NEW PARTIESINEW POLITICS? A Case Study of the British Labour Party

Britain's two major parties have rediscovered their members. For a variety of reasons both the Labour and Conservative parties have adopted pro-active recruitment strategies. At the same time, they have introduced direct democracy as an important part of their internal procedures. A detailed study of Labour's reforms suggests various possible implications for the future, including the fact that the plebisci-tarian party might be an increasingly common feature in modern democracies. KEY WORDS _ direct democracy _ Labour Party _ party membership _ plebiscitary politics _ political parties Labour believes in individual members having real power in the party (Labour Party, Welcome to Labour, 1995) We are going to make it a much more attractive proposition to join the Conservative Party. We are going to give our members a vote in the affairs of the party. (William Hague, Letter to Conservative Party members