Between 1906 and 1924 the Conservative party only won three parliamentary elections in North-east Wales - the Denbigh Boroughs division twice in 1910 and the county seat in Flintshire in 1924. Conversely the Liberal party won all the other elections throughout the period, with the exception of Wrexham which fell to Labour in 1922 and 1923. This, however, says more about the vagaries of the British 'first past the post' electoral system than it does about the true strength of the political parties in the region. Indeed, between 1906 and 1924 the Conservative party never averaged below 39 per cent of the electorate in the constituencies it contested. Given this impressive but unrecognised electoral position, what this study set out to do was to analyse the strength of Conservatism in a region where failure was the norm. The period was chosen because it saw the last Liberal administration in this country, and marked the start of the Conservative dominance of government for much of the twentieth century. It also saw one of the biggest cultural and social upheavals in British history with the advent of the First World War, and witnessed the enfranchisement of women for the first time.The general election of 1906 returned no Conservatives for Wales. In North Wales a conference was called to examine the situation and evaluate future prospects. This led to a review of party organisation in the region, the intention being not only to attract more working class people and women, but also to lessen the autocratic domination by the landed classes. In 1910 the Conservatives won the Denbigh Boroughs constituency with a large swing against the Liberals, and came very close to winning the Flint Boroughs by-election of 1913. The period of War, 1914-1918, saw all political parties moth-balled until the end of hostilities, but during the period of Coalition Government from 1918 to 1922 in which Liberal representation went almost unchallenged in North-east Wales, the Conservatives reorganised their Constituency Associations. By 1924 the landed domination of the party had diminished significantly, and in Flintshire the Conservatives won their first seat in an industrial working class area.Underpinning this success was a long-standing popular support, which after 1906 was better organised and mobilised for the Conservative cause through a variety of loosely attached organisations, societies and clubs. The Primrose League, an organisation that had been founded in 1883 to rally Conservative support, had a very high membership in the region compared to the rest of Wales. For example, the Denbigh Primrose League had over 800 members in 1912. A network of Conservative clubs existed in the region and as early as 1905 a thriving Workingmen's Association had been founded in Wrexham. The Conservative party was also well represented in local government; in Flintshire between 1907 and 1913 it had more county councillors than the Liberal party. In addition, the upheaval of War and the attraction of socialism to the newly enfranchised masses meant that the Conservative party had to widen its appeal to those people who had acquired the vote in 1918. By recruiting women and working class members the Conservative party was able to lay the foundations for a number of parliamentary successes in North-east Wales that lasted until the 1990s. It is therefore the contention of this thesis that the Conservative party not only survived a very difficult period, but that it emerged a strengthened and invigorated force.

acase@tulane.edu / 1 / Eimeel Carolina Castillo Doña

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1955. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Bibliography: leaves 260-270.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1951. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 246-250).

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 1990. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

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Foreign policy is a constant balancing between playing an active role on the international stage versus taking a more cautious stance. This study compares foreign policy development of three conservative parties during the Cold war, in three different nations with vastly different geopolitical importance. The parties compared in the study are the American Republican party, the British Conservative party and the Swedish Conservative party. This study uses party platform and election manifestos from three separate election years as the main sources for comparison. The comparison covers the early 1950’s, middle 1960’s and finally the early 1980’s. The party programs are thereafter analyzed with help of Lane Crothers model to further classify the foreign policy development of each party during the given time period. In conclusion, the study indicates a general move toward an increasingly active involvement on the international stage. The Republican party represents a foreign policy predominantlybased on military and diplomatic capacity to safeguard American foreign interest in relation to the Soviet Union. The British Conservative party as well as the Swedish Conservative party represent a foreign policy strategy with higher emphasis on international economic cooperation based on the liberal market economy.

In January 1979, Stuart Hall claimed to have identified a new ‘radical Right’ ideology he termed ‘Thatcherism’, which was attempting to ‘command the space’ occupied by the social democracy of the then Labour government and the ‘moderate wing’ of the Conservative Party. In short, the Thatcher Conservative Opposition was detaching itself from ‘traditional’ Conservatism. This thesis examines the validity of the claim at the time it was made, through a detailed scrutiny of the positions taken up between 1974 and 1979 by those identified as being on the ‘radical Right’ of the Party and those designated as ‘moderates’. In particular, it analyses the programme proposed by Sir Keith Joseph, the leading advocate of New Conservatism, within the context of the policy-making processes adopted by the Party in those years and the outcome of those processes. It concentrates on efforts to formulate policies in the key economic and industrial relations fields and examines how what emerged was shaped by the opposing views of those involved and by outside events. It considers how Margaret Thatcher, in order to keep the Party intact, contrived to avoid entering into potentially unsustainable policy commitments and, at the same time, impressed herself sufficiently on the electorate that when the opportunity arose, it was prepared to vote her and her Party into office. It became possible, once the first Thatcher government started its work, to regard much of what it did as ideological and radical. However, so inchoate was the programme developed in opposition that one can only conclude that there was no body of doctrine at the time of the 1979 election which warranted the name of ‘Thatcherism’ and that victory was achieved by acting in accordance with ‘traditional’ Conservatism – by doing what was necessary in the circumstances to attain power.

This thesis examines the Scottish Conservative party between 1832 and 1868. It focuses on the party's organisation, structure, leadership, and attitudes. It begins by examining the social, occupational, educational, and religious background of its MPs, candidates, and peers. This reveals that the party's composition, while predominantly aristocratic, nevertheless boasted a range of distinctive and often competing interests. The thesis then explores the make-up, organisation and activity of the party on a local constituency level. This illustrates that the party was more inclusive and heterogeneous than might be assumed, and was very active in promoting itself through a wide variety of methods. The party thus had a notable impact on the wider social and cultural life of Scotland throughout the mid-nineteenth century. Following this, the structure and leadership of the Scottish party on a national level is examined. These could be a source of innovation and accomplishment, and their subsequent decline had a marked effect on the party's overall performance. Above this level, the party's role in parliament, governance, and in a British context is explored. It is demonstrated that the Scottish party maintained a modicum of distinctiveness even at Westminster. Moreover, its multifaceted role in Scottish governance gave it significant influence over Scottish society. Finally, the positions of the Scottish party on important political issues are examined, as are the underlying attitudes which determined these positions. The Scottish party contained many competing and overlapping factions, which held a hitherto unsuspected diversity of outlooks. Overall, this thesis illustrates that the Scottish Conservative party had a pronounced effect on many different facets of Scottish politics and wider society, and was itself more complex and more popular than is reflected in the existing historiography. It therefore counters the assumption that Scotland was almost hegemonically Liberal - a finding which has potential implications for scholarship spread across Scottish and British political, social, and cultural history.

No description available.