This book addresses how the Conservative Party has re-focused its interest in social policy. Analysing to what extent the Conservatives have changed within this particular policy sphere, the book explores various theoretical, social, political, and electoral dimensions of the subject matter.

This book is concerned with home affairs or social policy in the British system - in particular in education, health, housing, social security and aspects of the Home Office's work. It handles the subject in terms of what the Conservative Party thought and did about it from 1939 to 1988.

A timely consideration of the development and content of the Conservatives' approaches to social policy and how they inform the Coalition's policies.

A sociological history of the development and evolution of the political ideas and policies influencing the provision of social welfare in modern western society. The British experience of the welfare state is compared and contrasted with its counterparts in the USA and Sweden.

Has the modern Conservative Party developed a distinctive approach to the post-war welfare state? In exploring this question, this accessible book takes an authoritative look at Conservative Party policy and practice in the modern era. The book takes as its main starting point the progressive One Nation Conservative (1950-64) perspective, which endeavoured to embrace those features of the welfare state deemed compatible with the party’s underlying 'philosophy'. Attention then shifts to the neo-liberal Conservatives (1974-97), who sought to reverse the forward march of the welfare state on the grounds of its 'harmful’ economic and social effects. Finally, David Cameron’s (2005-present day) 'progressive’ neo-liberal Conservative welfare state strategy is put under the spotlight. The book’s time-defined content and broad historical thread make it a valuable resource for academics and students in social policy and politics as well as social history.

This collection of research explores the relationship between the Conservative party and British society since 1880 by focusing on the key themes of ideology, national identity, gender and policy. The focus of the text is not so much on the Conservative party as an institution, as on the party's wider significance in British political culture. It seeks to explain the Conservatives extraordinary electoral success in this period and asserts that this success was both problematic and historically contingent. Part one of this study addresses the question of conservative ideology; part two analyzes the role of national identity in Conservative discourse and policy; part three assesses how Conservatives negotiated the gendered nature of popular politics both before and after the arrival of the equal franchise, and part four examines how Conservative understanding of the relationship between state and society were translated into specific aspects of social and economic policy.

In this penetrating new study, Skocpol of Harvard University, one of today's leading political scientists, and co-author Williamson go beyond the inevitable photos of protesters in tricorn hats and knee breeches to provide a nuanced portrait of the Tea Party. What they find is sometimes surprising.

This groundbreaking book presents a new understanding of ideological change. It shows how and why America's political parties have evolved.

In spite of the fact that Conservative, Christian democratic and Liberal parties continue to play a crucial role in the democratic politics and governance of every Western European country, they are rarely paid the attention they deserve. This cutting-edge comparative collection, combining qualitative case studies with large-N quantitative analysis, reveals a mainstream right squeezed by the need to adapt to both 'the silent revolution' that has seen the spread of postmaterialist, liberal and cosmopolitan values and the backlash against those values – the 'silent counter-revolution' that has brought with it the rise of a myriad far right parties offering populist and nativist answers to many of the continent's thorniest political problems. What explains why some mainstream right parties seem to be coping with that challenge better than others? And does the temptation to ride the populist wave rather than resist it ultimately pose a danger to liberal democracy?