Abstract
The question of leadership in contemporary Western democracies is a fascinating subject for the historian as it explores the emergence of a man or woman inside a party and the unique relationship he or she builds with the people. Leadership is commonly associated to Max Weber’s theory of ‘charismatic leadership’ (Weber, 1995) and according to the French philosopher Jean-Claude Monod there is a persistence of the politics of charisma in contemporary democracies. (Monod, 2012: 58) Thus, leadership seems to be essentially construed around positive notions of power, success, domination and authority. Yet there exist other forms of leadership worthy of analytical exploration and the rationale of this article will be the failed leadership of the British Prime Minister Edward Heath. Edward Heath was leader of the Conservative party for ten years, Prime Minister for four years and member of parliament for nearly 50 years. Yet, today few people remember Edward Heath. The Conservative pantheon is inhabited by the great and imposing figures of Churchill, Macmillan or Thatcher but Heath has completely disappeared from the Conservative memory. At the heart of this exclusion lies the utter and complete disaster of his years in power. Yet, Heath was certainly a pioneer in many domains. He was the man who first talked of a devolved assembly in Scotland, the man who had Britain join the European Union in 1973, the man who launched a comprehensive reform of trade unions well before Margaret Thatcher. But history only retains his failures and broken promises.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
Work cited
Primary sources: Conservative Party Archives
PPB 12: Speeches by Edward Heath, 1964–65
PPB 16–7: Speeches by Edward Heath, 1968–69
CCO 4/10/150: Criticism of leader, 30 November 1967
CCO 4/10/152: Heath’s message, 15 December 1967
CCO 20/8/9: Correspondence with Edward Heath, 20 January 1966
CCO 20/8/10: Correspondence with Edward Heath, 12 June 1967
CCO 20/8/12: Correspondence with Edward Heath, 8 July 1968
CCO 600/12/7: Putting Britain Right Ahead, A Statement of Conservative Aims, London, Conservative Political Centre, 1965
LCC papers: 1970
British Press
The Economist, 31 July 1965
——, 9 October 1965
——, 28 January 1968
The Spectator, 15 October 1965
——, 14 January 1966
The Times, 11 September 1965
——, 23 April 1968
——, 16 May 1970
Official publication
Hansard, 21 December 1965, 722/1889
Autobiographies, memoirs and diaries
Benn, T. (1988) Out of Wilderness: Diaries 1963–1967 (London: Arrow).
Heath, E. (1988) The Course of My Life (London: Hodder & Stoughton).
Hurd, D. (1979) An End to Promises, Sketch of a Government 1970–74 (London: Collins).
Secondary sources
Bale, T. (2010) The Conservative Party from Thatcher to Cameron (Cambridge: Polity).
Ball, S., Seldon, A. (eds) (1996) The Heath Government 1970–1974: A Reappraisal (London and New York: Longman).
Ball, S., Seldon, A. (eds) (2005) Recovering Power: The Conservatives in Opposition Since 1867 (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan).
Blake, R. (1985) The Conservative Party from Peel to Thatcher (London: Fontana Press).
Bogdanor, V. (1979) Devolution (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Campbell, J. (1993) Edward Heath: A Biography (London: Pimlico).
Lord Coleraine (1970) For Conservatives Only (London: Tom Stacey Ltd.).
Freeden, M. (1996) Ideologies and Political Theory (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
Gamble, A. (1974) The Conservative Nation (London and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul).
Green, E.H.H (2002) Ideologies of Conservatism: Conservative Political Ideas in the Twentieth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Greenleal, W.H. (1983) The British Political Tradition, vol. 1: The Rise of Collectivism (London: Routledge).
——, The British Political Tradition, vol. 2: The Ideological Heritage (London: Routledge).
Heath, E. (1968) Old World, New Horizons: Britain, Europe, and the Atlantic Alliance (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).
Heppell, T. (2008) Choosing the Tory Leader: Conservative Party Leadership Elections from Heath to Cameron (London and New York: Tauris Academic Studies).
Jessop, B. (1974) Traditionalism: Conservatism and British Political Culture (London: Allen & Unwin).
Layton-Henry, Z. (ed.) (1980) Conservative Party Politics (London and Basingstoke: Macmillan Press Ltd).
MacShane, D. (2006) Heath (London: Haus Publishing).
Monod, J.-C. (2012) Qu’est-ce qu’un chef en démocratie? Politiques du charisme (Paris: Editions du Seuil).
Norton, P., Aughey, A. (1981) Conservatives and Conservatism (London: Temple Smith).
Ramsden, J. (1980) The Making of Conservative Party Policy: The Conservative Research Department Since 1929 (London and New York: Longman).
——, (1996), The Winds of Change, Macmillan to Heath 1957–75, (London and New York: Longman).
Roth, A. (1972) Heath and the Heathmen (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul).
Sandbrook, D. (2006) White Heat: A History of Britain in the 1960s (London: Abacus).
Scruton, R. (1980) The Meaning of Conservatism (London: Macmillan).
Skowronek, S. (1993) The Politics Presidents Make: Leadership from John Adams to George Bush (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).
Weber, M. (1995) Economie et Société (Paris: Plon).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 Laetitia Langlois
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Langlois, L. (2015). Edward Heath: The Failed Leadership of an Uninspiring Leader. In: Alexandre-Collier, A., de Chantal, F.V. (eds) Leadership and Uncertainty Management in Politics. Palgrave Studies in Political Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137439246_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137439246_15
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-56492-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-43924-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political Science CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)