ABSTRACT
The Conservative and Unionist Party has dominated British electoral politics for over a hundred years and is one of the most durable political organizations in twentieth-century Europe. Conservatives have formed the largest single group in all but six of the twenty Parliaments elected since the end of the First World War and by 1994 Conservative prime ministers had resided in 10 Downing Street for sixtythree years this century. In 1992 the party won a fourth consecutive term in office, a victory that has no precedent in modern times and meant that by the end of the new Parliament the Conservatives would have been in office continuously for eighteen years, the longest period of one-party government since the 1832 Reform Act. In part, this success reflects the nature of the British electoral system. At no time since 1945 has the Conservative Party won a majority of the total votes cast in Great Britain and its electoral base is increasingly concentrated in the more prosperous regions of England.1 Yet its electoral performance is by any standards, national or international, impressive. In 1992 the Conservatives won the highest number of votes ever obtained by a party in a British general election.
