The "ac" code is for "adequacy-confidence"--a
data
quality measure ranging from 0 (low) to 9
(high)
Institutionalization
Variables, 1.01-1.06
1.01 year of origin and 1.02 name
changes
1900, AC9
0, AC9
The generally accepted year for the origin
of the Labour Party is 1900, when the Trades Union Congress was
persuaded to create a Labour Representation Committee (LRC). This
resulted in the foundation of the Parliamentary Labour Party
(PLP). There were no name changes in this period.
1.03 Organizational
Discontinuity
0, AC9
There was no organizational discontinuity
in this period.
1.04 Leadership Competition
12, AC9
Clement Attlee assumed the post, in 1935
and remained in office until 1955, when he resigned and was
replaced by Hugh Gaitskill, who remained leader throughout our
time period until his death in 1963. Gaitskill was succeeded by
Harold Wilson. The party leader and the deputy leader are elected
by the PLP. Provision for the annual re-election of the leader
became largely a formality.
Deputy leaders during our period were
Morrison 1950-55, Griffith 1955-1959, and Brown 1959
1962.
1.05 Legislative Instability
Instability was .05, AC9
Labour strength in the House of Commons
dropped steadily from a high of 50 percent in 1950 to 41 percent
in 1962.
1.06 Electoral Instability
Instability is .03, AC9
The Labour Party's share of the popular vote fluctuated between 44
and 49 percent in the general elections of 1950, 1951, 1955, and
1959. Labour's vote declined during our period from its high in
1951 to its low in 1959.
Governmental Status Variables,
2.01-2.07
2.01 Government Discrimination
0, AC9
There is no evidence of discrimination
against the party in this period. The party was denied office in
1951 despite winning a plurality of the popular vote on account of
the system of direct rather than proportional
representation.
2.02 Governmental Leadership
2 out of 7 for 1950-1956, AC9 and 0 out of
6 for 1957-62, AC9
The party led the government for less than
two years, January 1950 to October 1951, of the period and won
only one of the four elections. Elections took place on average
once every 3.25 years in the period, compared with once every 3.7
years for the whole period 1918-1970. The maximum statutory life
of a government is five years.
2.03 Cabinet Participation
2 out of 7 for 1950-1956, AC9 and 0 out of
6 for 1957-1962, AC9
Labour ministers monopolized cabinet seats
during their party's administration and were completely excluded
from them when in opposition.
2.04 National Participation
6, AC9
Party support was spread universally if not
evenly across Great Britain. The chief regions of Labour
predominance were Wales (particularly the industrial south),
north-east England, the west riding of Yorkshire, inner London and
Clydeside. The regional basis of Labour support is partly the
result of occupational residence, since the Labour Party of manual
workers organised in trade unions. Based on 1959 survey data, the
average duration of Labour support from the population
distribution in five main regions was only 2 percentage
points.
2.07 Outside Origin
8, AC9
The party was formed by the Trades Union
Congress and the Independent Labour Party, a major and minor legal
social organisation, respectively.
Issue Orientation Variables, 5.01-5.15
5.01 Ownership of Means of
Production
3, AC7
In the election of 1945, the victorious
Labour Party campaigned on a program of nationalization, which was
carried out, to various degrees, in the coal industry,
electricity, gas, railways, road transport, steel, and banking.
Pledged to extend the scope of nationalisation in 1950, the Labour
government in fact failed to act and even dropped plans to
nationalise the sugar and cement industries. Pledges to
renationalise the steel industry were constant after the
Conservatives denationalized them in 1951, but plans to extend the
system to broad areas of the economy from water supply to machine
tools were eventually shelved in favor of vague promises to take
over "concerns that fail the nation." Despite an occasional voice
demanding the abolition of capitalism, the party was by 1959 quick
to destroy rumours that it intended to take over the 600 larger
firms, insisting that its plans were regulatory only. The party
set increasing store upon "enterprise," even in private hands and
towards the end of the period was urging that the community be
allowed to profit from the fruits of capitalism "by the purchase
of shares of public investment agencies" for revenue.
