Labour's Grass Roots: The Politics of Party Membership - Hardcover

Seyd, Patrick; Whiteley, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198273576 ISBN 13: 9780198273578

Publisher: Clarendon Press, 1992

Synopsis

Who belongs to the Labour Party and why? What are their opinions about politics and society, or about the "new model" party of Neil Kinnock? After the electoral debacle of 1983 the Labour leadership embarked on a strategy of modernization in order to win back some of their lost support. The leadership has consistently tried to empower the party members at the expense of the trade unions and the party activists. But this strategy has been a "leap in the dark", since the leadership has had no idea what views party members hold on matters of policy or internal organization. This book publishes the results of a comprehensive study of party members, examining who they are, why they joined the Labour Party, and discussing their views on activism, the party, and society as a whole. Journalistic accounts of party membership abound with images of unrepresentative extremists and eccentrics. This book replaces journalistic hunches with factual information on a significant group of actors in the British political process.

About this title

Product Description

Labour's Grass Roots: The Politics of Party Membership

Review

`keenly awaited.'Hugo Young, The Guardian

`Seyd and Whiteley's impressively thorough analysis ... explores the links between social class, self-identification on a Left-Right scale, policy positions and attitudes to party reforms ... a wealth of fact.'Jeff Lovitt, Tribune

`provides a devastating insight ... very valuable information' Socialist Worker

`The authors evidently want to reach two audiences - their fellow academics and the Labour hierarchy ... Their material is unique and their methodology impeccable. Both their audiences should sit up and take notice ... The authors have shone a torch into one of the least-explored areas of British politics.'The Economist

`a vitally important book.'New Times

abour's Grass Roots is the most important book to be published about Labour this year.'Chartist

'the first detailed account of what Labour Party members think, what motivates them and what role they play in our political system ... a valuable source of information about Labour Party members'Ben Lucas, Renewal, Vol. 1, No. 1, January 1993

'invaluable as the first detailed survey-based study of the party's members. It contains a wealth of straightforward descriptive material'Parliamentary Affairs, January 1993

'empirically-rich study of Labour's rank-and-file ... Seyd and Whiteley's gratifying new book provides the scholarly community with a coherent and methodologically-grounded account of the sociological and political contours of the party's membership'Kent Worcester, Social Science Research Council, British Politics Group Newsletter, No. 71, Winter 1993

`The material from the author's specially mounted representative survey of activists is clearly and crisply presented in a fashion which all students of politics will find readily accessible ... The book as a whole is thought provoking and germane to many of the debates currently being conducted within the Labour Party, and we should, indeed, look forward to a companion text on the Conservative Party.'Parliamentary Affairs

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarendon Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198273576
• ISBN 13: 9780198273578
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 286