The Greens in British Politics : Protest, Anti-Austerity and the Divided Left

This book explains how the Greens went from obscurity to England's third largest party in just one year, quadrupling their vote share and securing their place in Britain's refigured party system on the way. Sophisticated quantitative analyses of the Greens' voters and members as well as interviews with all of the leading party insiders are used to explain how internal dynamics, changing political opportunities and a forgotten portion of the electorate resulted in an unprecedented 'Green Surge' that defied decades of British party membership decline and a lack of historic far left electoral success in the UK. Not only does James Dennison untangle a fascinating political case study but he also shines a light on how technological, attitudinal and demographic changes are reshaping politics and forcing us to question many of our previous assumptions about political parties and how voters choose. James Dennison is a researcher at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, where he works on British and European political participation, electoral behaviour and Green politics. He has previously held positions at the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics and also teaches at the University of Sheffield Acknowledgements 5 Contents 7 List of Figures 8 Chapter 1: The Rise of the Greens in British Politics 10 What Rise? 12 An Unlikely Rise 15 Explaining the Rise of the Greens in Britain 16 Notes 18 Bibliography 19 Chapter 2: Usual Low in an Increasingly Favourable Context 20 Coalition, Cuts and Compliance 27 The Labour Party and Mr Milibiguous 30 The UKIPisation of British Politics 34 Notes 38 Bibliography 41 Chapter 3: ‘Green Spike’: European Elections to Independence Referendum 43 2014 European and Local Elections 44 Organisational Change: Amateur-activists to Professional-Electoralists? 50 The Green ‘Yes’ to Scottish Independence: A Route to a Fairer Society 57 Notes 66 Bibliography 69 Chapter 4: ‘Green Surge’: Becoming England’s Third Largest Party 71 The Debate Over the Debates 72 Who Were the Surgers and Why Did They Join? 76 Increased Resources From the Surge 85 Notes 88 Bibliography 90 Chapter 5: Car Crashes, Campaigning and Partial Decline 91 From Discovery to Scrutiny 92 The Television Debates 95 Bennett as a Leader 97 From Personality to Policies 99 Constituency Campaigns 106 Notes 111 Bibliography 114 Chapter 6: Who Voted Green and Why? 115 The Results 115 What We Already Know 117 Who Votes Green 119 Why Voters Chose the Greens 121 Leader, Competence and Contact Effects 126 Notes 128 Bibliography 129 Chapter 7: Explaining Constituency-Level Green Success 130 Determinants of Green Party Constituency Vote Share 130 Notes 138 Bibliography 140 Chapter 8: Conclusion: Protest, Anti-Austerity and the Divided Left 141 Notes 151 Bibliography 151 Bibliography 152 Index 153 This book explains how the Greens went from obscurity to England’s third largest party in just one year, quadrupling their vote share and securing their place in Britain’s refigured party system on the way. Sophisticated quantitative analyses of the Greens’ voters and members as well as interviews with all of the leading party insiders are used to explain how internal dynamics, changing political opportunities and a forgotten portion of the electorate resulted in an unprecedented ‘Green Surge’ that defied decades of British party membership decline and a lack of historic far left electoral success in the UK. Not only does James Dennison untangle a fascinating political case study but he also shines a light on how technological, attitudinal and demographic changes are reshaping politics and forcing us to question many of our previous assumptions about political parties and how voters choose.-- Provided by Publisher Front Matter....Pages i-x The Rise of the Greens in British Politics....Pages 1-10 Usual Low in an Increasingly Favourable Context....Pages 11-33 ‘Green Spike’: European Elections to Independence Referendum....Pages 35-62 ‘Green Surge’: Becoming England’s Third Largest Party....Pages 63-82 Car Crashes, Campaigning and Partial Decline....Pages 83-106 Who Voted Green and Why?....Pages 107-121 Explaining Constituency-Level Green Success....Pages 123-133 Conclusion: Protest, Anti-Austerity and the Divided Left....Pages 135-145 Back Matter....Pages 147-151