Playing the Identity Card: from Brexit to Culture Wars
Recent academic and media interest has focused on the emergence of identity-based politics in the British political landscape, with the identity divide appearing as a new structuring factor, as blatantly exposed by the Brexit referendum. This article focuses on the ability, and the growing propensit...
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| Veröffentlicht in: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/osb, |
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Sprache: | Anglais |
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Observatoire de la société britannique
2024
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| Online Zugang: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Zusammenfassung: | Recent academic and media interest has focused on the emergence of identity-based politics in the British political landscape, with the identity divide appearing as a new structuring factor, as blatantly exposed by the Brexit referendum. This article focuses on the ability, and the growing propensity, of British right-wing political parties to play the identity card, to press this very button and activate identity conflict as a mobilizing factor, by opposing groups on grounds of social and cultural values, such as national identity and immigration, beyond traditional dividing lines such as economic redistribution. The aim is to explore how identity has been repeatedly mobilized by the right in recent years for electoral purposes, and with what effects. This begins with the UK Independence Party’s success in activating the identity divide and mobilizing identity conflicts in the years before the referendum. The second section focuses on how this mobilization of identity extended to the mainstream right and how the Conservative party reclaimed the identity card following the referendum, as the identity divide reshaped British politics and restructured party competition and the political parties' electorates. Finally, the third section explores how part of the right has been deliberately stimulating “a culture war” narrative in an attempt to maintain the identity divide holding together the Conservative 2019 electoral coalition of socially conservative voters. This raises the question of the potential impact of such a polarizing strategy, not only on the electorate and on wider social cohesion, but also on the Conservative party itself. |
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