All I'm asking, is for a little respect: assessing the performance of Britain's most successful radical left party

This article offers an overview of the genesis, development and decline of the Respect Party, a rare example of a radical left party which has achieved some degree of success in the UK. It analyses the party's electoral fortunes and the reasons for its inability to expand on its early breakthroughs in East London and Birmingham. Respect received much of its support from Muslim voters, although the mere presence of Muslims in a given area was not enough for Respect candidates to get elected. Indeed, despite criticism of the party for courting only Muslims, it did not aim to draw its support from these voters alone. Moreover, its reliance on young people and investment in local campaigning on specific political issues were often in opposition to the traditional ethnic politics which have characterised the electoral process in some areas

Transforming Masculinist Political Cultures? Doing Politics in New Political Institutions

In the devolved legislative assemblies of Scotland and Wales the proportion of women representatives is approaching parity. This is in marked contrast to Westminster where one in five MPs are women. In this paper we explore the extent to which the masculinist political cultures characterising established political institutions are being reproduced in the National Assembly for Wales or whether its different gendering, both in the numbers of women representatives and in terms of its institutional framework, is associated with a more feminised political and organisational culture. Drawing on interviews with half the Assembly Members, women and men, we show that the political style of the Assembly differs from that of Westminster and that Assembly Members perceive it as being more consensual and as embodying a less aggressive and macho way of doing politics. AMs relate this difference to the gender parity amongst Assembly Members, to the institutional arrangements which have an \'absolute duty\' to promote equality embedded in them, and to the desire to develop a different way of doing politics. We suggest that the ability to do politics in a more feminised and consensual way relates not only to the presence of a significant proportion of women representatives, but also to the nature of the institution and the way in which differently gendered processes and practices are embedded within it. Differently gendered political institutions can develop a more feminised political culture which provides an alternative to the masculinist political culture characterising the political domain.Gender, Political Culture, New Political Institutions, Consensus Politics, Political Style, National Assembly for Wales

‘The longest suicide vote in history’: the Labour Party leadership election of 2015

The Labour leadership contest of 2015 resulted in the election of the veteran Left-wing backbencher, Jeremy Corbyn, who clearly defeated the early favourite, Andy Burnham. Yet Corbyn enjoyed very little support among Labour MPs, and his victory plunged the PLP into turmoil, particularly as he was widely viewed as incapable of leading the Party to victory in the 2020 general election. Given that, much of the established academic literature on Party leadership contests emphasises the ability to foster unity, and thereby render a party electable, as two of the key criteria for electing a new leader, coupled with overall competence, important questions are raised about how and why the Labour Party chose someone to lead them who clearly does not meet these criteria. We will argue that whilst these are the natural priorities of MPs when electing a new leader, in Corbyn’s case, much of the extra-parliamentary Labour Party was more concerned about ideological conviction and purity of principles, regardless of how far these diverged from public opinion. This was especially true of those who signed-up to the Labour Party following the 2015 general election defeat. Indeed, many of these only did so after Corbyn had become a candidate. This clearly suggests a serious tension between maximising intra-party democracy and ensuring the electability of the parliamentary party itself

The ties that bind : the political involvement of Flemish party staffers

Political staffers are an overlooked but increasingly relevant area of study. Not only are political parties increasingly dependent on their staff due to professionalization and decreasing activism among party members, many elected officials learn the ropes in these paid positions behind the scenes. As they became key players in the decision-making process of contemporary representative democracies, scholars have argued that the political involvement of staffers as party activists has decreased as a result of professionalization (Panebianco, 1988). Based on survey data collected among staffers (N=623), this paper examines if this assumption applies to the Flemish case by analyzing four indicators for party activism: current party membership, party membership prior to being hired, holding an internal party position and electoral candidacy. Furthermore, differences between subgroups of staffers are contrasted to understand which types of staff are more likely to have a political connection to their party. The results demonstrate that the party ties of political staff in Flanders, like other European cases, are considerably stronger than assumed by influential party models (Katz & Mair, 1995; Panebianco, 1988). Moreover, the analysis indicates that political involvement is the highest among staffers with political-strategic tasks and personnel at parliamentary party group groups. In conclusion, the impact of individual party-related factors such as ideological position, electoral strength and party age should be studied among a higher number of parties to determine which specific aspects of party culture might stimulate political involvement among staffers

How Do Unionists Vote? Estimating the Causal Impact of Union Membership on Voting Behaviour from 1966 to 2004

I explore the voting patterns of trade union members in Australian elections conducted between 1966 and 2004, and find that on average, 63 percent of trade union members vote for the Australian Labor Party. Despite the fact that union membership declined from around one-half of the workforce in the early-1980s to one-quarter of the workforce in the early-2000s, unionists have not become more pro-Labor. Analysing unionists’ voting behaviour by gender, I find that male unionists were more pro-Labor than female unionists in the 1960s, but the reverse is true today. Recognising that union membership may be endogenous with respect to political ideology, I instrument for union membership and conclude that the observed association between union membership and voting reflects a causal relationship.voting, elections, unions, endogeneity, instrumental variables

Between Domestication and Europeanisation. A Gendered Perspective on Reproductive (Human) Rights Law

Europeanization; European Court of Justice; European law; gender policy; law; U.K.