Nationalisation, however, was increasingly a dead issue
electorally and this partially accounts for decreasing loyalty to
the principle. However, all attempts to drop the ideal of public
ownership from the party's program in 1959 were
defeated.
5.02 Government Role in Economic
Planning
3, AC9
In theory, the Labour Party favored the
centralisation of all economic decision-making and the extension
of governmental regulation, if not outright ownership, to all
sectors of the economy. In practice, however, the party eschewed
total planning and implemented a limited and piecemeal programme.
Fixed prices for agriculture and the nationalised industries were
balanced by
verbal exhortations to the larger private
companies to plan their operations with the national interest in
mind. Control over purchasing power was exercised by primitive
(and continually applied) Keynesian techniques that left the
economic initiative with market forces. Although the party
realised by 1950 that it could not rely on the voluntary
cooperation of the trades unions in wage restraint, it showed no
signs of urging statutory controls in this period. The
difficulties of managing a state sector in a mixed economy, as
well as partial ideological commitment to the ideal of public
ownership on the part of both the party and its supportive trades
unions, caused a retreat from the attempt to broaden
control.
5.03 Redistribution of Wealth
3, AC9
The Labour Party was committed to a
considerable redistribution of wealth in favor of the labouring
classes. The system of taxation, especially upon unearned incomes,
was to be used to redistribute wealth as well as to boost economic
growth, although outright confiscation was rejected. During the
party's period in office dividends were frozen and large incomes
particularly penalised, when in opposition proposals were advanced
for capital gains, profits and corporation taxes, as well as
pledges to investigate tax avoidance by individuals and companies.
Towards the end of the period, however, attention seemed to shift
further towards the social and away from the purely economic bases
of privilege. Differentials in reward that sprang from "effort,
skill and creative energy" rather than inheritance were seen as
inevitable and just and wealth taxes as such fared badly at party
conferences.
5.04 Social Welfare
5, AC9
The Labour Party was absolutely in favor of
universal social welfare by compulsory public assistance. The
comprehensiveness and generosity of assistance were to be
increased and the system centralised and nationalised. The private
sector was tolerated, but expected to disappear of its own accord
in due time. The extension of the system of social welfare to the
population as a whole was to serve social as well as material ends
and went hand in hand with the abolition of means tests,
educational selectivity and other displeasing aspects of class
differentiation. Increases in family allowances and old age
pensions to aid the least priviliged sectors of the population
became a constant feature of the party's programme.
5.05 Secularization of Society
1, AC7
Despite its associations with socialism,
the Labour Party could in no way be construed an enemy of
religion, and indeed many early leaders of the party were
Evangelical Christians. Since religion represented no real
political issues in this period, religious instruction in the
schools and the established church were both accepted. Religious
affiliation continued to be an expected peripheral characteristic
of political leaders so that Labour leaders were usually
church-goers. Labour support was strong among religious dissenters
but no scheme for state aid to denominational schools was
proposed.
5.06 Support of the Military
3 for 1950-1956, AC9 and 2 for 1957-1962,
AC7
The Labour Party supported the Armed Forces
during this period but party loyalty to the principle of military
preparedness wavered towards the latter half of the time span.
Leading the rearmament of the country after Korea, the party
continued when in opposition to support this policy and indeed
urged the development of conventional forces to supplement nuclear
power and thus allow "terrible response." Party attitudes to
conscription as a "badge" of shame meant growing agitation for its
abolition after 1955. On the other hand, the prospect of nuclear
war, as well as lingering doubts about the effectiveness of force,
created a certain confusion in the party's policy after 1954. With
the Orthodox Bevanite faction defending multilateralism and
opposing rearmament, and the revisionist group swinging from
support of West German rearmament in 1954 to unilateral nuclear
disarmament in 1960, this aspect of party policy was less than
consistent. The Party program in 1959 did cite world-wide
disarmament as a paramount objective.
