Merely the ‘art of winning elections’? Regrounding the statecraft interpretation of British politics

Abstract

Jim Bulpitt’s ‘statecraft interpretation’ has had considerable influence within British politics. At the same time, it has been subject to a number of criticisms which have remained unaddressed. In this article, I argue that narrow and partial engagement with Bulpitt’s work has led to a somewhat crude understanding of statecraft taking root within academic literature, which tends to frame statecraft as concerning ‘the art of winning elections’. In contrast to this, I offer a broader conceptualisation which seeks to reground the statecraft interpretation in a more thorough reading of Bulpitt’s key works, and engages with Bulpitt’s wider corpus as well as relevant wider literatures. This broader, more complex version of statecraft, I argue, is more in line with Bulpitt’s own project, has greater utility and applicability than the narrow view offered within existing literature, and is sensitive to the criticisms typically levelled at statecraft by its detractors.