Modernising the Labour Party : organisational change since 1983 / Thomas Quinn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Quinn, Thomas, 1972-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Labour Party (Great Britain)--History.

Labour Party (Great Britain).

Labour Party (Great Britain)--Reorganization.

History.

Physical Description:

xx, 227 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Other Title:

Modernizing the Labour Party

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Contents:

The background to Labour's modernisation xvi

1 Aims and Methods 1

Rational choice theory and the study of institutions 2

The Downsian model and the study of the Labour Party 6

Sociological explanations of the Labour Party 12

2 Political Exchange and Party Organisation 20

Political exchange and party organisation 20

Intra-party incentive structures 23

Party organisations as governance structures 29

Preference heterogeneity among activists 31

Elite autonomy and the policy-votes trade-off 34

Campaign technologies 36

Institutional change in vote-seeking parties 38

3 The Pre-Modernised Labour Party 45

The development of political exchange in the Labour Party 45

Federalism and block voting in the Labour Party 47

The autonomy of the PLP and party-union tensions 56

Coalitions for change 64

4 Policy-making 71

Policy-making in the Labour Party before 1983 71

The PLP and policy-making after 1983 76

Trade unions and the party conference in the 1990s 79

Policy-making in the 1990s: the national policy forum 82

Membership referendums 94

5 The Selection of Parliamentary Candidates 97

Labour's local organisational structures 98

Reform of parliamentary candidate selection 100

One-member-one-vote 106

Other changes to candidate selection 111

6 Electing the Party Leader 121

Party leaders as agents 122

Labour's electoral college, 1981-93 123

PLP nomination rights and gate-keeping powers 125

Selection in the electoral college 127

The electoral college after 1993 133

Leadership accountability and contest costs 136

Appendix 1 to Chapter 6 Electoral Colleges and Devolution 143

Appendix 2 to Chapter 6 Electing the NEC and the NCC 146

7 Resources and Political Communications 149

Funding 149

Members and activists 154

Part II Political Communications

Party resources and political communications 158

Modernising Labour's political communications 161

Communication technology and general election campaigns 166

8 Conclusion: Labour's Modernisation 171

Explaining organisational change in the Labour Party 171

Unitarism and leadership dominance 178

The future of the party-union link 183

Appendix From Federalism to Unitarism in the Labour Party 193.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 196-215) and index.

ISBN:

140393584X

OCLC:

55534822