comparative, empirically based study of party politics in contemporary Central and Eastern Europe that seeks to define the impact of European Union membership in this area. The question of Europeanisation has been intensively debated over recent years, but no firm conclusion has been reached. This collection of rigorously comparative contributions directs attention to a number of key areas in the attempt to isolate cases where Europe has made a difference. Successive chapters examine how new parties are managed by the state and the ways in which parties colonise the state itself, the role of transnational cooperation and the influence pan-European parties have on national organisations. The book goes on to consider patterns of party-oriented participation in the new democracies and dimensions of electoral turnout, dimensions of inter-party competition and identification of the specific features of post-communist party politics, examination of the key case of the extreme right and the conditions under which it tends to emerge, detailed analysis of the quality of political representation in the new democratic context, and discussion of how EU constraints are likely to undermine the prospects of stable party linkages. A conclusion seeks to establish how far Europe and EU policy has succeeded in influencing Central and East European developments. ;
The Labour Party and citizenship education provides the definitive account of why and how Labour introduced citizenship education as a compulsory subject in the National Curriculum. Based on interviews with the key players, it contributes to our understanding of the role of ideas and policy networks in the policy process, to debates about the nature of New Labour as a political phenomenon, and addresses the significant and topical issues of political disaffection and community cohesion. This book is essential reading for academics and students of political science, public and social policy, education, contemporary history, and political theory. Written in an accessible style, it will also be of interest to the general reader concerned about issues of citizenship, political participation, disengagement and re-engagement. ;
The Dark Castle family receives an invitation to a party at Highhorror Castle. Lilo and Miss Rüdiger are immediately eager to go. And of course Luisa should go with them. But humans are strictly forbidden to set foot in Castle Highhorror. “Who cares?”, say Lilo and Luisa, and at first everything seems fine: Luisa gets in as a perfect witch. But then the girls learn about a protective magic spell which covers the whole of the castle: unauthorized beings will be turned for ever into stone… Only a secret book of magic spells can save Luisa now!
This book, newly available in paperback, reveals the Conservative Party's relationship with the extreme right between 1945 and 1975. For the first time, this book shows how the Conservative Party, realising that its well known pre-Second World War connections with the extreme right were now embarrassing, used its bureaucracy to implement a policy of investigating extreme right groups and taking action to minimise their chances of success. The book focuses on the Conservative Party's investigation of right-wing groups, and shows how its perception of their nature determined the party bureaucracy's response. The book draws a comparison between the Conservative Party machine's negative attitude towards the extreme right and its support for progressive groups. It concludes that the Conservative Party acted as a persistent block to the external extreme right in a number of ways, and that the Party bureaucracy persistently denied the extreme right within the party assistance access to funds and representation within party organisations. It reaches a climax with the formulation of a 'plan' threatening its own candidate if he failed to remove the extreme right from the Conservative Monday Club.
This book is the first analysis of political defections over a long time span. It investigates all the Liberal/Liberal Democrat MPs and former MPs who defected from the party between the elections of December 1910 and May 2010 - around one sixth of all those elected - as well as the smaller number of inward defectors. Each of the 122 defections was an expert judgment on the state of the party at a specific date. The research investigates the timing and reasons for all the defections and reveals long-term trends and underlying causes and apportions responsibility between leaders for them. The author finds some significant differences which distinguished defectors from loyalists and draws wider conclusions about the underlying factors which lead MPs to defect. This book will be of interest to students and lecturers of British politics and anyone interested in the relationship between British political parties in the last century. ;
The first edition of this book demonstrated that British political parties now attempt to offer a complete product that will appeal to a majority of voters, rather than being influenced by a political ideology and firm belief system. This new edition provides an updated and more in-depth exploration of the political marketing approach, including analysis of the 2001 and 2005 elections. It re-presents the influential theory of market, sales and product-oriented parties, discussing the potential and the limits of consumerism, and the need to blend business concepts with a traditional understanding of politics. Lee-Marshment examines Blair's New Labour government in order to draw out lessons on delivery, maintaining market intelligence and the effect of changing to a leadership approach that goes against country and party. Analysis of the Conservatives in opposition shows how the best intentions of party leaders to implement a market-orientation can be thwarted by internal resistance and traditional party elites. Providing a more reflective and critical analysis, the second edition offers a more nuanced discussion on how political parties can not only win elections but govern successfully.
This book considers the most electorally successful political party in Spain, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which was in government for two of the three decades since it won office under Felipe González in 1982. Providing rich historical background, the book's main focus is on the period since General Franco's death in 1975. It charts Spain's modernisation under the PSOE, with a particular focus on the role played by European integration in this process. Covering events including the 2011 general election, the book is one of the most up-to-date works available in English and will be of great interest to academics and undergraduate and postgraduate students in the field of Spanish and European studies. ;
This is the first substantial history to trace the political development of the Ulster Unionist Party through the years of protest and opposition to Irish Home Rule to the half-century as a governing party within Northern Ireland, and beyond to the current attempts to bring peace to the Province. It demonstrates why the Party is so central to efforts to reach a political settlement, and explains why it has for so long been the main political voice of the pro-Union electorate in Northern Ireland. An important and scholarly work based on extensive primary source research, it brings to light forgotten historical episodes of contemporary political significance, and provides new angles on old controversies and debates. The book discusses the evolution of the Ulster Unionist Party with reference to competing ideological currents, class and social tensions within the Unionist movement, and the role of leadership figures and maverick personalities. This is a book that maps the party's historical journey from the dramatic days of Carson to the current predicaments of Trimble. ;
This new edited collection of essays focuses on the history of Labour's second period in office during the 1929-1931 global financial crisis. Contributions by leading historians and younger academics bring fresh perspectives to Labour's domestic problems, electoral and party matters, relations with the Soviet Union and ideological questions. An important range of new historical research provides a much-needed reappraisal of Ramsay MacDonald's second Labour government, which impressed few with its conventional policies for tackling mass unemployment. Oswald Mosley, John Maynard Keynes and Ernest Bevin's alternative economic strategies are critically studied in key essays. A more positive side of the government's policies is also adeptly revealed on consumerism and agriculture. Significant new light is adroitly shed on the 1929 general election, the first fought on a universal franchise. The intricate politics of the Parliamentary Labour Party and the disaffiliation of the Independent Labour Party are convincingly explored. The influence of the Soviet Union on Labour's thoughts and actions is analysed in valuable accounts of Labour's foreign policy and Labour's turn to socialism after 1931. An important fresh account of opposition politics breaks new ground on the reaction of Tory politicians, including Harold Macmillan, to MacDonald's government. The volume concludes with an absorbing analysis of the myths surrounding '1931' in Labour history. This timely volume makes accessible a major reassessment of existing knowledge and new scholarship that will appeal to students and teachers of British political and social history. It is essential reading for sixth form and university courses on twentieth-century history. ;