The Conservative Party and a changing electorate

The Conservative modernisation effort over the period of Cameron’s leadership needs to be placed against the backdrop of important changes in British electoral politics. These changes include voter dealignment, a growing dissatisfaction with the major parties as too similar to each other, voter volatility and a willingness to support minor parties. If the Cameron-led modernisation programme’s electoral goal was to broaden the Party’s appeal, to reach out to ethnic minority voters, younger voters, women, and voters throughout the United Kingdom then the record of accomplishment is modest. If, on the other hand, the modernisation project is understood as restoring the Party’s reputation as the party of managerial competence then it may have worked. Cameron’s modernisation approach from an electoral perspective may be best understood as pragmatic inclusiveness. In an era of when many voters are discontented but for different reasons this approach to modernisation may have helped return the Conservatives to power.