Book Review: Britain and Ireland: Electing and Rejecting Party Leaders in Britain
| Date | 01 May 2013 |
| DOI | 10.1111/1478-9302.12016_98 |
| Published date | 01 May 2013 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
whizzed through, and much has already been written
on parts of the subject. (Geoff Andrew’s history of the
CPGB Endgames and NewTimes: The FinalYearsof Br itish
Communism 1964–19911and Alan Finlayson’s excellent
Making Sense of New Labour,2for example, have covered
the impact of the Marxism Today debates on New
Labour’s formation/formulation.) Pearmain wears his
politics on his sleeve; his work is unapologetically
polemical. This can mean, however, that the narrative
becomes obviously slanted; it is surely time to dispense
with the de rigueur howls of personal disgust about
Laclau and Mouffe for their allegedly ‘essentially
hollow jargon’ and ‘pompous quotation marks’ (p. 98),
etc.
After such a long run-up, the second part, the
actual analysis of New Labour, feels short-lived. Here
Pearmain applies Gramsci’s ideas on technology,‘Cae-
sarism’ and class struggle, for example, to his subject
matter, producing a left-wing critique which, while
framed in Gramscian terminology, will be broadly
familiar and probably sympathetic to many. Applied
analyses of the development and affective history of
ideas, as well as the rigorous analytical application of
individual thinkers to subjects, is possibly somewhat
lacking in the ‘Brit Pol’ literature presently. This easy-
to-read book will, it is therefore hoped, provide a
gateway to readers, especially undergraduate, to grasp
not just Gramsci, but the role of ideas – rather than
simply personalities, party mechanics and media spin –
in British politics today.
Notes
1 Lawrence & Wishart, 2004.
2 Lawrence & Wishart, 2003.
David S. Moon
(University of Liverpool)
Electing and Rejecting Party Leaders in Britain
by Thomas Quinn. London: Palgrave Macmillan,
2012. 248pp., £57.50, ISBN 978 0 230 21961 8
This book provides an important evaluation of how
mainstream political parties select and eject their
leaders. The roles of institutions, candidate likeability
and contextual divisional issues can each have a signifi-
cant impact upon the process of leadership selection.
Spanning the mainstream political parties, Quinn pro-
vides an insightful appraisal of the processes utilised,
showing how and why parties select and eject their
leaders. Clearly the means by which this process is
conducted is by no means universal, and the author
provides a thorough exploration of institutional distinc-
tions surrounding these differences.
As a propensity, division and unity frame aspects of
the leadership selection process. A divided party may
gravitate more towards a leader likely to span those
divisions (towards garnering unity), while an already
united party may look towards more pragmatic elec-
toral considerations.An example of this can be found in
the election of Michael Foot, whose appeal extended
to moderates on the left and right (standing in oppo-
sition to those on the extremes of both). Inversely,at a
time of unity,the Labour Party selected Tony Blair,seen
to be more favourable with the mainstream electorate.
This reflects the importance of divisional context upon
leadership selection.
Furthermore, tied to a slow growth of democratic
process across the parties since the mid-twentieth
century, leaders are now assumed to hold more of a
mandate than former less democratically appointed
figures, such asAlec Douglas-Home. Subverting expec-
tations, this enhancement of the democratic process can
scarcely be said to have opened up leadership elections.
Indeed, within the mainstream parties such elections
continue to draw out elite rather than rank-and-file
leadership candidates.
A consequential value of this book derives from the
broader contribution it provides to existing scholarship
on leadership elections. Given that the focus of this
work spans all the main parties rather than any specific
indicative ideological sampling,the book contr ibutes an
important evaluation of cross-party leadership elec-
tions. In terms of audience, it will be of significant
value to students of British politics and leadership elec-
tions, although this does not preclude a wider appeal.
Indeed, students of Labour, Conservative and Liberal
Democratic politics will find much to interest them
here.Although this book provides a significant contri-
bution, it must be seen as the continuation of a longer-
running debate on the subject rather than as a
conclusion, which implies that a follow-up assessment
may well emerge as parties continue to refine their
leadership selection processes.
Andrew Scott Crines
(University of Huddersfield)
288 BRITAIN AND IRELAND
© 2013 TheAuthors. Political Studies Review © 2013 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2013, 11(2)
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