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Between One‐Nation Toryism and Neoliberalism: The Dilemmas of British Conservatism and Britain's Evolving Place in E urope
Author(s) -
Vail Mark I.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
jcms: journal of common market studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.54
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1468-5965
pISSN - 0021-9886
DOI - 10.1111/jcms.12206
Subject(s) - austerity , paternalism , neoliberalism (international relations) , ambivalence , conservatism , political economy , european union , political science , appeal , sociology , brexit , law , economics , politics , social psychology , economic policy , psychology
Prime Minister D avid C ameron's ambivalence about B ritain's role in the European Union stems from dilemmas within his C onservative P arty. Since the nineteenth century, British Conservatism had represented a comfortable synthesis of a soft B urkean traditionalism and class‐based paternalism with an effort to expand the party's appeal to the working class. Thatcher's aggressive neoliberal challenge to this tradition never truly displaced the older paternalistic sense of noblesse oblige or the preference for societal consensus and incremental change. Instead, the two elements came into an uneasy coexistence that has informed Tory ambivalence about the EU . This article argues that Cameron's gradual distancing of Britain from the EU has paralleled his championing of economic austerity at home. It argues further that Cameron's policy‐making response to the post‐2007 economic downturn and European debt crisis can best be understood as a reflection of unresolved tensions within British Conservative thought.