Comparing British and American conservatisms through the prism of African development

ABSTRACT

Conservatism and conservative party politics in Britain and America is associated with neo-colonial attitudes, including pursuit of national interests ahead of post-colonial development. Based on interviews conducted in Washington and London with actors involved with African development, this article examines comparative shifts in conservatives’ engagements from the late Cold War era to the G. W. Bush and Cameron governments. Greater ideological heterogeneity and distinctiveness among American conservative interests groups, combined with a bureaucratic environment in the US allowing more direct channels for ideological input into policy, results in a more clearly conservative stamp on Africa policy in the US than in Britain where ideological lines on development have become more blurred since the 1997 New Labour election victory and the creation of the Department for International Development.

KEYWORDS:

• Conservatism
• ideology
• political parties
• Britain
• US
• development
• Africa

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Stefan Andreasson http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8443-7271

Notes

1 The classic approach is found in Arisotle’s Politics, which provides a comparative analysis of contemporary regimes and constitutions in attempting to answer the fundamental question of how men can best live together.

2 The Republican Party in the US and the Conservative Party in Britain are not synonymous with conservative ideology and politics in these two countries, respectively, but will where relevant be considered the effective vehicles through which conservative ideology is channelled into government policy.

3 Government by the Republican Party is defined here as those years in which the US president is a Republican and/or the Republican Party constitutes a majority in both chambers of Congress (House of Representatives and Senate).

4 See the appendix for a full list of individuals interviewed, including those that have been quoted directly, and their principal positions at the time of interview.

5 Although the first Cameron government from 2010 to 2015 saw the Conservative Party govern in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, all ministries relating most directly to relations with Africa, including secretaries of State (William Hague), Defence (Liam Fox and Philip Hammond) and International Development (Andrew Mitchell), were held by Conservative Party members.

6 For information on Project Umubano, see http://projectumubano.com and Beswick (2011).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a British Academy Small Research Grant, ‘Anglo-American Conservatism and 21st Century African Development’ (SG 2009-10 Round 2).