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The British Constitution and the Structure of the Labour Party

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  • Loewenberg, Gerhard

Abstract

The British Labour Party defies the classifications which students of the structure of political parties have developed. By its historical origin and its formal organization it would seem to be a mass party in the sense that Duverger and others have used that term. But it has also exhibited, notably since 1945, the characteristics of a traditional parliamentary party, denying its mass membership power and influence and allowing its parliamentary leaders the exercise of full authority. Yet in the nineteen-thirties there was evidence that the Labour Party was developing all the characteristics of a mass party, doctrinaire in its program, unreconciled to parliamentary institutions, and anxious to subordinate its parliamentary leadership to the extra-parliamentary organization. It is the defeat of this tendency and the assertion of parliamentarism in the period since World War II which makes this a decisive epoch in the development of the Labour Party, the study of which offers an explanation of the paradox of the party's structure.

Suggested Citation

  • Loewenberg, Gerhard, 1958. "The British Constitution and the Structure of the Labour Party," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(3), pages 771-790, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:52:y:1958:i:03:p:771-790_07
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