Presidents and prime ministers: conviction politics in the Anglo-American tradition

Abstract

I am a conviction politician declared Margaret Thatcher in 1979, and her stand against consensus politics won immediate endorsement from Ronald Reagan. Both promised to provide strong leadership, establish new priorities and restore fundamental principles to national politics. To many they appeared to form a transatlantic partnership, but they were not the first. Looking back over 200 years of political history, Patricia Lee Sykes examines presidents and prime ministers to show how idealistic leaders have challenged liberal ideas and institutions within the Anglo-American tradition, and in the process have altered the political landscape. She reveals how conviction-style politicians have appeared in the US and UK at the same time: individuals who articulated similar ideas that adapted liberal ideology to shifting circumstances and who achieved fundamental change at critical moments in their nation's history. The comparative study of chief executives examines not only Reagan and Thatcher, but also three other pairs of leaders who used moral rhetoric to challenge the status quo: Woodrow Wilson and David Lloyd George; Grover Cleveland and William Gladstone; and Andrew Jackson and Robert Peel. Sykes discusses each pair, describing their leadership styles and their roles in the liberal tradition. She then analyzes the mercurial context of conviction politics over time to show when party politics, the media, the state, or global affairs can prevent even the most visionary of leaders from enacting their programmes. Sykes also charts an increasing convergence of political practice and philosophy in the two countries - particularly with the presidentialization of the prime minister - and tracks the tensions created between executive authority, individual freedom and the public good when leaders purposefully avoid consensus to pursue their own lofty visions.