The internal politics of the Independent Labour Party in the 1906-14 period were marked by conflicting pressures. Participation in the Labour Party, locally and nationally, necessitated compromising the ILP's initial socialist commitment. In Lancashire the Labour Party's advance' was largely predicated on the commitment of trade unions to labourist politics. ILP dissatisfaction invoked the party's older socialist traditions and the links with socialists outside the Labour Party. Dissidents challenged the leadership over the ILP's commitment to Labour Party election policy; over the strategy followed in parliament and over the thorny issue of internal democracy. Waves of dissent in 1907-9' were checked and frustrated as was another attempt via the 'Green Manifesto' in 1910. A basic loyalty to the Labour Party as the most viable road to socialism had underlain much debate. Many dissidents did leave to form the British Socialist Party in 1911, but the divisions of that organisation highlighted some of the problems that faced socialists in Britain. Their departure strengthened ILP loyalty to the Labour Party but the immediate pre war years saw continuing debate regarding election policy and Liberal-Labour relations. Increasing concern at the erosion of ILP autonomy and failure to maintain growth was also in evidence. A challenge from the left persisted - encouraged by the labour unrest and the diffusion of syndicalist ideas. But no effective socialist alternative emerged. The ILP remained committed to Labour.

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This thesis explores whether the experience of political party membership can be enhanced for individual members whilst, at the same time, parties can increase membership productivity. This exploration is conducted via a central hypothesis: "Satisfaction with the experience of membership is a stronger predictor of commitment to a political party than partisanship." An interdisciplinary approach drawing on marketing, nonprofit studies, organizational behaviour and political science is used to identify appropriate analytical frameworks for testing this hypothesis. A questionnaire survey of 1,849 members of a political party, Plaid Cymru The Party of Wales, indicated that, in terms of behavioural commitment, one partisanship variable - values motivations - predicted whether members took part in any one activity. But two satisfaction variables - socialization and job satisfaction - predicted the numbers and types of activities in which members participated. Job satisfaction was also found to predict the making of donations. In respect of attitudinal commitment, more relationships were observed with partisanship variables than with satisfaction variables. The experience of membership was found to differ between demographic groups of members. Linguistic and membership density groups showed differing levels of overall satisfaction, gender groups showed differing levels of participation. The less affluent and less well-educated members of Plaid Cymru benefited disproportionately more from their membership than other groups; whilst middle-aged, affluent members contributed more to the party than they appeared to receive. The appropriateness of using communications tools for membership management is discussed. Specific communications strategies to aid recruitment, socialize members, raise political efficacy levels, and generate increased revenues are described. It is argued that these communications strategies will simultaneously deliver the benefits that members want and increase their propensity to participate. The actions that political parties can take towards improving the experience of membership and the potential management implications of these actions are described.

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The thesis compares the British and Norwegian Labour parties between 1918 and 1939. It argues that the Norwegian Labour Party was more successful than its British counterpart in the interwar period. This was particularly true for the 1930s, which after the Depression started in 1929 were the crucial years for resolving the political struggle between the wars. Success clearly depended on the outcome of elections. For this reason two chapters concern the British party's campaigning in 1929, 1931 and 1935. The object is to discover how strong it was, what resources were available to it, its electoral tactics and to whom it appealed. Two parallel chapters treat the Norwegian party's electioneering in 1930, 1933 and 1936. The question of electoral appeal is important because highly influential research by Gosta Esping-Andersen (1985) and Gregory Luebbert (1991) found that an alliance between urban workers and the family peasantry was the key to Socialist success. This thesis aims to move beyond such a view. In the comparison of Britain and Norway it explains relative success in terms of the trajectories of the two parties, the effect of the Depression as well as labour movement strength and funding.

Ideology in political parties has been studied in a variety of different ways. From accounts which emphasise the decline of ideology to scholars attesting the centrality of ideas, the interaction between parties and ideology is often far from clear. In this thesis I set out to explore this relationship in greater detail, arguing that ideological analysis is relevant to understanding parties, but that existing modes of investigation should be tailored to reflect the specific circumstances of political parties. In advancing this contention I introduce the concept of party political ideology as a means for schematising my own study of this area; offering a model in which parties are seen to both possess and project an ideology. In operationalising this approach I concentrate on ideology as projected, arguing that to understand parties’ contemporary relationship with ideology it is informative to consider how the public view this interaction. This leads me to examine ideology through rhetoric, exploring parties’ communicative utterances to discern the way in which ideology is conveyed, the form of ideological change and the apparent relevance of ideology vis-à-vis other party motivations. In applying this approach attention is directed to the Labour Party between 1982 and 1997 and the Conservatives between 1996 and 2010, exploring these periods to examine ideology, ideological change and the indicators of modernisation. Whilst characterising ideology in both of these cases, and developing my own narrative of ideological change and modernisation, I also use this analysis to exhibit the capacities of my theoretical and methodological approach. This leads me to examine how parties’ ideological messages are likely to be decoded and how notions of ideological irrelevance arise; insights which help to explain perceptions of ideology in relation to contemporary party politics. In this regard this thesis engages in a theoretical, methodological and applied analysis of the relationship between political parties and ideology. This multi-stranded inquiry is used to assert the relevance of ideology in the field of party politics and the need to advance, under the banner of party political ideology, a form of analysis capable of appreciating the nuanced interaction between these concerns.

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No description available.

Popular support for the British National Party (BNP) in England reached unprecedented high levels during the early twentieth century. The BNP won a number of local council and European Parliament seats on the back of this popularity. This study seeks to provide a case study of one such poll success: Nuneaton 2008. Evidence from Nuneaton, a BNP success not previously studied, will be used to test the literature already generated addressing other locations of ‘breakthrough’, including Burnley and Stoke (Burnett 2011; Rhodes 2009). The thesis seeks to explain why the BNP was able to win elections where there had previously been no appetite for far right politics. The research focuses on the role of demand and supply-side factors contributing to the electoral success of the BNP in 2008, showing that any analysis of the far right has to be multivariate in nature. The demand-side variables identified and analysed are: socioeconomics, immigration and Islamophobia. The supply-side factors assessed are political opportunity structures, the BNP campaign strategy and the role of the media. A mixed-method approach was undertaken which included interviews with voters and politicians, focus groups, a questionnaire capturing the views 308 constituents, and archival research of socioeconomic data and newspaper reports. The findings of this research indicate that the BNP’s electoral breakthrough in Nuneaton was multivariable in nature, and it is reasonable to argue that particular variables were more significant than others. Immigration stands out as the most prominent variable. In addition, the role of the media, the press in particular, was of great significance in explaining breakthrough in Nuneaton through the sanitising and legitimising of negative stereotypes of immigrants, asylum seekers and Muslims. This case study also suggests that Islamophobia should be regarded as a key factor. Indeed, Islamophobia was an important part of the jigsaw and conflates with a number of variables tested in this thesis. In sum, this research broadly corroborates the existing literature. It does however suggest that socioeconomics has been overplayed to a degree in previous studies, while Islamophobia has been underplayed.