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This chapter begins by examining if there is evidence that a set of belief structures underlies the attitudes of party members. This is followed by an analysis of the sources of ideological variations in the grassroots party, paying particular attention to the social characteristics of members, as well as their political experiences and political roots. It is shown that there is a distinctive set of principles underlying Liberal Democrat political ideology. The ideology centres around individual freedom and tolerance in relation to lifestyle issues, a belief in redistribution and social equality, a commitment to free markets and a positive attitude to internationalism, as exemplified by members’ views of the European Union (EU).

The ‘Thatcher revolution’ and its continuation by New Labour make Britain a kind of master model for the neo-liberalization or Americanization of European welfare states. This chapter examines Britain’s new political economy and its links with immigration and ethnic diversity. The development of the specific model of state managed race relations and multiculturalism went parallel to the growth of inequality and the restructuring of the labour force according to the criteria of race, gender, human capital, and legal status. Current debates on the alleged threat from disaffected Muslim youth and the need for social cohesion arise from this failure of British multiculturalism to overcome barriers of race and class, and indicate a search for new forms of social control: less state in economic and social issues is matched by a stronger state in matters of identity and order.

This essay takes up Cohen’s inquiry into freedom and property. It celebrates his evocative example for its illustration of how property restricts the freedom of the majority for the sake of the freedom of the propertied. However, although Cohen’s insistence on a view of liberty that is not moralized is salutary in this debate, there is also some loss. There remains some moral appeal to the idea of possession even if freedom, suitably demoralized, is not at issue. Moreover, there is some risk that Cohen’s ‘denuded’ conception of liberty will fail to capture the significance of liberty and why we should care about it.

The Conclusion briefly returns to the main questions posed at the outset of the book, and offers two broad considerations in favour of a liberalism that is political and neither perfectionist nor comprehensive.

This chapter presents a theoretical framework to analyse the interaction between ‘history-making’ and ‘everyday’ practices of integration in the EU. The framework, based on liberal intergovernmentalism and institutionalised international governance, was applied to the Amsterdam Treaty as a plausibility test. The framework provided insights on how future politics of ‘everyday integration’ may interact with the ‘grand bargain’ of the Treaty, including the consequences of the 2000 intergovernmental conference.

This introductory chapter begins with a brief history of the British Liberal Democrat Party, followed by an examination of the evolution of its policy goals over time. The Liberal Democrat Party was founded in 1988 from a merger of two hitherto independent but allied parties: the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party. The former had existed in different forms for more than 300 years, whereas the latter emerged from a split in the Labour Party in 1981. An overview of the chapters included in this volume is presented.

This chapter examines the social and demographic profiles as well as the political attitudes of Liberal Democrat party members, drawing upon an earlier study of Liberal Democrat party to identify changes in their profiles during the 1990s. Comparisons are made between the social backgrounds of party members and those of Liberal Democrat voters to determine what differences, if any, exist between the two types of party supporters. Activism within the party and whether there is any evidence of a decline in participation in recent years are analyzed. The evidence suggests that while many party members are active, there has been a decline in party activism over time and a weakening of the ties between the party and its members.

This chapter examines the pathways to Liberal Democrat Party membership. The recruitment process is discussed, followed by what it means for the average respondent to be a party member. The key issue of why people join the party is then considered. In examining motives for joining, two theoretical models of political participation are utilized: the civic voluntarism model and the general incentives model. Both resources and choices are important in explaining why people join the party. Members have more resources in the sense of higher incomes, better educational attainments, and higher status class characteristics than voters, but incentives are also important for influencing the decision to join the party. Thus, both models appear to be relevant in explaining why people join.

This chapter examines grassroots activism in the Liberal Democrat Party. The results suggest that party activism can be explained by a combination of the individual’s psychological engagement with both politics and the party, together with their judgements about the costs and benefits of political engagement. Resources play a role in this, but it appears that incentives, and the choices associated with them, are particularly important in influencing the individual’s decision to be active.

This chapter examines the role of the Liberal Democrat Party members in influencing voting behaviour in the 1997 general elections. Debates in literature about the importance of campaigns in elections are reviewed. To evaluate the impact of Liberal Democrat campaign activity on the election, it is important to take into account the campaign activities of its main rivals, Labour and the Conservatives. This is done using data from a survey of Labour party members conducted in 1997, together with local campaign spending data for all three parties. The results suggest that local campaigning plays a very important role in influencing the Liberal Democrat vote.

This chapter begins by looking at long-term support in elections and in the polls for the Liberal Democrats, to see how it has evolved over the last half-century or so. This provides a context within which to judge the party’s future electoral prospects. The analysis of trends in Liberal Democrat voting intentions over a thirty-year period shows that the competitive situation between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats is significantly greater than the competitive situation between Labour and the Liberal Democrats. It also shows that the party has to wait for its main rivals to make political mistakes and lose support before it can profit by winning over voters. This is described as the political equivalent of ‘waiting for Godot’, meaning that the Liberal Democrats are not the masters of their own electoral fate.

This chapter examines the political prospects of the Liberal Democrat Party. The big question is whether or not it can replace its rivals as the second, or even the first, party of British electoral politics. It begins with an analysis of the necessary conditions for the Liberal Democrats to replace one of the other parties as the second party of British politics. This leads into an examination of the likelihood that these conditions will be met in the foreseeable future. The evidence suggests that the party has a real opportunity to break the existing two-party hegemony at a general election in 2009 or 2010.

How have liberal political theorists grappled with liberal democratic states’ sometimes competing commitments to sexual equality and accommodation of minority cultural groups? This chapter begins by offering a critique of the paradigm of toleration as a vehicle for reflecting on the accommodation of cultural minorities. It also engages liberal multiculturalism — work by Will Kymlicka, Brian Barry, and Susan Moller Okin — as well as more laissez-faire approaches to cultural accommodation, such as those of Chandran Kukathas, Jeff Spinner-Halev, and Jorge Valadez, critically evaluating their responses to the challenges presented when cultural arrangements (particularly of non-liberal cultural and religious minorities) conflict with sexual equality.

The chapter begins by taking stock of two decades of sophisticated intellectual debate by sociologists, political scientists, and philosophers about the nature and significance of nationalism. It then examines how nationalism may or may not be compatible with contemporary currents in liberal political theory, following in the footsteps of Will Kymlicka, Yael Tamir, David Miller, Jacob Levy, and others. It ends with an appendix evaluating Rogers Brubaker’s argument on why political theorists should avoid legitimizing the vocabulary of nationalists — including the category of ‘nation’ — when explaining nationalist movements.