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This article examines Parliament's use of storytelling techniques as a means of representing itself to citizens, and representing citizens to themselves. It does so with reference to the 'constructivist turn' in representation literature—particularly its emphasis on co-constitutive meaning-making—which, as this article shows, is also applicable to studies of engagement and narrative. Storytelling constitutes a vital means of engagement, yet has hitherto received insufficient scholarly attention within a parliamentary context. This lacuna is all the more significant when considering the emotional and often informal means of participation that increasingly characterise the UK's political landscape. In relating storytelling to parliamentary engagement (and emphasising the co-constitutive qualities of both), an innovative visual analogy (based on fractals) will illustrate the conductivity of storytelling to two pursuits: Parliament's attempts to represent itself within the political sphere, and its claims to be relevant to citizens. Both of these pursuits represent key tenets of Parliament's responsibility to engage, and to mediate between citizens and governance. Through the theoretical lens presented here, Parliament's attempts to engage through storytelling will be examined according to the techniques used, and their likelihood of reaching an audience that, in constructivist terms, is created through this act of representation.

A major new account of Britain's military strategy between 1914-1945, including the two world wars and everything between The First and Second World Wars were separated by a mere two decades, making the period 1914-1945 an unprecedentedly intense and violent era of history. But how did Britain develop its complex military strategy during these wars, and how were decisions made by those at the top? Robin Prior examines the influence politicians had on military operations, in the first history to assess both world wars together. Drawing uniquely on both military and political archives and previously unexamined sources Prior explores the fraught relationships between civilian and military leaders: from Lloyd George's remarkably interventionist stance on military tactics during the First World War to Churchill's near-constant arguments with American leaders during the Second. Conquer We Must tells the complex story of this military decision-making, revealing how politicians attempted to control strategy-but had little influence on how the army, navy, and air force actually fought

Political interest is the strongest predictor of 'good citizenship', yet hardly anything is known about it. For the first time in over three decades, here is a study explaining what political interest is, where it comes from, and why it matters. Providing the most thorough description available of political interest in four Western democracies this study analyzes large household panel data sets rarely used in political science to explain how interest develops in people's lives. In an accessible manner, the book's analytical approach pushes applied social scientists to consider how panel data can be used to better understand political behavior. It does so in a way that doesn't gloss over complexities, and explains them in straightforward language. Advanced statistical methods are presented informally, accompanied by graphical illustrations that require no prior knowledge to understand the methods used

The failure of the left in Britain to achieve its objectives in the past, and the rapidly changing nature of popular involvement in politics in recent years, both suggest the need for a reappraisal of socialist strategy in the 1980s. The Popular and the Political explores the need to redefine socialism in terms which extend beyond 'statism', which has been the mark of both the social democracy of the last two Labour government and the Marxist left, and which reflect the changing nature of contemporary Britain.The essays presented here consider social policy in a wide range o