Manchester University Press
12 ‘What dire effects from civil discord flow’
Abstract
All large parties face the question of how to strike a balance between democracy, diversity and tolerance on the one hand and unity, firm leadership and a capacity for coordinated collective effort on the other. Striking this balance is the task of party management. This chapter focuses on party management as a leadership function whose prime object is to regulate internal conflict and foster party cohesion, to maintain the allegiance of members and to maximise decisional efficacy. Ideological integration, governance legitimation and normative integration operate as crucial shock absorbers which enable party cohesion to survive even where there are multiple conflicts. The chapter argues that all three factors of cohesion have progressively weakened, especially after Jeremy Corbyn's election to the leadership. One can apply three measures of effective party management: the ability to preserve members' allegiance; to accommodate and pacify internal conflicts; and the capacity to formulate binding policies.
Abstract
All large parties face the question of how to strike a balance between democracy, diversity and tolerance on the one hand and unity, firm leadership and a capacity for coordinated collective effort on the other. Striking this balance is the task of party management. This chapter focuses on party management as a leadership function whose prime object is to regulate internal conflict and foster party cohesion, to maintain the allegiance of members and to maximise decisional efficacy. Ideological integration, governance legitimation and normative integration operate as crucial shock absorbers which enable party cohesion to survive even where there are multiple conflicts. The chapter argues that all three factors of cohesion have progressively weakened, especially after Jeremy Corbyn's election to the leadership. One can apply three measures of effective party management: the ability to preserve members' allegiance; to accommodate and pacify internal conflicts; and the capacity to formulate binding policies.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures and tables vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- Acknowledgements xii
- Abbreviations xiv
- Introduction 1
-
PART I: Labour’s first century: disputed solidarities
- 1 The Grand National Consolidated Trades’ Union, 1833–1834 21
- 2 The Knights of Labor and the British trade unions, 1880–1900 33
- 3 The struggle for control of the Durham Miners’ Association, 1890s–1915 49
- 4 Contested coordinator 66
- 5 Domestic servants and the labour movement, 1870s–1914 83
-
PART II: Convergences, divergences and realignments on the left
- 6 ‘The people’s main defence against monopoly’? 101
- 7 The British left’s attitude towards the Battle of Athens, December 1944–February 1945 122
- 8 The decline of revolutionary pragmatism and the splintering of British communism in the 1980s 138
- 9 Re-framing the debate on breakaway trade unions in an era of neoliberalism 153
- 10 English teachers’ unions since 2010 171
-
PART III: The Labour Party today: fragmentation or mutation?
- 11 Dissent in the Parliamentary Labour Party, 1945–2015 193
- 12 ‘What dire effects from civil discord flow’ 221
- 13 The conflicting loyalties of the Scottish Labour Party 238
- 14 The ‘movementisation’ of the Labour Party and the future of labour organising 254
- Concluding remarks 271
- Index 280
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures and tables vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- Acknowledgements xii
- Abbreviations xiv
- Introduction 1
-
PART I: Labour’s first century: disputed solidarities
- 1 The Grand National Consolidated Trades’ Union, 1833–1834 21
- 2 The Knights of Labor and the British trade unions, 1880–1900 33
- 3 The struggle for control of the Durham Miners’ Association, 1890s–1915 49
- 4 Contested coordinator 66
- 5 Domestic servants and the labour movement, 1870s–1914 83
-
PART II: Convergences, divergences and realignments on the left
- 6 ‘The people’s main defence against monopoly’? 101
- 7 The British left’s attitude towards the Battle of Athens, December 1944–February 1945 122
- 8 The decline of revolutionary pragmatism and the splintering of British communism in the 1980s 138
- 9 Re-framing the debate on breakaway trade unions in an era of neoliberalism 153
- 10 English teachers’ unions since 2010 171
-
PART III: The Labour Party today: fragmentation or mutation?
- 11 Dissent in the Parliamentary Labour Party, 1945–2015 193
- 12 ‘What dire effects from civil discord flow’ 221
- 13 The conflicting loyalties of the Scottish Labour Party 238
- 14 The ‘movementisation’ of the Labour Party and the future of labour organising 254
- Concluding remarks 271
- Index 280
