New Administration, New Immigration Regime

Do Parties Matter After All? A UK Case Study

Bibliographic Data

ID6407518
AuthorsJames Hampshire (0000-0003-3726-5451), Tim Bale (0000-0001-5917-1312)
Year2015
Volume38
Issue1
Pages145-166
Publication date2015-01-02
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueWest European Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0140-2382 • E-ISSN: 1743-9655
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01402382.2014.925735
OpenAlexW1998119154
LanguageEN
Citations received27
References cited35

Research on the impact of parties on public policy, and on immigration policy in particular, often finds limited evidence of partisan influence. In this paper, we examine immigration policy-making in the UK coalition government. Our case provides evidence that parties in government can have more of an impact on policy than previous studies acknowledge, but this only becomes apparent when we open up the 'black box' between election outcomes and policy outputs. By examining how, when and why election pledges are turned into government policies, we show that partisan influence depends not only on dynamics between the coalition partners, but how these dynamics interact with interdepartmental conflicts and lobbying by organised interests. In-depth process tracing allows us to see these complex dynamics, which easily get lost in large-n comparisons of pledges and outputs, let alone outcomes

Administration (probate law · Coalition government · Dynamics (music · Economics · Government (linguistics · Immigration · Immigration policy · Policy making · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Process tracing · Public economics · Public policy · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Public Administration

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub