Scaffolding of constitutional rhetoric: an analysis of Conservative Party manifestos from Major to Johnson

In this article, a rhetorical assessment of the Conservative Party’s state-level manifestos from 1992 to 2019 is conducted. The core focus of the article is on the Conservatives’ constitutional rhetoric over time, with the aim of identifying the party’s use of modes of persuasion within their manifestos. In particular, how they rhetorically argued for and framed their constitutional positions within those manifestos will be examined. One of the key findings of this article is that the constitutional rhetoric moved towards catch-all phrases, such as democracy, and shifted away from traditional conservative constitutional rhetoric. Another key finding of this article is that the party’s manifestos from 1992 to 2019 were reliant upon a particular rhetorical strategy, that is, they were driven by pathos in opposition and pathos and, to a lesser extent, logos and pragmatism in government.