The British Labour Party Under Tony Blair’s Leadership : Transformation, Evolution or Wrong Direction?

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This paper addresses the changes that tookplace in the Labour Party under Tony Blair’sleadership. It examines what happened to theinternal organization of the party and what effectthis had on the identity and nature of the party. The theory of party organization devisedby Robert Michels known as “the iron law ofoligarchy” is used to examine the balance ofpower between party leadership and rank-andfilewithin the Labour Party. During the early 1980s the rank-and-file members of the partywere able to exert their influence against thewishes of most of the leadership. In the late1980s and into the 1990s, however, the leadership re-asserted their authority. Tony Blair was at first a very popular andcharismatic leader who seemed to justify the“psychological causes of oligarchy” describedby Michels. However, his popularity and theelectoral success of the Labour Party subsequentlydeclined. The paper then investigatesfour possible long-term effects of Blair’s leadership on the party. (1) The Labour Party becamea kinder and gentler version of Thatcher’s Conservative Party. (2) The Labour Party underBlair tried to modernize and adapt to new challengesbut ultimately failed to do so. (3) TheLabour Party modernized and adapted to newexternal conditions while retaining its core values.(4) Blair modernized the party to such anextent that it was transformed into a new kindof progressive party suitable to the politics ofthe 21st Century. The paper concludes that none of these four options describes adequatelythe entire story of the rise and fall of New Labour under Tony Blair’s leadership. Eachaccount does, however, describe in part whathappened during the two decades of the 1990s and the 2000s.

The British Labour Party Under Tony Blair’s Leadership : Transformation, Evolution or Wrong Direction?

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