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The Tories and Television, 1951-1964 pp 139–147Cite as

Broadcasting an Elite

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media ((PSHM))

Abstract

Chapter 8 aims to bring together some of the diverse strands of thought throughout the book, and offer some final conclusions. Forming a comparative history, it argues that developments in television paved the way for a culture in which the active role of the grassroots membership became notably reduced and Conservative Central Office priorities turned significantly towards broadcasting the party elite. The chapter concludes that 1951–64 was a period in which the party experienced a progressive tightening of party hierarchy, which was exhibited through both incremental and punctuated changes. This helped shift the party towards a more centralized and professionalized organization in favour of a more strengthened and autonomous party elite.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Asa Briggs, The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom Volume IV: Sound and Vision (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), p. 10 (Briggs 1979).

  2. 2.

    Birth Television Archive (online), Harold Macmillan, Speech, BBC Television 25th Anniversary Dinner, 1961 (Birth Television Archive 1961).

  3. 3.

    Leon D. Epstein, Political Parties in Western Democracies (London: Pall Mall Press, 1967) (Epstein 1967).

  4. 4.

    Robert T. McKenzie, British Political Parties: The Distribution of Power within the Conservative and Labour Parties (London: Heinemann, 1963), p. 291 (McKenzie 1963).

  5. 5.

    Maurice Duverger, Political Parties: Their Organisation and Activity in the Modern State (London: Methuen, 1964) (Duverger 1964).

  6. 6.

    Ralph Negrine, Television and the Press since 1945 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998) (Negrine 1998).

  7. 7.

    Ibid. (Negrine 1998).

  8. 8.

    Ibid. (Negrine 1998).

  9. 9.

    Tim Bale, The Conservatives since 1945, The Drivers of Party Change (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012) (Bale 2012).

  10. 10.

    Ralph Negrine, The Transformation of Political Communication: Continuities and Changes in Media and Politics (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) (Negrine 2008).

  11. 11.

    Paul Webb, ‘Party Organizational Change in Britain: The Iron Law of Centralization’, in Richard S. Katz and Peter Mair (eds.) How Parties Organize: Change and Adaptation in Party Organizations in Western Democracies (London: Sage, 1994), pp. 109–33 (Webb 1994).

  12. 12.

    See Chapters 3–5.

  13. 13.

    Laura Beers, ‘Labour’s Britain, Fight for it Now!’, The Historical Journal, 52(3) (2009): 667–95 (Beers 2009).

  14. 14.

    Richard Cockett, ‘The Party, Publicity, and the Media’, in Anthony Seldon and Stuart Ball (eds.) Conservative Century: The Conservative Party since 1900 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 547–78, 547 (Cockett 1994).

  15. 15.

    Michael Kandiah, ‘Television Enters British Politics: The Conservative Party’s Central Office and political broadcasting, 1945–55’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 15(2) (1995): 265–84 (Kandiah 1995).

  16. 16.

    Colin Seymour-Ure, Prime Ministers and the Media: Issues of Power and Control (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003) (Seymour-Ure 2003).

  17. 17.

    Duverger, Parties (Duverger 1964).

  18. 18.

    Angelo Panebianco, Political Parties: Organisation and Power (Cambridge: Press Syndicate, 1988) (Panebianco, 1988).

  19. 19.

    See, James Curran, Media and Power (London: Routledge, 2002), p. 4, and, also, Chapter 2 (Curran 2002).

  20. 20.

    Anthony Ridge-Newman, Cameron’s Conservatives and the Internet: Change, Culture and Cyber Toryism (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) (Ridge-Newman 2014).

  21. 21.

    Asa Briggs, The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Volume V: Competition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995) (Briggs 1995).

  22. 22.

    Duverger, Parties (Duverger 1964).

  23. 23.

    H. H. Wilson, Pressure Group: The Campaign for Commercial Television (London: Martin Secker, 1961) (Wilson 1961).

  24. 24.

    Samuel Huntington, ‘Political Development and Political Decay’, World Politics, 17(3) (1965): 386–430 (Huntington 1965).

  25. 25.

    Kandiah, ‘Television’ (Kandiah 1995).

References

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  • Huntington, Samuel. 1965. Political Development and Political Decay. World Politics, 17:3: 386–430.

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    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKenzie, Robert. 1963. British Political Parties: The Distribution of Power within the Conservative and Labour Parties. London: Heinemann.

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  • Webb, Paul. 1994. Party Organizational Change in Britain: The Iron Law of Centralization. In How Parties Organize: Change and Adaptation in Party Organizations in Western Democracies, ed. Richard Katz and Peter Mair, 109–33. London: Sage.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom

    Anthony Ridge-Newman

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  1. Anthony Ridge-Newman
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Ridge-Newman, A. (2017). Broadcasting an Elite. In: The Tories and Television, 1951-1964. Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56254-8_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56254-8_8

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-56253-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-56254-8

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