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movement (LRM, launched in April 2016) and standing for the French presidential election. At the very least, he is a political entrepreneur and a risk-taker. Focusing on the individual qualities of a political leader is a necessary (though not sufficient) exercise (Burns, 1978 ). Most models of political leadership involve some combination of personal qualities or character traits, positional strengths and weaknesses, and wider environmental and cultural constraints and opportunities (Ahlquist and Levi, 2011 ; Berrington, 1974 ; Blondel, 1987 ; Drake, 2000
3 Local political leadership and mayoral government Introduction The introduction of directly elected mayors into the English local political landscape has brought an additional dimension to political representation and new electoral opportunities for the voters to cast a judgement on their local political leaders. Moreover, the oļ¬ce of elected mayor throws into sharp relief distinctions between representative democracy and representative government: the former comprises political processes which allow citizens to have an āindirectā participation in
developed to react to the usual, much smaller epidemics of the disease ( MSF, 2016a ). When in 2014 recommendations were made at the European Parliament that āthe lead [for the response] should be given to an NGO [non-governmental organisation] ā in this case, MĆ©decins Sans FrontiĆØresā, MSF directors insisted that it had āneither the legitimacy nor the skills nor the desire to take on the political leadership of the Ebola crisis in West Africaā ( Nierle
Why did it take the Conservative Party so long to recover power? After a landslide defeat in 1997, why was it so slow to adapt, reposition itself and rebuild its support? How did the party leadership seek to reconstruct conservatism and modernise its electoral appeal?
This highly readable book addresses these questions through a contextualised assessment of Conservative Party politics between 1997 and 2010. By tracing the debates over strategy amongst the party elite, and scrutinising the actions of the leadership, it situates David Cameron and his āmodernisingā approach in relation to that of his three immediate predecessors: Michael Howard, Iain Duncan Smith and William Hague. This holistic view, encompassing this period of opposition in its entirety, aids the identification of strategic trends and conflicts and a comprehension of the evolving Conservative response to New Labourās statecraft.
Secondly, the book considers in depth four particular dilemmas for contemporary Conservatism: European integration; national identity and the āEnglish Questionā; social liberalism versus social authoritarianism; and the problems posed by a neo-liberal political economy. The book argues that the ideological legacy of Thatcherism played a central role in framing and shaping these intraparty debates, and that an appreciation of this is vital for explaining the nature and limits of the Conservativesā renewal under Cameron.
Students of British politics, party politics and ideologies will find this volume essential reading, and it will also be of great interest to anyone concerned with furthering their understanding of contemporary British political history.
How do leading Conservative figures strive to communicate with and influence the electorate? Why have some proven more effective than others in advancing their personal positions and ideological agendas? How do they seek to connect with their audience in different settings, such as the party conference, House of Commons, and through the media?
This book draws analytical inspiration from the Aristotelian modes of persuasion to shine new and insightful light upon the articulation of British conservatism, examining the oratory and rhetoric of twelve key figures from Conservative Party politics. The individual orators featured are Stanley Baldwin, Winston Churchill, Harold Macmillan, Iain Macleod, Enoch Powell, Keith Joseph, Margaret Thatcher, Michael Heseltine, John Major, William Hague, Boris Johnson, and David Cameron. Each chapter is written by an expert in the field and explores how its subject attempted to use oratory to advance their agenda within the party and beyond.
This is the first book to analyse Conservative Party politics in this way, and along with its companion volume, Labour Orators from Bevan to Miliband, marks an important new departure in the analysis of British politics. It will be of particular interest to students of Conservative Party politics, conservatism more broadly, British political history, ideologies and party politics, and communication studies.
The book explores the changing nature of the roles powers, tasks, functions, expectations and challenges of the office of councillor and those that are elected to that office. Based on detailed and long-term research among councillors it examines the contribution the office makes to the governance of the nation and the role councillors play in bringing legitimacy and accountability to unelected governance networks. It examines, in detail, the work councillors conduct within their councils and communities and how being a councillor influences and affects all facets of their life. The book explores the strategies councillors devise to take political action, energise political change and deal with the limitations on their office, to effectively govern their localities. Through an analysis of important inquires and commissions that have investigated the office of councillor, the book examines the tendency of government to re-shape and re-structure the office to suit its own policy requirements or visions of the purpose of local government and of councillors. The book examines the affects of the constancy of change on the work councillors conduct and the roles they play in the government of communities and the country. The book sets out ways in which local government and the office of councillor could be strengthened within the overall governing framework to construct a localised state that offers maximum diversity of local policy and politics. The book recognises and celebrates the contribution councillors make to their communities, councils and to the quality of local and national democracy.
This book looks at the period 2015ā18 in French politics, a turbulent time that witnessed the apparent collapse of the old party system, the taming of populist and left-wing challenges to the Republic and the emergence of a new political order centred on President Emmanuel Macron. The election of Macron was greeted with relief in European chancelleries and appeared to give a new impetus to European integration, even accomplishing the feat of making France attractive after a long period of French bashing and reflexive decline. But what is the real significance of the Macron presidency? Is it as transformative as it appears? Emmanuel Macron and the remaking of France provides a balanced answer to this pressing question. It is written to appeal to a general readership with an interest in French and European politics, as well as to students and scholars of French politics.
respondentsā positive attitude to celebrity politics represented a challenge to the traditional conduct of politics. Yet while celebrities seemed more genuine and trustworthy than politicians, our respondents did not advocate a radical restructuring of the political system. In particular, despite the criticisms they made of elected representatives, they held to a quite traditional view of āthe politicianā. As they discussed the suitability of different celebrities for political leadership, it became apparent that for the majority of our respondents it seemed inconceivable
experience, so far, of English elected mayors, it is not the story of twelve individuals, nor is it an attempt to produce a league table of eļ¬ciency in oļ¬ce and the quality of political leadership provided. Rather, the book considers not only the experiences of particular mayors, but also the whole notion of directly elected political leadership and its place within English governance. The book draws out broad lessons from the mayoral experiment for local government and democracy, and oļ¬ers a framework for understanding direct election to executive political oļ¬ce within
of the difficulties encountered by any prior intervention. The clientelistic and guilt mentality is at odds with a rational approach. The reason for Greeceās backwardness in this area is the inability of the political leaderships to transcend personal pursuits. The guild set-up and the clientelistic mentality make political success dependent on the ability to distribute jobs and hand-outs. That is what politicians are interested in: providing services to their clients and satisfying their demands. The prospect of programmes, ideas, modernisation plans, shaking the