O'Connell, Declan
Description
After election defeats, parties usually engage in
post-mortem rituals. These can take a wide variety of
forms. Committees of inquiry may be established. 'Rankand-
file' members may be given opportunities to have their
say about 'what went wrong'. Parliamentary leaders may
attempt to convince voters that the party has mended its
ways. Within the party, matters of organisational
structure, programme and ideology may be debated, although
post-mortems are often effectively confined to a...[Show more] narrow
range of topics. Post-mortem ritual talk generally includes
reference to more effective campaigning, intra-party
democracy and 'adaptation' to 'social change'. 'Managerial'
discourses, emphasising electoral success, efficiency and
party professionalism jostle with the 'participatory'
discourses embodying activists' aspirations (emphasising the
party's mission, 'rank-and-file' rights and 'educating' the
electorate). Commentators often dismiss these rituals as
meaningless exercises, interesting only insofar as they
provide a backdrop for vealpolit-ik power plays about who is
to be 'blamed' for the defeat. However, if we analyse postmortem
rituals seriously, we have a useful vantage point for
examining what goes on within political parties. Both
'managerial' and 'participatory' forms of 'rationalistic
idealism' may be little more than camouflage for realpolitik
manoeuvre and machination. However, party reform involves
the crystallisation of new meanings as well as factional
struggles. 'Rationalistic idealism' may help new meanings to crystallise and a new self-understanding to emerge within
a party. Of course, the connections between post-mortem
rituals and party reform are contingent. Post-mortems may,
or may not, lead to party reform. They take place at a time
when party leaders have suffered a loss of confidence. The
study of post-mortem rituals allows us to examine intraparty
processes when, at least potentially, they are in a
state of flux.
By comparing different post-mortems in the same
party over time, we can also address the vexed question of
'social change' and party 'response'. The literature on
parties abounds with generalisations about the 'effects' of
'social change'. Such generalisations often rely on little
more than hunches about what goes on within parties. This
thesis explores post-mortem rituals in the Australian Labor
Party in two periods, 1963-67 and 1977-81. In each of these
periods, there were some connections between the postmortems
and attempts at party reform. Comparison of the two
cases can help us appreciate some of the complexities
involved in the relationship between changes in Australian
society and changes in the ALP. In contrast with previous
arguments about the 'middle-classing' of the ALP in a
'middle-class' society, distinctions are drawn between the
emergence of Australian Social Democracy, Mark 1 as a model
for 'new' Labor practice in the 1960s and the conflicts
between Australian Social Democracy, Mark 2 and Labor
Managerialism in 1977-81. Changes in ALP practice cannot
simply be derived from changes in Australian society. They
require analysis in their own right.
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