Changing Parties: An Anthropology of British Political Party Conferences

326 Pages·2005·1.33 MB·English

by  Florence Faucher-King (auth.)

Changing Parties
By the same author
Florence Faucher, LES HABITS VERTS DE LA POLITIQUE
Changing Parties
An Anthropology of British Political Party
Conferences
Florence Faucher-King
© Florence Faucher-King 2005
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2005 978-1-4039-0462-1
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First published 2005 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-50946-1 ISBN 978-0-230-50988-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230509887
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Faucher-King, Florence.
Changing parties:an anthropology of British political party conferences/
Florence Faucher-King.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Political parties—Great Britain—Congresses. 2. Great Britain—
Politics and government—Congresses. I. Title.
JN1117 F38 2005
306.2′6′0941—dc22 2005048057
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05
To Rich and Lila
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Contents
Glossary and List of Abbreviations or Acronyms viii
Acknowledgments ix
1 An Anthropological Approach to “Conventional Politics” 1
2 Why Do People Attend Conferences? 25
3 Imagined Communities 44
4 Constructing Leadership and Authority 71
5 Setting the Agenda 94
6 Making the News 121
7 The Public Performance 144
8 The Discourse of Deliberative Democracy 167
9 Direct Democracy: The Vote as Fetish 191
10 Fringe Benefits: Dissent vs Commercialisation 214
Conclusion – Politics in the Age of the Individual 236
Appendix 1: Quoted Interviews 246
Appendix 2: Conferences 1994–2002 248
Appendix 3: Comparative Overview of Change in the Four Parties 249
Notes 253
Bibliography 290
Index 304
vii
Glossary and List of Abbreviations
or Acronyms
BNFL British Nuclear Fuel
Board Supreme decision-making body (Conservative party)
CAC Conference Arrangement Committee (Labour party)
CLP Constituency Labour Party
Composite Policy documents composited from different motions
that were debated by the Labour Conference prior to the
adoption of Partnership in Power in 1997
CPC Conservative Policy Centre
CPF Conservative Policy Forum
FPC Federal Policy Committee (Liberal Democrats)
FCC Federal Conference Committee (Liberal Democrats)
GMC General Management Committee of a Constituency Labour
party (Labour party)
GPEx Green Party Executive
IPPR Institute for Public Policy Research (think tank)
JPC Joint Policy Committee (Labour party)
MfSS Manifesto for a Sustainable Society (Green Party)
NGO Non-Governmental Organisation
NEC National Executive Committee (Labour party)
NPF National Policy Forum (Labour party)
NU National Union of Conservative Associations
OMOV One member one vote
OWOW “Other Ways of Working”, Green Party working group
PLP Parliamentary Labour Party
PolCom Policy Committee (Green Party)
PPC Prospective Parliamentary Candidate
Quangos Quasi autonomous non-governmental organisations
RSPB Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
SOC Standing Orders Committee (Green Party)
TU Trade Union
WWF World Wildlife Fund, now called The Global Conserva-
tion Organisation
viii
Acknowledgments
The research in this book could not have been undertaken without the
assistance of numerous people and organisations. I would like to thank
the Conservative Party, the Green Party, the Labour Party and the
Liberal Democrats for granting me access to their conferences and to
other meetings. I am indebted to many party activists and staff who
welcomed me and shared their views and experiences with me and to
the journalists, lobbyists and campaigners who spoke to me and answered
my queries. They cannot all be named but I would like to thank them
all and especially Arlene Ryan, Chris Poole, Penny McCormack and
Don Smith who opened doors for me. I also want to thank Jon Sopel,
George Pascoe-Watson and Ivan Rudd. Special thanks to Willie Sullivan
and John Taylor for long conversations and their friendship. A special
mention should be made of Mike Woodin, a friend and admirable
politician, whose untimely death is a great loss not only to friends and
family but also to politics in general. This research was made possible
by the support of Saint Peter’s College, the Maison Française at Oxford,
the Politics Department of Stirling University and the CEVIPOF at
Sciences Po, Paris. The Robert Schumann and Jean Jaurès Foundations
contributed some additional funds. Gavin Williams and Vernon Bogdanor
provided precious support when I was trying to define my project and
“infiltrate” British parties. Finally, I would like to thank the following
friends and colleagues: Stephen Ingle was of great support as Head of
Department, colleague and friend. He also had the patience to read
through earlier drafts and provided extremely valuable comments. Paul
Whiteley encouraged me from the very start on this long exploration of
British parties and even considered possibilities of a joint research project. I
am sorry we never made it to the Young Conservatives Ball! He
provided insightful reading of very rough drafts of this book. I thank
Florence Haegel, Nicolas Sauger and Ariane Chebel d’Appollonia for
their helpful suggestions on various drafts. Nina Eliasoph, whose own
work was an important step in the development of my argument, has
offered valuable remarks on several chapters. Special thanks to Eric
Shaw for his extremely helpful suggestions on the final draft and at very
short notice.
Thanks to my parents for their infallible support throughout and
particularly in the last couple of years of this project. Finally, special
ix