ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the dynamic interaction of the various forces of franchise, class consciousness, doctrine and organisation. It explains the rapidly changing fortunes of the parties as they struggled to address the challenges of collectivism, mass democracy, war and economic uncertainty. The mid-1880s inaugurated a new era of party alignments built around redefined doctrinal cleavages. The party sentiment which mattered so much to late Victorians and Edwardians continued to dominate British political life for much of the twentieth century. Yet despite Cokes frequently repeated assertion that the British party system has existed 'since time immemorial', the development of parties and the party system in Britain into a recognisably modern form has long been the subject of intense controversy among historians.
