Third Party Politics Since 1945: Liberals, Alliance and Liberal Democrats (Making Contemporary Britain) - Hardcover

Stevenson, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0631171266 ISBN 13: 9780631171263

Publisher: Blackwell Pub, 1993

Synopsis

With just over 18% of the vote in the 1992 Election, the Liberal Democrats failed to secure a balance of power but demonstrated, nonetheless, the persistence of the third party as a force in British politics. In this study of the parties and personalities of the centre, John Stevenson traces the fortunes of the third party in all its forms, from 1945 to the present. Beginning with a brief pre-history of the post-war Liberal Party, and its steady electoral eclipse by Labour, John Stevenson then charts the near demise of the third party in the 1940s and 1950s under Clement Davies. He next examines the slow but steady revival of the Liberals in the years of Jo Grimond, from 1956 through to 1967, and beyond, to the dramatic series of by-election victories in 1972-3, as a renewed Liberal Party under Jeremy Thorpe once again exerted an influence on the politics of Britain. Thorpe's resignation and the 1977 Lib-Lab pact take the story up to the formation of the Social Democratic Party and the subsequent Alliance, in 1981. Following the fate of the Alliance from 1981 to 1987, the author then traces the emergence of a new third force: the Social and Liberal Democrats. In a conclusion, he assesses the prospects for the future of the third party in the light of the 1992 General Election.

About this edition

• Publisher: Blackwell Pub
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0631171266
• ISBN 13: 9780631171263
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 157