5.07 Alignment with East-West
Blocs
5, AC9
The Labour Party continually stressed the
necessity for support of NATO and the western alliances in this
period and fell in with policies of non-recognition. On the other
hand the party did not extend its suspicion of the USSR to the
People's Republic of China and many elements within the party
wished to include the U.N. The party felt the UN to be the
lynch-pin of its international policy and sought eventual world
brotherhood and government. In the latter part of the period
negotiations with the eastern bloc and the admission of the PRC to
the UN were increasingly urged.
5.08 Anti-Colonialism
3, AC9
The Labour Party consistently advocated a
policy of decolonisation in this period, following the precedent
it had set with Indian independence, the Party urged the
dissolution of the empire into states, joined by fraternal
commonwealth ties, on the bases of one man, one vote and the
abolition of racial discrimination. Preparation for independence
was therefore seen as essential, and stress in the first part of
the period was on the development of backward areas rather than
immediate independence. Conservative government policy over Suez,
the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Kenya and other colonial
issues were strongly criticised.
5.09 Supranational Integration
1 for 1950-1956, AC9 and 0 for 1957-1962,
AC9
The Party's attitude toward supranational
integration was fairly cautious in the first part of this period
but became confused and ambiguous in the second, partly due to
internal factionalism. Trading agreements such as GATT and EFTA
were welcomed but closer political links with Europe incurred the
suspicion of at least the "revisionist" group. The Orthodox
faction welcomed any move away from the USA and towards eventual
world government. The United Nations was consistently supported as
the harbinger of a world government, thus justifying both
intervention in Korea and the sponsorship for admission of the
PRC. On the other hand criticism was directed against the growing
disparity between the richer industrial nations and the poorer
majority and this sentiment affected enthusiasm for membership of
the EEC, which was regarded by some elements of the party as a
conspiracy of the rich nations against the poor. This protest,
however, did not result in the formulation of an effective
policy.
5.10 National Integration
3 for 1950-1956, AC7 and 1 for 1957-1962,
AC7
Favouring the creation of greater
uniformity rather than diversity and the subordination of
nationalist to ideological considerations, the Labour Party was
not initially receptive to the demands of the small welsh and
Scottish nationalist movements. However, despite the marginal low
of the nationalist vote, this vote tended to appear in
traditionally Labour constituencies. The party accepted increased
local and Cabinet recognition of Wales in an attempt to undercut
the nationalist element as pressure-groups.
5.11 Electoral Participation
5, AC9
The Labour Party favoured the maintenance
of universal adult suffrage, introduced in 1928.
5.12 Protection of Civil Rights
3, AC9
The Labour Party insisted upon its support
for civil rights, rejecting the charge that socialism would mean
class war and the suspension of freedom. It pointed rather to the
discrimination on class lines that pervaded society and took
tentative steps to resolve it. The party opposed the 1961
immigration bill on the grounds that prejudice was best tackled by
education, not regulation. Embryonic support for a national bill
of rights was not important in this period, nor was statutory
enforcement of civil rights favoured.
5.13 Interference with Civil
Liberties
3, AC9
The Labour Party advocated the recognition
and enforcement of civil liberties in this period, except as
concerned deliberate provocations of breaches of the peace. "D"
notices to censor press releases that jeopardised national
security or embarassed the government were accepted, though they
were infrequently used.
5.14 / 5.15 US--Soviet Experts Left-Right
Ratings
US says 3, non-communist left
Soviets say 2, the party numbers among its ranks trade union
members and members of cooperative societies and professional
organizations. It had a broad program of socioeconomic reforms,
but it succumbed to pressure from English monopolistic circles and
international financial unions and was unable to carry out its
reforms.
Goal Orientation Variables, 6.01-6.55
6.00 Open Competition in the
Electoral Process
4, AC9
The Labour Party relied exclusively on open
competition in the electoral process to place its candidates in
government in this period.
6.01 0, AC9.
