Labour party adaptation to multilevel politics: evidence from British general election manifestos
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Labour party adaptation to multilevel politics: evidence from British general election manifestos Lynn Bennie1 · Alistair Clark2
© Springer Nature Limited 2019
Abstract Some policy areas debated in British general elections are the responsibility of devolved institutions, not the UK parliament. Devolution means that state-wide parties produce different versions of their general election manifestos in the devolved territories. Deploying a multilevel party framework, this article examines intra-party variations in Labour’s manifesto content through an original study of British, Scottish and Welsh Labour party manifestos from 2001 to 2017. The analysis focuses on the content and structure of Labour’s general election manifestos across the UK. It examines the roles performed by these documents, revealing how the Labour party has responded to the challenges of devolution. The analysis highlights the variable speeds at which sub-state parties embrace autonomy. It finds that Welsh Labour is more inclined to diverge from the content of UK Labour manifestos than the Scottish party, suggesting Scottish Labour has been slow to understand the politics of national identity and reluctant to embrace opportunities created by devolution. The article has implications for three key literatures: approaches to manifesto analysis; the roles performed by party manifestos; and party adaptation in multilevel systems. Keywords UK Labour · Party manifestos · Multilevel politics · Party adaptation · Scotland · Wales
* Lynn Bennie [email protected] Alistair Clark [email protected] 1
Politics and International Relations, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
2
Politics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
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L. Bennie, A. Clark
Introduction Devolution means that distinct policy agendas exist in different parts of the UK, and many policies debated in UK general elections do not apply at the sub-state level. Consequently, state-wide parties produce different versions of their manifestos across the UK. It might therefore appear that the modern general election manifesto lacks a clear purpose in devolved settings. This article explores the extent of policy differentiation at the sub-state level in British Labour party manifestos and examines the role and relevance of these manifestos in a multilevel, devolved political system. This is important because the way in which state-wide parties handle policy divergence between the state and sub-state levels in their general election manifestos is an indication of how parties adapt to multilevel conditions. The British Labour party is of particular interest due to its central position as a state-wide party delivering and governing devolution in the UK. Since the early days of devolution, the electoral fortunes of Scottish Labour, Welsh Labour and the state-wide party have diverged markedly. Now only the third party in Scotland and in opposition at Westminster from 2010, Labour in Wales is a long-term party of government. The content of Labour’s gen
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