A historical ethnography of David Cameron’s Court

This book examines the contemporary relevance of the concept of the core executive across a range of constitutional contexts, covering examples from Westminster system, continental Europe, and Scandinavia.

Much study of core executives focuses exclusively on the Westminster system, but this book expands that scope to take into account nations where coalition government has been the norm for decades.

Focusing on the interaction between the political and administrative executives, the book addresses tensions between the two that have become increasingly apparent in an age of populism and mediatisation.

Rod Rhodes wrote three chapters and for students of ethnography the most relevant is:

Court Politics in an Age of Austerity: David Cameron’s Court, 2010–2016

This chapter is an exercise in historical ethnography and focuses on the ‘backstage’ politics of decision-making in élite networks, rather than the more common focus on the ‘front stage’ politics in the media spotlight. Court politics are commonplace but rarely analysed. The example is the court of David Cameron, UK Prime Minister (2010–2016). It describes systematically the practices of the court ‘in action’. It explains why court politics matter by looking at the consequences of those actions.

First, I describe my method—the thematic analysis of inside dopester accounts. Second, it describes the membership, and analyse the practices, of David Cameron’s court, covering its personnel; the PM’s tradecraft; storytelling; reshuffles, resignations and leadership challenges; the political games of barons, especially lying; informality; infighting; loyalty, betrayal, leaks and revenge; and rituals, focusing on language, gossip, humour and bullying. Finally, it explores the consequences of his court’s practices.

Rod Rhodes’s latest publications are in:

Kristoffer Kolltveit and Richard Shaw (Eds.) Core Executives in a Comparative Perspective: Governing in Complex Times . Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.