The concept of the political legacy, despite its importance for institutionalist and historically-minded political analysts more generally, remains both elusive and undeveloped theoretically. This book seeks to address that oversight by building on existing studies which have approached the notion of a legacy to offer a clear definition and operationalisation of the term which might be used to inform future research. Legacies we view as traces of the past in the present; the claim to the existence of a legacy is both a causal and a counter-factual claim. We propose, in the light of this, a multi-dimensional approach to gauging political legacies, reflecting on some of the theoretical, analytical and methodological concerns which need to be addressed in establishing credible claims to their existence. These we develop and illustrate with respect to the literature on Thatcherism.

Develops thinking around political legacies Introduces a way of assessing legacies Applies this to the case study of Margaret Thatcher

Autorentext

Vickie Barrett is Lecturer in Criminology in the Department of Behavioural and Social Sciences at the University of Huddersfield, UK. She worked as a teacher and a probation officer before returning to academia to undertake her PhD at the University of Sheffield. Emily Gray is Assistant Professor of Criminology at the University of Warwick in the Sociology Department, UK. She is a mixed methods researcher who specialises in examining long-term trends in relation to crime, politics and society. Stephen Farrall is Professor of Criminology in the School of Sociology & Social Policy at the University of Nottingham, UK. His recent book Respectable Citizens - Shady Practices (OUP, 2020) won the Outstanding Book Award from the American Society of Criminology's Division of White-Collar and Corporate Crime.

Inhalt
Chapter One: Tracing the Past in the Present: Defining and Operationalising the Concept of Political Legacy.- Chapter Two: Political Generations and the Fear of Crime.- Chapter Three: Housing Law, Household Victimisation and the Spatial Reconfiguration of Property Crime.- Chapter Four: Rising Punitiveness in the English & Welsh Criminal Justice System.- Chapter Five: Conclusion.