5 Marker What Is The Doctrine Of A Mand

What is the doctrine of a mandate? (5 marks)
In a general sense the word mandate means that an individual or group has authority or permission to act, and that their actions are legitimate.
From a political perspective the doctrine of a mandate had the following connotations.
A political mandate grants authority to the winning party at an election to form a government; this mandate may come from obtaining a majority of seats
The winning party has the mandate to implement the policy options it outlined in its previous election manifesto
It had been the Salisbury convention that the House of Lords should not and would not contest any policy set out in a winning party’s manifesto but was at liberty to challenge the ruling party when it deviated with new policy options from its manifesto pledges, here arguing that no mandate on this undisclosed area was in existence
The concept of the mandate has been extended to cover the fact that a government can have a mandate to carry out whatever actions it sees to be in the best interest of the state; this may be referred to as ‘the doctor’s mandate’.

Thatcher’s Strong Mandates
UK General Election 1979

Candidates
Votes

Party
Standing
Elected
Gained
Unseated
Net
% of total %
No.
Net %

Conservative
622
339
63
1
+ 62
53.4%
43.9
13,697,923
+ 8.1

Labour
623
269
4
54
- 50
42.4%
36.9
11,532,218
- 2.3

Liberal
577
11
1
3
- 2
1.7%
13.8
4,313,804
- 4.5

United Kingdom General Election 1983

Candidates
Votes

Party
Standing
Elected
Gained
Unseated
Net
% of total %
No.
Net %

Conservative
633
397
47
10
+ 37
61.1
42.4
13,012,316
- 1.5

Labour
633
209
4
55
- 51
32.2
27.6
8,456,934
- 9.3

SDP–Liberal Alliance
633
23
14
0
+ 14
3.5
25.4
7,780,949
+ 11.6

SNP
72
2
0
0
0
0.3
1.1
331,975
- 0.5

UK general election 1987

Candidates
Votes

Party
Standing
Elected
Gained
Unseated
Net
% of total %
No.
Net %

Conservative
633
376
9
30
– 21
57.8
42.2
13,760,935
– 0.2