Abstract
The stark contrast between the marathon race to succeed Gordon Brown after he stood down as Labour Party leader in May 2010 and the bypassing of the Electoral College to appoint Brown in 2007, both of which triggered heated debates about the victor’s authority and legitimacy as Labour Party leader, provide an interesting entry point into Labour Party leadership elections. Ed Miliband’s subsequent struggle to counter his ‘Old Labour’ image with little legitimacy within his own party, followed by a complete overhaul of leadership election rules on 1 March 2014, also highlight the paramount importance of processes on perceptions of leaders. If we track the series of constitutional changes in the Labour Party since the 1980s, we see that leadership elections have increasingly been underpinned by a double imperative: on the one hand the need to choose a credible party leader and potential Prime Minister, and on the other the need to meet the requirements of internal democracy. This highlights the fundamental tension at work in any organisation between outcome and process and even more so in a political party committed, at least in theory, to the egalitarian principle: the Labour Party was created at the turn of the twentieth century as a coalition of various groups, among which trade unions played a major part, and as a result adopted a federal structure whereby the various stakeholders of the party were represented in the decision-making bodies, especially at the annual conference, the supreme authority in the Party.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Work cited
Alderman, K., Carter, N. (1995) ‘The Labour Leadership and Deputy Leadership Elections of 1994’, Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. 48, n° 3, 438–55.
Avril, E. (2007) Du Labour au New Labour: Le changement vu de l’intérieur (Villeneuve d’Ascq: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion).
Avril, E. (2013) ‘The Evolution of Decision-Making in the British Labour Party: From Grassroots to Netroots?’. In Avril, E., Zumello, C. (eds) New Technologies, Organizational Change and Governance (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 102–16.
Bartle, J., Crewe, I. (2002) ‘The impact of party leaders in Britain: Strong assumptions, weak evidence’. In King, A. (ed.) Leaders’ Personalities and the Outcomes of Democratic Elections (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
BBC News (2005, 21 July) ‘On This Day 1950–2005: 21 July 1994: Labour Chooses Blair’. Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/21/newsid_2515000/2515825.stm [accessed 02/07/2014].
Bean, C., Mughan, A. (1989) ‘Leadership Effects in Parliamentary Elections in Australia and Britain’, American Political Science Review, 83, 1165–79.
Blair, T. (2003, 30 September) Speech to the Labour Party Annual Conference.
Blondel, J., Thiebault, J.-L. (eds) (2009) Political Leadership, Parties and Citizens: The Personalisation of Leadership (London: Routledge).
Collins, R. (2014) Building A One Nation Labour Party. The Collins Review into Labour Party Reform (London: The Labour Party).
Crewe, I., King, A. (1999) ‘Did Major win? Did Kinnock lose? Leadership effects in the 1992 election’. In Heath, A., Jowell, R., Curtice, J., Taylor, B. (eds) Labour’s Last Chance? The 1992 Election and Beyond (Aldershot: Dartmouth).
Curtice, J., Holmberg, S. (2005) ‘Party Leaders and Party Choice’. In Thomassen, J. (ed.) The European Voter (Oxford University Press), pp. 235–51.
Denver, D. (1989) Elections and Voting Behaviour in Britain (Deddington: Philip Allan).
Denver, D. (1997) ‘Elections and Voting Behaviour’. In Robins, L.J., Jones, B. (eds) Half a Century of British Politics (Manchester: Manchester University Press), pp. 128–43.
Denver, D. (1998) ‘The Government that Could Do No Right’. In King, A. (ed.) New Labour Triumphs: Labour At the Polls (London: Chatham House).
Dorey, P., Denham, A. (2011) ‘O brother where art thou?’ The Labour Leadership of 2010, British Politics, Vol. 6, n°3, 286–316.
Drucker, H.M. (1979) Doctrine and Ethos in the Labour Party (London; Boston: Allen & Unwin).
Evans, G., Andersen, R. (2005) ‘The Impact of Party Leaders: How Blair Lost Labour Votes’, Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. 58, n° 4, 818–36.
Faucher-King, R, Treille, E. (2003) ‘Managing Intra-party Democracy: Comparing the French Socialist and British Labour Party Conferences’, Trench Politics, Vol. 1, n° 1, 61–82.
Foley, M. (2002) John Major, Tony Blair and the Conflict of Leadership: Collision Course (Manchester: Manchester University Press).
Franklin, B., Larsen, G. (1994) ‘Kingmaking in the Labour Leadership Contest’, British Journalism Review, Vol. 5, n° 4, 63–70.
Hay, C. (2003) ‘How to Study the Labour Party? Contextual, Analytical and Theoretical Issues.’ In Callaghan, J., Fielding, S., Ludlam, S. (eds) Interpreting the Labour Party, Approaches to Labour Politics and History (Manchester: Manchester University Press), pp. 182–94.
