Crimes and Misdemeanours: Managing Dissent in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Labour Party

Abstract

Throughout the 20th century, European parties of the left have had to deal with the tension between their leaderships’ need for freedom of manoeuvre and their activists’ insistence that those leaders display continued commitment to party democracy and party principles. Arguably, this tension has grown as an increasingly volatile electoral, parliamentary and economic environment has put an even greater premium on leadership flexibility.¹ Things are also worse because media coverage of politics has grown ever more obsessed with intraparty splits and spats. These, after all, are conflicts supposedly rooted in the ideological zeal of increasingly eloquent and resourceful partyactivists, on the one hand, and, on the other, in the disciplinary zeal of leaders now equipped with technology that enables them to police and punish dissent as never before.