Party Constraints on Leaders in Pursuit of Change

Abstract

Since the late nineteenth century, dissatisfaction with the U.S. party system has led political scientists to look across the Atlantic for ”responsible parties,” cohesive teams with leaders who articulate and promote distinctive programs for public policy. Yet U.S. political scientists have been misguided when they have searched for a different, superior set of parties in the United Kingdom. British parties have never possessed the internal cohesion characteristic of the responsible-parties model. Nor have they, for that matter, empowered their leaders to pursue change. When parties prove significant, influence operates in the British environment much as it does in the U.S. context—as a commodity bargained for among groups within the two major parties.