Managing Intra-Party Democracy: Comparing the French Socialist and British Labour Party Conferences

Eric Treille (1) , Florence Faucher (2)

1 ARENES - Arènes: politique, santé publique, environnement, médias
2 CEVIPOF - Centre de recherches politiques de Sciences Po (Sciences Po, CNRS)

The French Socialists and British Labour consider intra-party democracy as a central tenet of their philosophies. It is a core value that orientates their political attitudes and defines their identity. Traditionally, they have privileged a particular type of decision-making, based on the sovereignty of the party conference. However, at the beginning of the 1990s, these meetings projected a damaging image of division and chaos. Confronted with the intense scrutiny of their internal debates by the media, the two parties had to find a better balance between their culture and practices, and the need to promote an image of unity and efficiency. They introduced a number of reforms that, they claim, have expanded the possibilities for individual members to participate while at the same time giving the two leaderships a firmer grip on decision-making. Based on qualitative research conducted over many years, this paper explores the parties' new attitudes to internal democracy and analyses the process of power redistribution within the organizations.

Mots clés: labour party; parti socialiste; intra-party democracy; organizational change; labour party

Domaines: Science politique

Eric Treille, Florence Faucher. Managing Intra-Party Democracy: Comparing the French Socialist and British Labour Party Conferences. French Politics, 2003, 1 (1), pp.61-82. ⟨10.1057/palgrave.fp.8200017⟩. ⟨hal-03458646⟩