The End of Politics

Infobox Book
name = The End of Politics
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image_caption = Book cover, 2006 ed.
author = Alexander Lee and Timothy Stanley
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language = English
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subject = Politics of the United Kingdom, Political theory
genre = non-fiction
publisher = Methuen (Politico's)
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media_type = Hardcover
pages = 194
isbn = ISBN 1842751743
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The End of Politics: Realignment and the Battle for the Centre Ground is a book authored by Timothy Stanley and Alexander Lee. Described as 'readable and profound' by political commentator Matthew Parris, the study argues that Tony Blair’s leadership of the Labour Party heralded an era of triangulation in modern British politics. As parties competed for the centre ground so they began to erode their traditional values and demographic support. This has created a fractured political process and encouraged previously loyal Labour or Conservative voters to identify with minority parties and pressure group politics. This process has been accelerated by the rise of a New Politics, which prioritises localism, managerialism and service provision over ideology and national identity.

The author’s take their evidence from the 2005 general election results, which saw an enormous increase in support for third and fourth party candidacies and a decline in traditional areas of electoral strength for both the Conservatives and Labour. They analyse each party in turn, looking at the impact of Triangulation upon their policies and the prospects for change. They warn that the rise of the Respect Coalition and the British National Party are the direct result of the loss of political identity and ideology in the mainstream parties.

Stanley and Lee argue for a politics based upon community and recognition of inter-dependence. The book is the first part of an ongoing exposition upon the philosophy of Communitarianism. Their work is highly critical of Liberalism and post-Enlightenment theory in general; rejecting materialism, individualism and government based on social contract.

Stanley and Lee are both political activists. Timothy Stanley stood for the Labour Party in Sevenoaks in 2005 and Alexander Lee was a member of the Conservative Party. They met while studying at Trinity College, Cambridge University.

Critical Reception

Widely-read in Westminster circles, "The End of Politics" has attracted interest and acclaim, and has influenced the development of the main parties' thought on future electoral strategy. The prominent political commentator Polly Toynbee commended the work for bringing "the insights of social science to contemporary political reality" and celebrated it as "a stimulating challenge to the Blairite (and Brownite!) modernisers". In the same vein, Daniel Finkelstein, then Comment Editor of The Times and a former Director of the Conservative Research Department, warmly welcomed its publication, affirming that ' [t] ime invested in reading "The End of Politics" will be time well spent...Every page has something worth reading.'

The influence of Lee and Stanley's work is evidenced by the number of other studies of trends in British political trends which have since been published with the same title. "The End of Politics" is also the title of a book by Chris Dillow, for example.