Statecraft (political science)
winning and maintaining power.
Statecraft is an approach to the study
of political science and public
administration that was first developed
by Jim Bulpitt. It understands politics and
policy making in a polity by focusing on
governing challenges and strategic choices
by the leadership at the top of government.
Later scholars used the approach to develop
a neo-statecraft approach which could be
used to understand politics and policy
making across many political systems.
Contents
 1Origins
 2Neo-Statecraft Theory
 3Applications
 4References
Origins
The origins of statecraft theory is in the work
of British academic Jim Bulpitt. He argued
that the UK Conservative
party governments of the early 1980s, under
the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, were
not motivated by ideological position.
Instead, he controversially argued that they
were motivated by winning power. What
motivates politicians, he argued, was their
objective of statecraft. This was defined as
the ‘art of winning elections and art of
winning elections and achieving some
necessary degree of governing competence
in office’..
In response to criticisms of the approach,
later scholars sought to reflect on the
philosophical underpinnings, provided more
information about how it could be applied
using empirical research and introduced new
concepts. The term neo-statecraft was
coined to capture the revised approach.
Neo-Statecraft Theory
The more recent neo-statecraft variant has a
number of core assumptions.
1. The primary focus is on the political
leader of the state and their closest
advisers. The group is referred to as
the leadership 'Court'.
2. The Court is a unitary, rational and
self-interested actor with the
primary governing objective of
Rather than seeking to achieve any
ideological goals, the Court seeks to
achieve statecraft.
3. In order to achieve statecraft, they
have to undertake five key tasks
Governing competence –
governments and leaders need to be
seen as competent at managing the
country’s affairs, particularly the
economy.
Party management – managing
parliamentary backbenchers,
constituency associations and
pressure groups carefully.
Developing a winning electoral
strategy – creating a set of policies
and image that creates momentum in
the polls.
Political argument hegemony –
winning the battle of ideas in elite
debates
Bending the rules of the game – they
will seek to tilt the political game by
introducing constitutional reforms
that makes statecraft easier.
The Court will will find itself in a
strategically selective context, which
might make statecraft easier or more
difficult to achieve. It has been argued,
for example, that Gordon Brown faced a
particularly difficult context to govern
in because of the financial crisis.
The approach is premised in critical
realism and compatible with
work historical institutionalism, rather
than positivist and behaviouralist appro
aches to political science.
Applications
The approach has been used in a variety
of settings, such as a method for
assessing political leaders. Using the
approach, assessments have been made
of Tony Blair and Nicolas Sarkozy. It
has also been applied to understand how
and why elites change electoral laws and
the British policy towards the European
Union