political consensus

political consensus

  1. the existence, within a POLITICAL SYSTEM, of broad agreement on the ‘rules of the political game’ (LIPSET, 1960), i.e. the absence of major political parties (e.g. revolutionary parties) opposed to the continuation of the system.
  2. the agreement between parties on more particular issues of policy, e.g. the ‘postwar consensus’ in postwar Britain on the fundamental principles of the WELFARE STATE, or on a policy of FULL EMPLOYMENT, usually held to have ended with the election of the Thatcher government in 1979. See also CONSENSUS, LEGITIMATION CRISIS.