The Labour Party did not undertake any
noteworthy advertising campaigns in the press during this period.
Their efforts were oriented toward news releases and public
relations advertising. Labour did not embrace press advertising on
a large scale until 1963-64. The purchase of broadcasting time for
political advertising was not allowed.
6.02--2, AC9.
The party regularly advertised its
candidates by publicly displayed signs and posters, as well as by
mail. Legislation controlled candidates' expenditures.
6.03--2, AC9.
The local constituency associations of the
party regularly contacted and canvassed voters.
6.04--2, AC9.
The local constituency organisation
arranged rallies and public meetings to the most important of
which national and regional party leaders came as
speakers.
6.05--2, AC9.
The local constituency organisations
regularly "brought out the vote" by ensuring that domestic duties
or lack of transport did not keep supporters from the
polls.
6.10 Restricting Party
Competition
0, AC9
The Labour Party did not seek to disrupt
the activity of other parties in the electoral
process.
6.11, 6.12, 6.13, 6.14, 6.15, 6.16--0,
AC9.
The Party never indulged in these
activities.
6.20 Subverting the Political
System
0, AC9
The Party was not oriented to subverting
the political process, which it regarded as
appropriate.
6.21, 6.22, 6.23, 6.24, 6.25, 6.26--0,
AC9.
The Party neither indulged in, nor approved
of such activities.
6.30 Propagandizing Ideas and
Program
6.31--0, AC9.
The party had no newspaper of its own,
though the "Daily Herald" and "Sunday Citizen" as well as various
trades union publications were tied to the Labour movement and
other papers were its regular partisans. The party head office
published a constant stream of periodicals, texts, pamphlets and
leaflets expounding its principles and outlining policies. Limited
broadcasting time for "Party Political Broadcasts" was allotted to
the party on the basis of an annually renewed agreement between
the major parties and the broadcasting authorities.
6.32--0, AC9.
The party did not operate party schools,
although the NEC had a subcommittee for political education and
head office's press and publicity department made sporadic
attempts to set up a programme on these lines, but without
widespread or continuing success.
6.33--2, AC9.
An election manifesto was produced by the
NEC, after consultation with PLP leaders, which usually coincided
more or less with that approved by the party
conference.
6.34--2, AC9.
Position papers were published regularly by
the party head office. Manifestos preceded each
election.
6.40 Allying with Other Parties
6.41--2, AC9.
The Labour Party jointly sponsored
candidates with the co-operative party throughout the period. The
co-operative party resisted pressure to merge with the Labour
Party, preferring to retain its independence, but its candidates
joined the PLP upon election. Labour sponsorship of Communist
Party candidates had ended in 1924 and the independent Labour
party broke with Labour in 1932.
6.42--0, AC9.
The Labour Party did not form a legislative
bloc with any other party in this period.
6.43--0, AC9.
The Labour Party did not share its cabinet
positions with any other party during its terms in
office.
6.44 not applicable.
6.50 Providing for Welfare of Party
Members
6.51, 6.52, 6.53, 6.54--0, AC9.
The party did not provide these social
welfare services.
6.55-- 2, aAC9.
Many local labour organisations had attached clubs which provided
recreational facilities and services as an adjunct to their
political functions. Before its abolition in 1955 the Labour
League of Youth also organised recreational activities for young
supporters.
Autonomy Variables, 7.01-7.05
7.01 Sources of Funds
1 (sector 01), AC5
There is some disagreement concerning the
sources of funds for the Labour Party. One author puts the income
from trade union affiliations at 70 percent, while another credits
the unions with roughly 55 percent and the cooperatives with
another 10 percent. Because of the clear dominance of the trade
unions in source of contributions in either case, the party is
scored low on this indicator of autonomy.
7.02 Source of Members
2 (sectors 01, 02), AC6
Membership of the Labour Party was mostly
indirect, although one fifth of the total membership, over
6,000,000 was individual. In 1953 some 5,000,000 members were
affiliated by the trades unions and co-operative societies, while
the Fabian society and similar groups affiliated further
members.
