Political parties are the driving force behind liberal democracy, yet knowledge of who belongs to them and why is almost nonexistent. This work attempts to provide the first national profile of the social background, characteristics, attitudes and values, as well as the political experiences and activities of Labour Party members in Great Britain.

Based on a unique series of surveys conducted during the 1990s, this book examines changes in the social backgrounds, attitudes, beliefs, and political activities of Labor party members. It addresses questions such as: What do Labor party members think of New Labor and its policies? How important are the members to the party? Are they becoming more or less active over time? Can the party dispense with its membership and still remain viable?

Based on a unique series of surveys conducted during the 1990s, this book examines changes in the social backgrounds, attitudes, beliefs and political activities of Labour party members. It addresses questions such as: What do Labour party members think of New Labour and its policies? How important are the members to the party? Are they becoming more or less active over time? Can the party dispense with its membership and still remain viable?

'New' Labour was defined in part by wide-ranging reforms to the party's internal democracy. These included changes to how candidates and leaders are selected, changes to policy making processes, and a programme of 'quotas' that transformed women's representation in the party. In the first book to analyse all these reforms in depth Meg Russell asks what motivated them, to what extent they were driven by leaders or members, and what they can teach us both about party organisational change and the nature of power relations in the Labour Party today.

The New Labour project was not conjured up out of thin air — it only looks that way because of the party's amnesia about the intellectual roots and political traditions which have guided it. This book provides extracts from fifteen thinkers and politicians located within the revisionist tradition as an antidote to that amnesia. It is an 'all star cast' from R.H. Tawney, Hugh Gaitskell and Anthony Crosland to Roy Hattersley, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair. The collection demonstrates that Labour's revisionism is not a rigid body of doctrine but a 'cast of mind' that distinguishes between core values (ends) and policy instruments (means) — revisionist thinkers are engaged in the continuous pursuit of policy innovation, never shrinking from abandoning policies that fail to achieve the desired ends. All successful Labour governments have been determined to avoid the confusion of means and ends. These essays show a determination throughout the party's history to debate and discuss political ideas in the cause of a fairer, more equal society. Fully updated and revised edition.

The essays in this volume provide an introduction to the role, influence and effectiveness of Labour Party activists across Britain in the interwar period. Taking a systematic and comparative approach examining a range of representative areas, and by emphasising the role of the party membership, this volume utilises the local experience to develop and illuminate the wider dynamics at work inside the Labour Party.

The American labor movement seemed poised on the threshold of unparalleled success at the beginning of the post-World War II era. Fourteen million strong in 1946, unions represented thirty five percent of non-agricultural workers. Why then did the gains made between the 1930s and the end of the war produce so few results by the 1960s? This collection addresses the history of labor in the postwar years by exploring the impact of the global contest between the United States and the Soviet Union on American workers and labor unions. The essays focus on the actual behavior of Americans in their diverse workplaces and communities during the Cold War. Where previous scholarship on labor and the Cold War has overemphasized the importance of the Communist Party, the automobile industry, and Hollywood, this book focuses on politically moderate, conservative workers and union leaders, the medium-sized cities that housed the majority of the population, and the Roman Catholic Church. These are all original essays that draw upon extensive archival research and some upon oral history sources.

This accessible, rigorously researched and highly revealing book lifts the lid on political party membership. It represents the first in-depth study of six of the UK's biggest parties – Labour, the Conservatives, the Scottish National Party, the Liberal Democrats, UK Independence Party and the Greens – carried out simultaneously, thereby providing invaluable new insights into members' social characteristics, attitudes, activities and campaigning, reasons for joining and leaving, and views on how their parties should be run and who should represent them. In short, at a time of great pressure on, and change across parties, this book helps us discover not only what members want out of their parties but what parties want out of their members. This text is essential reading for those interested in political parties, party membership, elections and campaigning, representation, and political participation, be they scholars and students of British and comparative politics, or politicians, journalists and party members – in short, anyone who cares about the future of representative democracy.

The Conservatives are back - but what took them so long? Why did the world's most successful political party dump Margaret Thatcher only to commit electoral suicide under John Major? Just as importantly, what stopped the Tories getting their act together until David Cameron came along? The answers are as intriguing as the questions.

Richard Müller, a leading figure of the German Revolution in 1918, is unknown today. As the operator and unionist who represented Berlin’s metalworkers, he was main organiser of the ‘Revolutionary Stewards’, a clandestine network that organised a series of mass strikes between 1916 and 1918. With strong support in the factories, the Revolutionary Stewards were the driving force of the Revolution. By telling Müller's story, this study gives a very different account of the revolutionary birth of the Weimar Republic. Using new archival sources and abandoning the traditional focus on the history of political parties, Ralf Hoffrogge zooms in on working class politics on the shop floor and its contribution to social change. First published in German by Karl Dietz Verlag as Richard Müller - Der Mann hinter der November Revolution, Berlin, 2008, this english edition was completerly revised for the english speaking audience and contains new sources and recent literature.