The Parliamentary Conservative Party : the leadership elections of William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith
The aim of this research is to investigate the post1997 Parliamentary Conservative Party, with 
particular attention placed upon the Conservative Party leadership election of 1997 and 2001. 
The thesis uses these two leadership elections as a lens which can be utilised to focus upon and 
analyse the ideological disputations of contemporary British Conservatism. This is done by 
identifying the voting behaviour of Conservative parliamentarians in the two leadership elections 
and then by putting forwards a systemic explanation of the candidates’ support. Three sets of 
variables are tested. First, the thesis analyses socio-economic variables (i.e. the occupational and 
educational background of conservative parliamentarians). Second, the research considers the 
candidates’ support in relation to electoral and political variables (i.e. electoral vulnerability, 
political insider / outsider status, age and experience). Finally the research will evaluate the 
candidates’ support with regard to the ideological disposition of the candidates and their 
supporters. This requires an extensive exploration of the attitudes of Conservative 
parliamentarians with regard to the dominant ideological divides within contemporary post- 
Thatcherite Conservatism – economic policy (wet / dry), European policy (europhile / 
eurosceptic), and social, sexual and moral attitudes (social liberalism / social conservatism). By 
analysing the patterns of voting in relation to social background, political attributes and 
ideological disposition the thesis locates and interprets the differing motivational influences on 
voting behaviour. 
The thesis argues the ideological disposition of the candidates and their supporters was the 
crucial factor in both the leadership elections. The final round of the 1997 leadership election 
was a straight ideological battle between the europhile and eurosceptic wings of the 
parliamentary Conservative Party. This benefited the eurosceptic William Hague at the expense 
of the europhile Kenneth Clarke. In 2001 both Clarke and Portillo attracted support from across 
the ideological spectrum of the parliamentary party, suggesting that a section of the 
parliamentary party had moved away from ideologically driven voting behaviour. However, Iain 
Duncan Smith reaching the final ballot was due to the support of an ideologically cohesive group 
of traditional Thatcherite MPs and indicative of the continued significance of ideology on the 
direction of the Conservative party.
The Conservative Party and social justice policy 1997–2010: an historical institutionalist analysis
This thesis uses Historical Institutionalism (HI) to explain why social justice policy became an important focus for change in the 1997-2010 Conservative Party, how this policy changed, and why radical ideological change did not take place. Utilising interviews with mid- and elite-level Party actors, and analysis of policy publications, this thesis maps the restrictive and enabling effect of material and ideational institutional structures. It introduces new HI theoretical mechanisms of path tendency within path dependency, and confluence junctures, as key processes; neutral and mimicry invasion as key sources of new policy; and policy and institutional entrepreneurs as key types of actor. It couples these newly defined terms to present mechanisms in HI to offer an explanation that down-plays Cameron as a significant break from past ideological practice: rather there has been broad continuity throughout the opposition period, which, rather than being restrictive, has facilitated incremental policy change, largely emerging slowly from mid-level actors in the Party. The thesis contributes to debates in the study of British politics by offering a theoretical and institutionally focused explanation rather than prioritising more descriptive and personality focused work. It also develops HI and improves its explanation of incremental change in a non-crisis institutional environment.
The Internet and the Changing Beijing-Taipei Relations: Toward Unification or Fragmentation?
Information and its technologies facilitate the exercise of what has been called “soft power,” a concept that differentiates information from the conventional dimensions of “hard power,” which is mainly associated with military force and economic influence. Soft power, according to Nye, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense of the United States, means that “A country may obtain the outcomes it wants in world politics because other countries want to follow it, admiring its values, emulating its example, aspiring to its level of prosperity and openness. In this sense it is just as important to set the agenda in world politics and attract others as it is to force them to change through the threat or use of military or economic weapons.”1