'For the good of the party': an analysis of the fall of the British Conservative Party leaders from Chamberlain to Thatcher

Abstract

This thesis examines the fall of British Conservative Party leaders from Neville Chamberlain to Margaret Thatcher. Though the leadership is vested with considerable power and resources, holding on to it is conditional on the ability to deliver imminent electoral success for the Party. Previous studies have concentrated on one or other of the Party's component parts, but neglected the importance of others. Although this thesis concentrates on Cabinet and especially the Parliamentary Party, it tries to take a more holistic view. Political crises management and the leader's style are understood from a Conservative perspective to create a comprehensive analysis of how and why these leaders have been explicitly or implicitly forced aside by their own party. The particular circumstances of each leader's fall deserve analysis but this need not prevent us from drawing general conclusions as to which motives and mechanisms have proved most important in the exercise of the Party's famous will to power. In rank order they are as follows: the leader's electoral image, the leader's handling of crises, the leader's use of patronage, the leader's dependence on Party bodies and most decisively the leader's ability to recognise and diffuse discontent within "their" Party by using the significant resources available to a Conservative leader.