7.03 Sources of Leaders
2 (sectors 03, 01), AC9
The Parliamentary delegation of the Labour
Party in this period came predominantly from the middle and
working classes, although upper class members were not entirely
absent. Representation was divided fairly evenly between working
and professional men, but as the time period progressed working
class Labour MPs dropped from 42 to 35 percent. The majority of
working class MPs were those nominated by the trades unions and
co-operative societies, and not those adopted by the CLPs. The
largest single group was the teaching profession, which doubled
its representation from 14 percent to 31 percent in the period.
The legal profession supplied a steady average of another 14
percent or so. Business was only marginally represented, and the
armed forces even less. Miners and railway servants were the
largest occupational group of working class members, consistently
providing 15 percent of the total. Despite the party's populist
image, MPs educated at public (private) schools made up some 10
percent of the Labour total and, more interestingly, their chances
of cabinet office were three times larger than their numbers would
seem to justify.
7.04 Relations With Domestic
Parties
6, AC6
The Labour Party maintained a relationship
with the cooperative party, nominally a separate party supported
by the retail cooperative societies.
These local societies often affiliated with
Labour constituency parties and sponsored joint candidates. If
elected, these candidates joined the PLP and accepted its whip.
Through an agreement between the Cooperative Party and the Labour
Party, these joint candidacies became limited to 30 after a high
of 38 in 1955.
7.05 Relations With Foreign
Organizations
3, AC9
The Labour Party is a member of the reconstituted Socialist
International. Links with social democratic parties in other
countries, especially in Western Europe are maintained and
co-ordinated by the International Department of Head Office and
the International Sub-committee of the NEC. In 1953 PLP
representatives met with political and trades union
representatives in west Africa to discuss government policy in the
area. The Party steers away, however, from suggestions that its
freedom of maneuver in either domestic or foreign policy is
compromised by its international connections.
Organizational Complexity Variables,
8.01-8.07
8.01 Structural Articulation
10, AC9
Four major "governmental" national organs
were identifiable for the Labour Party in this period, two within
the legislature and two without. In Parliament the leader is
advised by the parliamentary committee and by the Cabinet when the
party is in office. The Parliamentary organisation of the party,
the PLP, meets weekly to discuss policy and issues. The National
Executive Committee met monthly, representing the mass membership.
The annual conference allowed access to decision making by the
trades unions and other interests that made up the majority of the
NEC. The administrative departments of the party head office
paralleled the sub-committees of the NEC and coordinated policy
with them, as well as providing research and publicity facilities.
Appointment to all party office was by prescribed selection, laid
down in a constitution.
8.02 Intensiveness of
Organization
4, AC9
Individual members in the Labour Party were
offered the opportunity to participate regularly in the party's
affairs at the level of wards, subdivisions of constituencies.(46)
8.03 Extensiveness of Organization
5, AC5
Although the Labour Party sponsored
candidates for seats in parliament in almost all constituencies,
constituency associations in many areas were weak or non-existent.
One study reports that only about one-quarter of the
constituencies had a full-time agent. Similarly, the incidence of
ward organizations within the constituencies must be highly
variable.
8.04 Frequency of Local
Meetings
6 for 1950-1956, AC6 and 5 for 1957-1962,
AC6
Local meetings seem to have occurred on
average about once a month, though records are incomplete and
divergences from the norm were great in places. Constituency level
meetings were more frequent, usually weekly. In the latter part of
the period, however, support in working class areas began to fall
off, despite compensatory increases in middle class areas, and the
frequency of local meetings declined in many areas.
8.05 Frequency of National
Meetings
6 for 1950-1956, AC9 and 5 for 1957-1962,
AC9
The National Executive Committee met once a
month on average in this period. The Party Conference met annually
and the PLP on average three times a fortnight.
8.06 Maintaining Records
12, AC9
The Labour Party head office published a
constant stream of party propoganda and maintained an outstanding
archive and research department.
