Social Class and Political Attitudes: The Case of Labour Councillors
| Date | 01 March 1979 |
| Author | Ian Gordon,Paul Whiteley |
| Published date | 01 March 1979 |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9248.1979.tb01190.x |
| Subject Matter | Article |
SOCIAL CLASS AND POLITICAL
ATTITUDES:
THE
CASE
OF
LABOUR
COUNCILLORS
IAN
GORDON
and PAUL WHITELEY
Kingston Polytechnic University
of
Bristol
INTRODUCTION
IN
19711
Barry Hindess published a study of grass roots Labour Party politics
in Liverpool in which he tried to show through a study
of
ward parties that the
working class was increasingly opting out
of
politics, a conclusion which he
suggests has important implications for the future
of
British poiitics. This view
has raised a considerable amount
of
interest* though it has been heavily
criticized for generalizing from what is arguably an atypical example of a local
Labour Party.
Nevertheless, the general thesis has been supported, with some modification,
in studies of other constituency parties4 While we are told
by
many writers
that increasingly the middle-class have been attracted into the Labour Party at
all levels,s there
is
an important aspect of this argument that has not been
B. Hindess,
The Decline of Working
Class
Politics
(London, MacGibbon and
Kee,
1971).
See
R. Baxter, ‘The Working-Class and Labour Politics’,
Political Studies,
XX
(1972). 97-107;
R. Dowse, ‘The Decline of Working-class Politics’,
British Journal of Sociology,
XXIV
(1973).
264-5;
P. Seyd, ‘Review
of
Hindess’,
Bulletin of the Society for the Study
of
Labour History,
24
(1972). 82-5;
T. Forester,
The Labour Party and the Working-class
(London, Heinemann,
1976);
S.
Beackon, ‘Labour Party Politics and the Working-class’,
British Journal
of
Political Science,
6
(1976), 231-8;
H.
Elcock,
Political Behaviour
(London, Methuen,
1976). 193-9;
K.
Newton,
Second City Politics
(London, Oxford University Press,
1976),
p.
112;
J. Gyford,
Local Politics in
Britain
(London, Croom Helm,
1976),
p.
90;
D.
Coates,
The Labour Party and the Struggle for
Socialism
(Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,
1975).
p.
133;
K.
Roberts et al.,
The
Fragmentarv Class Structure
(London, Heinemann,
1977),
p.
158.
’
See Baxter, ‘The Working Class and Labour Politics’, pp.
97-107,
and Dowse, ‘The Decline
of
Working Class Politics’, pp.
264-5.
See for example Forester,
The Labour Party and the Working
Class,
p.
118;
Beackon, ‘Labour
Party Politics and the Working Class’;
E.
G.
Janosik.
Constituency Labour Parties in Britain
(London, Pall Mall,
1968).
At the level
of
the local Council see
lor
example J. Brand, ‘Party Organisation and
the Recruitment
of
Councillors’,
British Journal of Political Science,
3 (1973), 473-86;
W.
Hampton,
Democracy and Community
(London, Oxford University Press,
1970),
p.
189;
L. J. Sharpe, ‘The Politics
of
Local Government in Greater London’,
Public Administration,
38 (1960), 157-72,
and ‘Elected Representatives in
Local
Government’,
British Journal
of
Sociology,
13 (1964). 169-209.
At
the Parliamentary level see the classic study by
W.
L. Guttsman,
The British Political Elite
(London, MacGibbon and
Kee,
1964),
though for an up to date
discussion see R. W. Johnson, ‘The British Political Elite
1955-72’,
European Journal
of
Sociology,
14 (1973), 35-77.
For
a
discussion of the ‘growing embourgeoisement’ of the Labour Party’s National Executive
see
V.
J.
Hanby,
‘A
Changing Labour Elite: the National Executive of the Labour Party
1900-72’
Political Studies,
Vol.
XXVII,
No.
1
(99-113)
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