Left-Wing Political Activism in a Changing Political Culture

In: Sociology: the journal of the British Sociological Association, Band 30, Heft 3, S. 511-532

Abstract

Active participation in political parties is an important condition for the functioning of political democracy. On the political Left, however, the role of the party activist is under pressure from both internal and external changes in the political culture. Catching up with continental European socialist parties, the leadership of the British Labour Party has progressively changed policy priorities and now its socialist ideology. Externally, `new social movements' are said to be promoting new political aims and new forms of activism. A case-study of the influence of these factors on the commitment and participation of members, and ex-members, of a typical southern constituency Labour Party suggests that `new social movements' do not constitute a rival attraction to these members, ex-members, and activists. Their commitment is, however, being reduced by personal economic and social pressures and their dissonant adherence to traditional values of British socialism. To the extent that political involvement depends on motivation by values or ideological principles this study suggests a decline in party political activism, and a possible obstacle to a `grass roots' recovery by Labour in Southern England.