Membership lists, however, are not noted
for their quality on account of the haphazard and uneven
procedures for the affiliation of trades union
members.
Many unions provide local CLPs with lump
sums for affiliation which may not suffice for affiliation of
their total membership, or even exceed its current
levels.
8.07 Pervasiveness of
Organization
10, AC5
Ancillary organizations such as women's groups, socialist
societies and student organisations controlled by the Labour Party
enlisted a small minority of their respective social sectors. The
interdependence of the trades union movement and the Labour Party
dictated extensive co operation between them but it is difficult
to speak of control of either one by the other.
Organizational Power Variables, 9.01-9.08
9.01 Nationalization of
Structure
6, AC7
Although the Labour Party has eleven
regional councils in its organization of structure, these councils
play an unimportant part in the distribution of power with the
party. The professional organization was responsible to the
national office and the council was forbidden to discuss national
or international affairs.
9.02 Selecting the National
Leader
4, AC9
The leader of the Labour Party was elected
by the Parliamentary delegation of the party.
9.03 Selecting Parliamentary
Candidates
5, AC7
The selection of parliamentary candidates
by the Labour Party followed two distinct patterns in this period.
On the one hand, there were candidates sponsored by the trades
unions (20 percent), cooperative societies (5 percent) and other
less important affiliated organisations. On the other, most were
nominated by the CLPs and approved by the NEC. The NEC held the
power of veto but in fact local wishes were generally, though not
invariably, respected.
9.04 Allocating Funds
5, AC9
Funds were collected at all levels of the
party organisation, although the largest contributions were
allocated directly to party head office by the trades unions. At
the local level, trades union contributions to CLPs were
supplemented by support of trades union candidates when these were
chosen for election.
9.05 Formulating Policy
6, AC7
In theory, responsibility for the
formulation of policy lay with the mass organisation of the party
meeting in conference. In practice, however, it gravitated
increasingly towards the PLP in general and the Parliamentary
Committee and leader in particular. The net result was that the
Parliamentary leadership found itself unable to impose its
policies on the party conference while refusing on the other hand
to adopt the latter's resolutions. Fierce struggles over issues
such as German rearmament, the retention of clause iv
(Nationalisation) as policy and the atomic bomb created confusion
in party ranks in this period. Increasing acceptance of a more
independent leadership, however, gave the ultimate edge to the
party leader. Within the PLP strong veto pressure on legislation
could be exerted by the substantial bloc of the trades union
MPs.
9.06 Controlling Communications
7, AC9 Party control of communications
media was concentrated at the national level and such
communications were influential within the party. A considerable
quantity of printed matter was disseminated from the party head
office but the central press and publicity department also
assisted the CLPs to finance and produce their own publications.
Press releases from regional publicity officers as well as head
office reached the independent national and local press
regularly.
9.07 Administering Discipline
4, AC9
The NEC, on the recommendation of the party
leadership imposed severe disciplinary measures in this period.
Defiance of the whips elected by the PLP resulted in a vote by
that body to withdraw the whip. When in government the Party
leader could reprove his cabinet colleagues at will but when in
opposition he was forced to work in consultation with the
Parliamentary
Committee elected by the PLP.
9.08 leadership concentration
3, AC7
Traditions of decentralised and collective leadership combined
with the growing effective power of the leadership made the
assignment of the actual locus of power difficult in this period.
Having long dominated the NEC, the Parliamentary leadership
increasingly propogated the theories of its independence of the
lower echelons of the party and its right to make decisions. The
mass organisations of the party, however, aided by factional
struggle within the PLP, continued to insist that the
parliamentary party was merely the representative of the Labour
movement in the legislature. While the leadership group seemed to
maintain an edge in this struggle, the leadership remained
collective with the parliamentary committee as its chief locus,
despite the great prestige and influence of the
leader.
