Ideologies, Power and the Politics of Punishment: The Case of the British Conservative Party

Guiney, Thomas

Abstract

Recent scholarship has underscored the limitations of a theoretical repertoire that reduces the politics of punishment to debates over punitiveness, neoliberalism or penal exceptionalism. In this paper I argue that greater understanding of the dynamic interplay between ideologies and power can provide a richer account of the complex and contradictory landscapes of contemporary penal politics. I seek to show that political parties occupy a prominent position within representative systems of government and this mediating role, at the intersection between ideology and power, is closely associated with the production of penal policy outcomes. Reflecting upon the recent history of the British Conservative Party, I conclude that the politics of punishment is shaped, not only by inter-party competition (and consensus), but the dynamics of intra-party conflict.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 26, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Sep 16, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022-09
• Deposit Date: Feb 3, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 17, 2024
• Journal: British Journal of Criminology
• Print ISSN: 0007-0955
• Electronic ISSN: 1464-3529
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 62
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 1158-1174
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azac031
• Keywords: factionalism, ideology, law & order, penal policy, political parties, punishment
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/7279578
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article/62/5/1158/6702054
• Additional Information: This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in The British Journal of Criminology following peer review. The version of record Thomas Guiney, Ideologies, Power and the Politics of Punishment: The Case of the British Conservative Party, The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 62, Issue 5, September 2022, Pages 1158–1174, is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azac031