The Next Step in Party Reform

...Dingell...

...A promise to try harder is made...

...Only if efforts were also directed at organizing these officeholders would the conditions for party government along British lines be created...

...Contemporary fashions of party reform generally have two objectives: making the party membership more representative of the electorate and giving their preferences greater weight with the elected...

...Even at best, these reforms will hardly make American parties into imitations of the British ideal, but they are clearly attempts to move towards what Austin Ranney has called the model of "responsible party government," where a group of activists will adopt a program which all candidates running under its banner are committed to support if elected...

...Early in the week, a young Secretary of State for Housing delivered a key address on the government's programs in that area, perhaps a harbinger of a new and more important portfolio...

...In the middle of a lengthy reSponse to debate may come official hint of a new party policy, or electoral strategy, or perhaps even a change in the composition of the hierarchy...

...It follows that adding annual party conferences to American political institutions will not in itself move the country much nearer to "responsible party government...

...The great compromise with this principle of constituency representation in Britain occurs at the level of the party in Parliament...

...Ever since tradition, necessity, or pure expedience forced partisanship upon many of these same men, American politicians have displayed little reluctance to create, restructure, or abandon parties...

...it, not the party assembled in annual conference, is collectively, responsible to the electorate...

...Even in Britain where formal party membership is much more extensive than in the United States, the delegates to the annual conferences come from a public considerably smaller than the potential electorate...

...This view may not always be correct, nor even bear on a particular issue, but must always be considered...

...House Speaker Carl Albert was then reportedly carried onto the floor of the House to rule whether 6r not the gentlewoman from New York was, in fact, out of order...

...A vote is taken, overwhelmingly supporting the leadership...

...Its three days of meetings consisted of debates on resolutions chosen by the national leadership from among those submitted by local party associations...

...More enlightened discussions of policy options by the Democratic Party may be desirable for a variety of reasons, but they will not have much impact on the actions of nationally elected officials...

...While satisfying its supporters, it must be wary of taking stands that will be irrelevant or embarrassing at election time...

...Despite crucial party support at campaign time, a successful candidate owes hi~ ultimate allegiance to his constituency as a whole...

...The effect of these arrangements is to insulate him from the demands of both constituency and mass party...

...Disciplined and programmatic parties may behave quite differently in practice than in theory...

...What, then, do these yearly gatherings accomplish...

...Labour conferees do choose a national party executive committee and may be called to account for their selections when they return home...

...During recent House debate on H.R...

...The annual gatherings serve as trials by ordeal for those who would be leaders...

...Don't let anyone say that we on the Left have not done everything in our power to unite the party for the election and we have every right to demand that they accept its meaning," proclaimed Michael Foot, a leading socialist, as he warned his fellow members of Parliament against backsliding...

...Thus, the disciplined and programmatic character of British parties arises not from the connection between a mass party and its elected officials, but from the relationship among the officeholders...

...Though the leadership can win most votes, bargaining is necessary and the outcome may be in doubt even on an important issue, such as policy towards the Common Market_ The key battle, however, is on whether the conference resolutions shall be binding on the Labour Party's members in Parliament...

...offered a floor amendment which would have prohibited fuel allocation for busing beyond neighborhood schools...

...Rising in all her Elysian splendor, Ms...

...Rarely is his career so promising afterwards...

...Bella, of course, is New York's femrne fatale, Congressperson Ms...

...A noisy row was touched off by some parenthetical remarks by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which revealed that the leadership's tolerance for right-wing critics within the party had reached an end...

...Even the speakers were selected by the leadership and when they concluded, one of the party's ministers summarizes the proceedings, much like a communal elder recording the sense of the meeting...

...To be sure, the parliamentary organizations of Labour and Conservative members must be careful to avoid a breach with their party followers and it is this necessity which adds meaning to the gatherings in Blackpool and the other party activities during the year...

...Thus, in 1974 (tentatively scheduled for December 6, 7, and 8 in Kansas City), the Democratic Party will hold a conference on policy and organization...

...Though the party of the British working class usually seems unwilling to let this risk constrain its proceedings, nonetheless, annual policy conferences may, curiously, offer more advantages for the ins than the outs...

...Even Labour members of Parliament officially sponsored by trade unions, though sensitive to the interests of their patrons, retain their prerogative to act in accordance with their own conception of constituency interests...

