Angels in Marble: Working Class Conservatives in Urban England - Hardcover

MCKENZIE, ROBERT

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0435835858 ISBN 13: 9780435835859

Publisher: Publisher, 1968

Synopsis

The urban working class, first enfranchised a century ago, has been the dominant element in the British electorate since 1885; yet since that date the Conservative party has ruled Britain alone or in coalition for approximately three-quarters of the time, and parties of the left have won clear working majorities in the House of Commons on only three occasions – in 1906 (Liberals) and in 1945 and 1966 (Labour). This Conservative achievement is explained in considerable part by their success in winning at most general elections at least one-third of the working class vote; or to put the matter another way, the Conservative party, despite its overwhelmingly upper and middle class composition, has consistently drawn half its support from the working class. It is the working class Conservatives indeed – the “angels in marble,” to draw on a phrase from “The Times” quoted herein – who have in one sense been the principal arbiters of modern electoral competition in Britain. In this study we attempt, first, to examine the nature of British Conservatism, its response to industrialism, and the appeal, both pragmatic and traditional, it has made to working class electors since they were enfranchised by a Conservative government in 1867. And, second, we examine the social background and the attitudes to politics and society of contemporary working class voters on the basis of interviews from a four-phase investigation. We have thus undertaken to analyze, both historically and sociologically, one of the most distinctive and important phenomena in modern British politics. [Authors’ Foreword]

Edition details

• Publisher: Publisher
• Publication date: 1968
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0435835858
• ISBN 13: 9780435835859
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1