Contests of Vital Importance’

By-Elections, the Labour Party, and the Reshaping of British Radicalism, 1924–1929

Bibliographic Data

ID8957168
AuthorsMalcolm Petrie (0000-0001-6399-2463, University of Edinburgh, corresponding author), MALCOLM R PETRIE
Year2016
Volume60
Issue1
Pages121-148
Publication date2016-05-23
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Historical Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0018246x16000066
OpenAlexW2399119496
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited12

Via an examination of the Labour party's approach to by-election campaigning in Scotland between the fall of the first Labour administration in October 1924 and the party's return to office in May 1929, this article explores the changing horizons of British radicalism in an era of mass democracy. While traditional depictions of interwar politics as a two-party contest in which political allegiances were shaped primarily by social class have increasingly been questioned, accounts of Labour politics in this period have focused chiefly on national responses to the challenges posed by the expanded franchise. In contrast, this article considers local experiences, as provincial participation and autonomy, particularly in candidate selection and electioneering, came to be viewed as an impediment to wider electoral success, and political debate coalesced around attempts to speak for a political nation that was, as the focus on Scotland reveals, indisputably British. Often portrayed as evidence of ideological divisions, such internal quarrels had crucial spatial features, and reflected a conflict between two models of political identity and participation: one oppositional in outlook, local in loyalty, and rooted in the radical tradition, the other focused upon electoral concerns and Labour's national standing

Bourgeoisie · CONTEST · Democracy · Identity (music · Ideology · Political economy · Political radicalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Irish and British Studies · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Scottish History and National Identity

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