Coherence Variables, 10.01-10.06
10.01 Legislative Cohesion
1.0, AC9
Party cohesiveness was extremely high and
rebellions against a "Three-line whip" were usually temporary.
Cohesiveness was nearly complete.
Rebellion against party authority was
discouraged by the fact that party nomination was well-nigh
essential for continued electoral survival, since expulsion from
the party was tantamount to expulsion from the house at the next
election.
10.02 Ideological Factionalism
5, AC7
The Labour Party was deeply rent by
ideological factionalism in this period. The party's split into a
"revisionist" mainstream led by Attlee, Morrison and Gaitskell,
and an "Orthodox" faction led by A. Bevan and others of the "keep
left group" in the PLP. The "revisionist" group sought to tone
down the socialist content of the party's policies in favor of a
more pragmatic approach to electoral appeal. This was resisted by
the "fundamentalists" who saw it as a betrayal of principle. The
falling Labour share of the popular vote exacerbated the struggle,
which also became effectively a struggle for the party leadership
as well. The Bevanite faction which in its early stages at least
included Wilson, Crossman, Mikardo, and Barbara Castle,
represented a solid core of about one fifth of the PLP which rose
to nearly half on occasion. The failure of Bevan's challenge to
Attlee in 1955 and the conversion of Bevan, Wilson, and Crossman
to a policy of compromise between the two camps temporarily
quieted the struggle but it flared up again in 1959 with the
conversion of Frank Cousins and other powerful union leaders to
"fundamentalism." The party was still deeply rent by these issues
when the period ended, despite the reconciliation of Bevan and
Gaitskell in 1957.
10.03 Issue Factionalism
3, AC9
Ideological factionalism in the Labour
Party harbored a number of longstanding issues that divided the
party. The issue of nationalization is a prime example. Although
neutralism in foreign affairs definitely had a left-wing cast to
it, this issue deserves some recognition in its own right as
serving to divide the Labour Party in the 1950s.
10.04 Leadership Factionalism
5, AC7
Competiton for the leadership of the Labour
Party in this period was inextricable from the factional struggle
between the "revisionist" and "fundamentalist" camps, but it was
not coterminous with it. The reconciliation of Bevan with
Gaitskell in 1957 lends credence to the theory that leadership
competition lay behind at least some of the factional
strife.
10.05 Strategic or Tactical
Factionalism
5, AC7
The falling Labour share of the popular
vote caused considerable anxiety within the party and the
factionalism was certainly fuelled, if not caused, by disagreement
over the means of reversing this decline.
10.06 Party Purges
0, AC9
There were no party purges in this period. Even Bevan was spared
from expulsion in 1955.
Involvement Variables, 11.01-11.06
11.01 Membership Requirements
2, AC9
Membership in the Labour Party is not
contingent upon signing a membership card, but payment of a NEC
subscription is usually required. Moreover, publishes a list of
organizations to the party's left to which no prospective member
may belong.
11.02 Membership Participation
1, AC5
According to one source, of a stated
1,036,000 or so individual members and more than 5,000,000
affiliated by the trades unions, only an estimated 130,000 were
more than nominal members. Another source claimed that at least
two-thirds of the members played a part of some sort in the
party.
11.03 Material Incentives
0, AC9
Party work was largely voluntary and unpaid
so that material incentives were almost non-existent, especially
at the lower levels.
11.04 Purposive Incentives
3, AC4
The majority of party activists seemed
motivated by their political convictions and thus were led to
political work by its purposive incentives.
11.05 Doctrinism
1, AC9
References to a body of literature in
justification of party philosophy or policies were few as the
Labour party was careful to play down similarities with parties
further to its left. The political roots of the Party lay in the
organic tradition of the Labour movement from Chartism and before
and references to this tradition were common. Labour party leaders
were prolific authors and references to the work of the Webbs,
Kier Hardie and others are occasionally made in
speeches.
11.06 Personalism
0, AC9
The Labour Party is a well-institutionalised organisation and
changed its leaders during the time period. Personalism was of no
importance to party activists.