English party politics

Contemporary interest in the workings of political parties arises in part from a dissatisfaction with older modes of enquiry into political activity which often invoked the idea of 'the constitution' understood as a set of procedural rules within which particular differences of interest or principle were reconciled or adjusted. Scepticism about such an idea has usually taken the form of arguing either that politics is not a 'rule-governed' activity but is rather about 'power', 'class' or 'interest', involving clashes
rather than adjustments, or that procedural rules are important but have been incorrectly described. On this latter view, party becomes essential to the constitution; indeed, to some writers party is the constitution.
The documents in these two volumes have been gathered and arranged in chronological sections under the guiding thesis that English political parties cannot be understood in isolation from the general constitutional context within which they act, or in isolation from the more specific context of contemporary attitudes to party. The reader will thus be able to see political parties in
their contemporary contexts and not as mere preludes to a predetermined situation of 'party government' in the twentieth century.
The two volumes are divided into six historical periods - from 1660 to the present - and in each period parties are considered in terms of their parliamentary and electoral activities as well as the principles and issues involved in the party politics of the day.
These volumes are not only valuable as a source of primary documents: the introductory essays by AIan Beattie which begin each section not only link the documents but, read together, provide a masterly narrative account and a sustained theory of English party development.