Revision Update: UK Politics: Are Labour the Tories Democratic Organisations?

To what extent are the Labour and Conservative parties democratic organisations?

The election of Ed Miliband was said to be due to the influence of the unions. This would suggest that the unions might wield too much power within the Labour party making it undemocratic. It should be noted however that political parties actively seek to involve their membership and seek to establish their democratic credentials.

The parties could be stated to be democratic organisations as they allow their members to choose their leaders. David Cameron was able to defeat David Davis relatively easy and Nick Clegg secured a narrow victory over Chris Huhne. Democracy can be defined as “rule of the people for the people by the people”. This is normally achieved through the direct participation of the people and in party terms through members voting their leader. Ed Miliband too was elected by a combination of the members, unions and parliamentary Labour party via an electoral college where each branch of the party gets 33.3% of the vote.

Parties are also democratic as they represent the views of their members. Members can participate in policy making through policy forums and proposing resolutions for the party conferences. Hague when leader of the Conservatives (1997- 2001) recognised the need for greater membership involvement within the party and so he changed not only the leadership election process, which was broadened to the members from the narrow confines of the MPs in isolation, but also the policy making process with the development of national policy forums where the grassroots can propose policies to the leadership of the party.

Parties are also democratic organisations internally as there is accountability. Leadership challenges can be launched if the membership are unhappy with their leadership. Most famously Thatcher was ousted from office not by the electorate but by her own party. Brown was threatened with challenges from the likes of Hoon and Hewitt which illustrates that the leadership cannot ride roughshod over the party. At the present time Cameron has to walk a fine line in order to keep the Eurosceptic wing of his party on board. Internal party democracy can be viewed as combining all parts of a party giving power to each part. Thus power being distributed to the parliamentary party, constituency party and individual members all contribute to making parties democratic organisations.

Control over candidate selection by constituencies is also a means of ensuring that parties remain democratic organisations. The leadership only have limited powers in imposing candidates on constituencies. Ultimately the decision on who to choose remains with the grassroots. The use of primaries allows for greater democracy in candidate selection.

Outward appearances can be deceptive however. It has long been recognised that most parties are autocratic rather than democratic. In the 1950s this formed the basis of the McKenzie thesis and more recently the Michels’ iron law of oligarchy which states that all mass membership organisations assume oligarchical tendencies.

With regard to leadership elections, only the Liberal Democrats can claim real democratic credentials. In the Conservative party, members only vote in the last round. Before then MPs decide who goes through to the next round. In the Labour party, MPs who number 255 after the 2010 election and 13 Labour MEPs have 33% of the Electoral College vote, the same as 2.7m union affiliated members and a membership of c0.2m. The principle of “one person, one vote” does not seem to have reached the Labour party.

Policy making too is not democratic. Party conferences are controlled by the executives of parties. Over time the Labour party conference has become a pale imitation of its former self. There is little real debate and decisions are no longer binding on the leadership. Conferences are more akin to a US party convention than a forum for real policy debate and discussion. Policy forums in both parties can be regarded as token gestures from the leadership to enhance the appearance of internal party democracy. In truth, they remain under the control of the leadership and strengthen their grip over the party. Conferences are stage managed “window dressing”, designed to make the leader look good with a guaranteed standing ovation rather than a scene for bitter internal party disputes as Kinnock encountered in 1986 over the expulsion of the Militant Tendency.

Candidate selection too has not remained out of reach of the long arm of the leadership who occasionally seek to parachute a candidate into a constituency. Cameron sought to promote his A list with the likes of Louise Mensch and Labour party flirted with women only short lists rather than the leaving the decision to constituency parties alone.