Tradition or Traditions?

Abstract

In recent years, renewed interest has been sparked in the concept of political tradition and its application to the study of British politics. Various authors operating from different methodological and normative perspectives (Bevir and Rhodes 2003; 2006a; Marsh and Hall 2007; Marquand 2008) have pointed to the centrality of political traditions in British political life. The concept of political tradition is by no means a new one in political analysis1 and it remains a contested one. However two interrelated developments have sparked renewed interest in it. Firstly, we have witnessed an increasing trend towards what Hay (2004) describes as ‘the ideational turn’ in Anglophone political science. In keeping with this trend those utilising political traditions as an explanatory variable focus explicitly on the ideas that underpin political practice. In doing so, they seek to remedy an oft-cited weakness of the available literature on British politics (Gamble 1990; McAnulla 2006a). Secondly the interpretivist work of Bevir and Rhodes and responses to it have re-focused attention onto the concept.