...Of course, the apparently greater efficiency of the British party system stems in part from the differences between government by Cabinet and by President and Congress...

...Perhaps this is the key obstacle to a more responsible system: a traditionally ambivalent attitude which would have parties become more effective instruments of governing while behaving less like parties...

...The failings of the American party system are usually set against the virtues of the ideal one...

...The annual conferences of the Labour and Conservative Parties, held during the first two weeks of October in Blackpool, offer one relevant way of checking...

...Being the party in government, the Conservatives are in a somewhat better position for these maneuvers...

...Asking how we could allow our children to become sacrificial lambs of scandalous demogoguery (expressed again in less than genteel language), the Abzug outburst was halted when Congressman Bauman (RMd...

...Especially among Conservatives, those attending are as much spokesmen as delegates...

...Perhaps what is most notable is that for neither the governing Conservative Party nor the opposition Labour is the annual conference a policy-making body...

...The Chair ruled against Ms...

...While the practical difficulties of implementing such a system in the United States may be cited, or the value of existing arrangements defended, the argument is infrequently enlightened by consideration of how ostensibly responsible parties do operate...

...the machinery of its national committee is also being strengthened...

...An Opposition party, such as Labour, has to be more circumspect...

...though spirits may run high, both on and off the convention floor, the overall mood is one of relief...

...But the formal checks and balances of the national government could just as well serve to buttress any argument for making American parties more disciplined and programmatic...

...Indeed, for the former there is hardly any preten~e...

...But, for a simple reason, this is improbable...

...On nationwide television, a junior minister may defend a controversial policy or a prospective parliamentary candidate may declaim on the 14 The Alternative March 1974 day's leading issues...

...To be sure, for journalists and politicians to be thinking---and talking--about the party's prospects was no small accomplishment...

...If the Conference reaffirmed the major tenets of the party's traditional creed just before the election, a Labour victory could be viewed as popular endorsement of left-wing policies...

...In fact, as with American party conventions, the nation's political elite may be the only important audience...

...Moreover, other portions of the party apparatus--the national executive committees, the permanent party ofrices, and so on--are active between conferences...

...On the platform sits the leadership, the present or future government, listening to those dpon whose efforts they rely, speaking to those whose votes they desire, and guarding their freedom to govern...

...The nineteenth-century interest in making the parties less corrupt has heretofore had few takers...

...They have a record in Office to expound and more than partisan import adheres to the statements of their leaders...

...11450 (the Energy Emergency A c t - s t i l l tied up in Congress) Congressman John Dingell (D-Mich...

...But a system of voting that Mayor Daley might envy gives a hereditary character to the results...

...So, as the delegates sang '~ Red Flag" to bring the gathering to a close, pundits pondered what, if anything, had really been effected...

...This year, as in the past, after a private session the Party's elected officials preserved their independence...

...Abzug called Dingell's actions.--in no uncertain terms--racist and demagogic...

...Yet, practical problems of the American electoral system aside, reformers interested in the first instance in democratizing the national party are likely to have little affection for changes that would increase the gap between the~elected official and the voter...

...And even though few Britons regard their parties as ideal, the basic features of their conferences may suggest what to expect from the Democrats' venture this year...

...Though all are paid-up members of their parties, they come to Blackpool representing trade unions, youth groups, and so on...

...With a fine sense of historical irony, proposals to reform American parties, for the last hundred years or so, have frequently found models in their British counterparts...

...Owing, perhaps, to its traditions or to the temperament of its members, there is a bit more suspense at the Labour Party conference, but the result is hardly different...

...While public attention was focussed on maneuvers to seek or avoid quotas, changes of a different sort were also being discussed and adopted...

...This year's conference of the Labour Party excelled at this...

...If the party conferences have little to do with policy-making, they have even less to do with nominations...

...Whether in power or in opp~ sition, only the Parliamentary Party can claim a national following...

...Even before it officially opened, a widely publicized demand for a commitment to nationalize twenty: five companies revealed that the party's socialist tide was again cresting...

...Letter from a Whig by C. Bascom Slemp No Excuse to Cop Out "Point of Order" (WASHINGTON) - - Before Congress could adjourn for its Christmas recess, Bellicose Bella struck again...

...Making representatives and senators subject to a congressional caucus would necessarily weaken their relationship to their own constituencies...

