Abstract
In this chapter, we re-examine the attempts by successive Conservative leaders of the opposition to ‘modernise’ the Party’s internal organisation and external profile between the general elections of 1997 and 2010. For the purposes of this book, the period of David Cameron’s leadership after December 2005 is clearly the most important in this respect and therefore warrants more attention than that of his predecessors. However, in order to put Cameron’s ‘reforms’ in context, we begin by briefly surveying the key developments that occurred under the leaderships of William Hague (1997–2001), Iain Duncan Smith (2001–03) and Michael Howard (2003–05).
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Notes
Richard Kelly, ‘Organisational Reform and the Extra-Parliamentary Party’, in Mark Garnett and Philip Lynch (eds), The Conservatives in Crisis: The Tories after 1997, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2003, pp. 87–90.
Anthony Seldon and Peter Snowdon, ‘The Barren Years: 1997–2005’, in Stuart Ball and Anthony Seldon (eds), Recovering Power: The Conservatives in Opposition since 1867, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, pp. 251–2.
See Keith Alderman, ‘Revision of Leadership Election Procedures in the Conservative Party’, Parliamentary Affairs, 52.2 (1999), pp.260–74.
For detailed accounts of the 2001 leadership election, see Keith Alderman and Neil Carter, ‘The Conservative Party Leadership Election of 2001’, Parliamentary Affairs, 55.3 (2002), pp.569–85;
Andrew Denham and Kieron O’Hara, Democratising Conservative Leadership Selection: From Grey Suits to Grass Roots, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2008, pp. 48–69;
Timothy Heppell and Michael Hill, ‘The Voting Motivations of Conservative Parliamentarians in the Conservative Party Leadership Election of 2001’, Politics, 30.1 (2009), pp.36–51.
Richard Kelly, ‘The Extra-Parliamentary Tory Party: McKenzie Revisited’, The Political Quarterly, 75.4 (2004), p.400.
Jennifer Lees-Marshment, ‘Mis-marketing the Conservatives: The Limitations of Style over Substance’, The Political Quarterly, 75.4 (2004), p.393.
Justin Fisher, ‘Money Matters: The Financing of the Conservative Party’, The Political Quarterly, 75.4 (2004), p.406.
Byron Criddle, ‘MPs and Candidates’, in Dennis Kavanagh and David Butler, The British General Election of 2005, pp. 159–60.
Andrew Denham and Kieron O’Hara, ‘The Three “Mantras”: “Modernization” and the Conservative Party’, British Politics, 2.2 (2007), p.183.
Michael Ashcroft, Smell the Coffee: A Wake-up Call for the Conservative Party, London: Politico’s, 2005, p. 100.
Tim Bale, The Conservative Party: From Thatcher to Cameron, Cambridge, Polity, 2010, p. 290.
Justin Fisher, ‘Party Finance: Normal Service Resumed?’ Parliamentary Affairs, 63.4 (2010), p.778.
Brian Brady, ‘Cameron’s Charm Fails to Halt Slide in Party Membership’, Independent on Sunday, 6 September 2009.
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© 2011 Peter Dorey, Mark Garnett and Andrew Denham
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Dorey, P., Garnett, M., Denham, A. (2011). A Twenty-First-Century Party? Conservative ‘Modernisation’ and Organisational Reform, 1997–2010. In: From Crisis to Coalition. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230307742_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230307742_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-35995-0
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