Liberal Party organisation in Victoria, 1945-68

Abstract

This thesis is a study of the Liberal Party's extra-parliamentary organisation in Victoria between 1945 and 1968. The first section provides an introductory chapter and an historical background. Thus, Chapter 2 surveys the development of non-Labor organisation in Victoria from 1910 to 1940, while Chapter 3 gives a more detailed account of the decay of the organisation of the Liberal Party's immediate predecessor - the United Australia Party - and of the moves in 1943 and 1944 to form a new party. The second section of the thesis looks at the structure and functioning of the Liberal Party's extra-parliamentary institutions and their relation with the parliamentary wing since 1945. Chapters 5 to 9 examine such aspects of organisation as the size and distribution of party membership, the recruitment of members and their roles, the location, structure and activities of branches, and the composition and role of the party's central and auxiliary organs. Chapters 10-13 are concerned with the way in which the organisation has performed its main functions of selecting parliamentary candidates, contesting elections, and shaping party policy. Show more