...A division within the leadership may be brought to a boil, or a debate on an issue of principle forced, producing pledges too firm to avoid...

...Finally, in a country where precedent and common sense substitute for a written constitution, it is always possible for the party conferences to evolve into policy-making bodies...

...The national executive has less control over the motions debated (which are amendments or policy suggestions for its published national program) or the speakers...

...Except as campaign workers, they may not even be active in local politics...

...There are times, of course, when the yearly seaside gatherings have significance for the party or even for the government...

...In ways subtle and direct, they can influence the parliamentary leadership, though the reverse may be at least as likely...

...Similarly, a member of Commons also owes allegiance to his Parliamentary Party's program, a conception of the national interest, not diverse local ones...

...Just prior to the beginning of this year's conference, Prime Minister Heath unveiled Phase Three of the Government's anti-inflation program, effectively channeling economic debate for the rest of the week...

...Scholars and serious journalists (as well as future presidents) have admired the way these political organizations supposedly command the allegiance of their members in office so as to provide a basis for electoral choice and the capacity for governmental action...

...In any event, the really important officeholders, the leaders and senior members of the party delegations in Parliament, are chosen by their own caucus...

...The Next Step in Party Reform W HATEVER THE REAL motives behind them, the reforms of party structure which the Democrats have undertaken may be seen historically as the latest phase of the American quest to perfect its political organizations...

...An explanation of this omission may lie elsewhere in the reform movement...

...As any high school civics student knows, the Constitution makes no provision for parties, while in speeches and pamphlets the early leaders of the Republic made known their worries of the dangers of factionalism...

...Most assuredly, the nation is told, it has not...

...But it was also Foot's forceful oratory that brought jubilation to the leadership by carrying the day on the motion to preserve their independence from conference decisions...

...But the impact of this and the other e~zents was more upon a few within the hall than the many without...

...Britain's "third" party, the Liberal, again showing signs of resurgence in the opinion polls, devoted much of its conference to trying to prove it is a party...

...While the week's events may sharpen issues, they are at least as likely to reinforce consensus...

...as well as local party associations...

...Bella Abzug...

...Have the party's leaders failed to communicate properly with their followers...

...Abzug...

...But, as a result, perhaps the most perilous act a British politician can perform is to stand apart from his colleagues in Parliament...

...Bauman thought the remarks of the "g/mtlewoman in the well" (one wonders whether that was to be taken beth literally and figuratively in this public parliamentary interplay) violated the "rules of the House and impugned the motives of the gentleman from Michigan, (Mr...

...her language was stricken from the Record, and she was prohibited from participating in floor debate for twenty-four hours--cruel and unusual punishment which undoubtedly deserves to be declared unconstitutional...

...One set of conferences, of course, may not be typical, although an election within the next year is-a sobering possibility...

...The-tedious debates, the impassioned speeches, and the various "fringe" group meetings amount to an expression of collective and dissident values within the party...

...Both of these steps are designed to give the party some coherence in the four years between presidential campaigns...

...Most discussions of this model, however, have a curiously one-sided quality...

...Towards the close of the conference, the long-awaited remarks by the Government's man in Belfast, rumored to be in line for promotion to deputy leader, were hailed as "Churchillian" by a favorable press...

...requested a point of order...

...CRYP For young people not yet turned off by The Alternative March 1974 15...

...Has the hallowed commitment to a free health service, or free enterprise, waned...

...After a week in which rank-and-file and leaders vied to take the most radical stance, the left was jubilant...

...But the current reforms, though adopted on the recommendation of groups chaired by congressmen and senators, are notably unconcerned with doing so...

...In the morning, and over the next few weeks, judgment will be passed on these initiatives...

...The Conservative Party conference typically provides for much of this sort of communication...

...Manifestly, they are a way of putting a party's case to the country between elections...

...Even so, the resolution thus adopted is not binding on the party's delegation in Parliament...

...Yet in the ' end, the degree of influence of the mass party depend chiefly on the susceptibility of the one in Commons, for it alone can lay claim to a national constituency...

...Even electoral success does not quench this passion, as we will be reminded when Republicans begin to install "improved" criteria for delegate selection before their 1976 convention...

...The one exception this year was on a capital punishment resolution, which the national leadership had already declared would not be binding, since the issue was one of conscience...