From: Gautam Mukunda <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Killer Bs Discussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Labour revolt Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 13:04:50 -0800 (PST)
--- Richard Baker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I think that Labour MPs are much more "New Labour" > than most of the > Labour Party though. Quite a lot of town and county > councils seem to > have an awful lot of unreconstructed Labourites > (some even verging on > actual Marxism) sitting on them. (Or at least that's > the general > feeling - I haven't seen any figures supporting > this.) > > Rich
That would be very surprising (note, I'm not disagreeing with you, just expressing my surprise based on theoretical grounds). Usually the leadership of an organization is significantly more extreme than its membership. See, well, almost any organization, because of simple organizational dynamics (Who's most likely to seek the leadership? The most committed, and so on.) Thus in the US, for example, the Democratic (and Republican) parties in the House (less so in the Senate) are far more extreme than the actual membership of either party.
I never considered it quite that way, but this is a very logical explanation for why so few true moderates seem to rise to the top of either party. Gautam, do you know of any essays or research online that examine this phenomenon in depth?
Curious, TIA, Jon
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