Beyond the 2017 General Election: A Manifesto’s Guide to Old and New Politics

Dave Richards, Professor of Public Policy at the University of Manchester and Patrick Diamond University Lecturer in Public Policy at Queen Mary, University of London examine the Conservative and Labour Parties manifestos, both past and present, as a framework to further understanding the new politics.
Calls for a new politics are often in response to a rising climate of ‘anti-politics’ and generally emphasise a more participatory, pluralistic, deliberative or bottom-up approach.
The current Conservative manifesto contains striking parallels with its 1979 platform, offering a strident defence of parliamentary sovereignty.
The slogan ‘Strong and Stable Leadership ‘encapsulates the zeitgeist of the Westminster model – a top-down, elite-based approach prioritising democratic accountability.
The Labour Party’s manifesto is laced with the rhetoric of a new politics. It has a whole section on ‘Extending Democracy’ wherein a critique of the Westminster model looms large.
It might appear that we are about to enter a period of far-reaching change in British politics, but is the reality a case of the more it changes, the more it stays the same?