This book has been revised and updated in the light of events of the 1980s including Margaret Thatcher's third election victory and a large amount of material on public policy. To reduce the possibilities of generalizations, the author has drawn on the experiences of England under confident Conservative and Labour governments as well as governments that have lost that confidence. In this book, he attempts to present government and politics as two inter-related parts of the practice of representative government. In addition to data and evidence drawn from published books and articles, information has been derived from the Gallop Poll, the British Election Survey, Market and Opinion Research International and the National Opinion Polls. The author has written many political studies the most recent being "Must Labour Lose" (with Mark Abrahams) and "The British General Election of 1959". (with D.E.Butler)