Heppell, T. (2010) ‘Labour Leadership Elections from Wilson to Brown: Ideological Factions and Succession Planning Strategies’, Representation, Vol. 46, n° 1, 69–79.
Heppell, T. (2012) Choosing the Labour Leader. Labour Party Leadership Elections from Wilson to Brown (London: Tauris Academic Studies).
Jobson, R., Wickham-Jones, M. (2011). ‘Reinventing the block vote? Trade unions and the 2010 Labour party leadership election’, British Politics, 6, 317–44.
Kettle, M. (2009, 7 May). ‘A Leader Picked by Unions is an Explosive Trap for Labour’, The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/commentis free/2009/may/07/tradeunions-labour [accessed 02/07/2014].
King, A. (1998). ‘Why Labour Won — At Last’. In King, A. (ed.), New Labour Triumphs: Labour At the Polls (London: Chatham House).
King, A. (2002) Leaders’ Personalities and the Outcome of Democratic Elections (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
King, O. (2013, 24 July) ‘Ed Miliband’s trade union reforms are essential to building a fairer society’, New Statesman. Retrieved from http://www.newstatesman.com/staggers/2013/07/ed-milibands-trade-union-reforms-are-essential-building-fairer-society [accessed 02/07/2014].
Kogan, D., Kogan, M. (1982) The Battle for the Labour Party (London: Kogan Page).
Lasswell, H.D. (1948) Power and Personality (New York: W.W. Norton & Co).
Lees-Marshment, J. (2001). Political Parties and British Political Parties: The Party’s Just Begun (Manchester: Manchester University Press).
Mair, P. (1994) ‘Party Organizations: from Civil Society to State’. In Katz, R., Mair, P. (eds) How Parties Organize: Change and Adaptation in Party Organizations in Western Democracies (London: Sage).
McSmith, A. (1997) Faces of Labour: the Inside Story (London: Verso).
Minkin, L. (1991) The Contentious Alliance: Trade Unions and the Labour Party (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press).
Minkin, L. (2014) The Blair Supremacy. A Study in the Politics of Labour’s Party Management (Manchester: Manchester University Press).
Mughan, A. (2000) Media and the Presidentialization of Parliamentary Elections (Basingstoke: Palgrave).
Norris, P. (2002) ‘Campaign Communication’. In Leduc, L., Niemi, R.G. (eds) Comparing Democracies 2: New Challenges in the Study of Elections and Voting (London: Sage).
Panitch, L., Leys, C. (1997) The End of Parliamentary Socialism (London: Verso).
Pemberton, H., Wickham-Jones, M. (2012) ‘Brothers all? The Operation of the Electoral College in the 2010 Labour Leadership Contest’, Parliamentary Affairs, 66, 708–31.
Punnett, M. (2006) ‘Selecting the Party Leader in Britain: A Limited Participatory Revolution’, European Journal of Political Research, Vol. 24, n° 3, 257–76.
Quinn, T. (2004) ‘Electing the Leader: The British Labour Party’s Electoral College’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Vol. 6, n° 3, 333–52.
Quinn, T. (2012) Electing and Ejecting Party Leaders in Britain (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
Russell, M. (2005) Building New Labour: The Politics of Party Organisation (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
Scarrow, S. (2005) ‘Political Parties and Democracy: Theoretical and Practical perspectives’, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, Implementing Intra-Party Democracy, 2005, p.9. Retrieved from http://www.ndi.org/files/1951_polpart_scarrow_110105.pdf [accessed 02/07/2014].
Seyd, P., Whiteley, P. (1992) Labour’s Grass Roots: The Politics of Party Membership (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
Seyd, P., Whiteley, P. (2002) New Labour’s Grassroots: The Transformation of the Labour Party Membership (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
Stark, L. (1996) Choosing a Leader: Party Leadership Contests in Britain from Macmillan to Blair (New York: Saint Martin’s Press).
Webb, P. (1994) ‘Reforming the Labour Party-Trade Union Link: An Assessment’, Journal of Elections, Public Opinion & Parties, Vol. 4, n° 1, 1–14.
Webb, P. (2000) The Modern Party System (London: Sage).
Wickham-Jones, M. (2014) ‘Introducing OMOV: The Labour Party-Trade Union Review Group and the 1994 Leadership Contest’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 52, n° 1, 33–56.
Wintour, P. (2010, 27 September) ‘Ed Miliband pledges to lead Labour from the front — but will David follow?’, The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/26/ed-miliband-david-labour-leader[accessed 02/07/2014].
Wring, D. (2005) The Politics of Marketing the Labour Party (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 Emmanuelle Avril
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Avril, E. (2015). Leadership Elections and Democracy in the British Labour Party. In: Alexandre-Collier, A., de Chantal, F.V. (eds) Leadership and Uncertainty Management in Politics. Palgrave Studies in Political Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137439246_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137439246_11
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-56492-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-43924-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political Science CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)