Tag Archives: ucl constitution unit

The Politics of Coalition: How the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Government Works

Robert Hazell and Ben Yong’s work, The Politics of Coalition: How the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Government Works, is a very readable volume, written mostly in the style of an introductory politics textbook and based on extensive interviews with the participants, including at very senior levels.

The book is well done, readable, comprehensive and has a few gems lurking in the revelations from all the interviews, such as the limited involvement of Andrew Lansley and Paul Burstow in drafting the health section of the Coalition Agreement.

Posted in Books | Also tagged , , , , , , , and | Leave a comment

Is 75% of the Coalition Agreement drawn from the Lib Dem manifesto? Alas, no…

One of the key justifications for Lib Dem involvement in the Coalition — one which has comforted many party members through the first two difficult years of being the junior partner in government with the Conservatives — has been the finding that 75% of the Lib Dem manifesto appeared in the Programme for Government (commonly known as the Coalition Agreement). This assessment was based on research by UCL’s Constitution Unit, and published a year ago in their interim report on ‘How Coalition Government Works’ (PDF).

However, UCL has …

Posted in News and What do the academics say? | Also tagged , , , and | 29 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • David Evans
    Indeed Jana, I am sad to point out that any party that proposes that they should be funded by public money, will soon find out how quickly the electorate make i...
  • Jana
    The 2 big parties - Labour and Conservative - spent almost £55 Million between them during the 2024 General election while ReformUK could only afford to spend ...
  • Steve Trevethan
    Thanks for a most relevant and interesting article! Might the following policies be liberal in their content and democratic in their practices? 1) Univers...
  • Owen Driscoll
    The party needs to ditch fairness and the veil of ignorance. And focus more on Mills harm principles instead of Rawls. Rawls is deontological, Mill is consequen...
  • Adam
    "Labour and the Greens want to do things for you, the Conservatives and Reform want to do things to you, but the Liberal Democrats want to do things along with ...