Power in British Political Parties [I]
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5632071 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert Tracy Mckenzie (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1955 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 123 |
| Publication date | 1955-06-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | British Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-1315 • E-ISSN: 1468-4446 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/587478 |
| OpenAlex | W2324705712 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
J t I 'UCH of the confusion about the distribution of power within the \/ major British political parties arises from a careless use of terms. a L g iThe phrases Conservative and Labour are commonly used as if each referred to a unified political entity consistlng of three sections: a parliamentary party, a voluntary mass organization and a professional staff or party bureaucracy. It is usually assumed that if either party were truly democratic }, the leaders of the party in Parliament would hold themselves responsible to the ' members of the party , i.e., to those who belong to the mass organization. But an examination of the history of the two parties shows that in practice they do not. Therefore many observers End themselves dnven to cynical or pessimistic conclusions about the nature of intra-party democracy. Some conclude with Robert Michels that an iror} law' inearitably prevents the members of a nominally democratic political organization from controlling their leaders. Others, paraphrasing A. Lv Lowell, conclude that Both parties are shams, but with this difference, that the Conservative organization is a transparent, and the Labour an opaqueg sham . There are good grounds for cynicism about certain features of the British party system and there is much to be said for both Michels and Lowell. But a clarification of terms helps to put the problem into perspective. In fact two autonomous political entities face each other in Parliament; they are The Conservative Party and The Parliamentary Labour Party (P.L.P.). Each is associated with a voluntary mass organization of its supporters outside Parliament, the former by The National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations , the latter by a body properly known as The Labour Party . In addition, the Conservative Party has at its disposal a professional staff of party workers outside Parliament, the Conservative Central Office (which
Physics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US
| Citations per year | 0.14 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1983 - 2025 (43) |
| Highly cited | No |