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The economic consequences of a hung parliament : lessons from February 1974

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Rogers, Christopher James. (2010) The economic consequences of a hung parliament : lessons from February 1974. Political Quarterly, The, Vol.81 (No.4). pp. 501-510. ISSN 0032-3179

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-923X.2010.02119.x

Abstract

The British general election on 10 May 2010 delivered Britain’s first hung Parliament since February 1974, and in the run-up, the Conservative Party made much of the economic difficulties Britain faced in the second half of the 1970s in order to try and convince voters that anything other than a Tory vote would risk exposing the nation to the discipline of financial markets. The question of how well equipped an exceptional kind of British government is to deal with exceptional economic circumstances is therefore of paramount importance. This paper argues that the Conservative Party made too much of the impact of the 1974 hung Parliament in precipitating subsequent economic crisis and suggests that as such, there is no reason to assume that the Conservative-Liberal coalition government is ill-equipped to manage British economic affairs in difficult circumstances.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Coalition governments -- Great Britain, Great Britain -- Economic conditions -- 1964-1979, Great Britain -- Economic conditions -- 1997-, Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1964-1979, Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 2007-, Great Britain. Parliament -- Elections, 1974, Great Britain. Parliament -- Elections, 2010
Journal or Publication Title:	Political Quarterly, The
Publisher:	Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
ISSN:	0032-3179
Date:	October 2010
Volume:	Vol.81
Number:	No.4
Page Range:	pp. 501-510
Identification Number:	10.1111/j.1467-923X.2010.02119.x
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
Funder:	Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC)
Grant number:	PTA 026-27-2503 (ESRC)
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/4275