A missing link in understanding Party policy change? Conservative Party international volunteering projects and UK development policy (2007–2017)

Abstract

This article analyses the rationale for and impacts of Conservative Party overseas volunteering projects from 2007 to 2017. Using interview data and participant observation, we uncover aims of project founders and explore impacts of volunteering on Party members and policy. We make three substantial contributions. The first focuses on the survival of Conservative Party modernisation strategies launched under David Cameron. Support for development, particularly Party pledges to spend 0.7% of UK gross national income on aid, are poorly explained by existing research. We argue that a focus on volunteering helps explain the survival of this commitment. Second, we argue that volunteering experience may support sustained Party policy change by enhancing ‘issue ownership’. Our final contribution is providing the first analysis of political parties as development-volunteer sending communities. Through new data and distinctive contributions, we demonstrate that understanding Party-supported volunteering promotes improved explanations of Party modernisation persistence and policy change.

Volunteering and Policy Makers: The Political Uses of the UK Conservative Party’s International Development Volunteering Projects

“…Instead, we argue that partaking in development volunteering projects has legitimised and normalised engagement with international development as part of the everyday political identity of Party members. This is a significant shift from the previous situation in the Party (Beswick and Hjort 2019). Finally, the ''Conclusion'' reiterates key claims and limitations.…”

“…The envisioned role of the volunteer champions was instead to support and defend this ongoing policy change. They would continue the work of Howard, Cameron, Mitchell and others, defending aid spending when under critique from the popular press or within their own ranks (Beswick and Hjort 2019). In such situations project organisers argued that the Party needed people in the 'Party, in parliament, in the volunteer membership, who could stand up and say, ''No, no, this is a good thing; this is in our national interests to do, it's the right thing to do'''.…”

“…The Party has continued to stake a strong claim to ownership of international development as a policy issue since achieving power in 2010 (in coalition with the Liberal Democrats) and again in 2015 and 2017, which suggests that commitment to the policy area was not a mere cosmetic exercise to win elections by changing the perception of the Party (Beswick and Hjort 2019). This is reflected in the development of a Conservative Vision for International Development, launched at the 2017 Party conference, and also in the June 2018 launch of the 'Coalition for Global Prosperity', a centre-right organisation led by former Umubano organiser and chair of the Conservative Friends of International Development, Theo Clarke.…”

“…We establish how this sending community has engaged with international development and, in this context, how development volunteering was deployed by the Party to support broader processes of Party modernisation and policy change. This is particularly important as the Party's commitment to international development is poorly explained by existing British Politics scholarship (Beswick and Hjort 2019). In the ''Methods'' section we discuss our data collection and analysis methods.…”