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Ending in Failure? The Performance of ‘Takeover’ Prime Ministers 1916–2016
Author(s) -
Worthy Ben
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the political quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.373
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1467-923X
pISSN - 0032-3179
DOI - 10.1111/1467-923x.12311
Subject(s) - victory , prime minister , prime (order theory) , power (physics) , prime time , face (sociological concept) , political science , general election , law , political economy , politics , economics , sociology , mathematics , social science , physics , quantum mechanics , combinatorics
When Theresa May became Prime Minister in July 2016, she joined a list of eleven previous UK takeover leaders in the past 100 years. While the popular image is of Prime Ministers arriving in power after a general election victory, more than half of the Prime Ministers who governed since 1916 have acceded as ‘takeover leaders’ through an internal party process. This article analyses how such takeover leaders perform, concluding that May is likely to face greater obstacles and enjoy fewer advantages than if she had been popularly elected. Takeover leaders have less time in power and less chance of winning subsequent elections, and are generally rated as worse‐performing.