The Politics Insurgents Make: Reconstructive Reformers in American and British Postwar Party Development

Abstract

As political parties and party systems across the democratic world are being roiled by insurgent challengers, political scientists need to think more systematically about insurgents and the politics they make. In this article I propose a new analytic framework for the study of electoral insurgents and their systemic impact on politics. Varying along dimensions of regime- and party-orientation, I argue that insurgencies unfold in four distinct patterns: reconstructive; co-optive; reorienting; and reactive. I make the case for one particular type by comparing two reconstructive insurgencies during the postwar period in which the structure, rules, and procedures of an existing major party were challenged and reformed: the New Politics movement inside the Democratic Party; and the New Left in the British Labour Party. In both cases, reconstructive insurgents had durable effects on party development by altering the rules of the game and shifting the organizational terrain on which subsequent political contests unfolded. These cumulative changes institutionalized a reformist dynamic in both parties that has routinely drawn organizational issues into intraparty contests, undermining the legitimacy of the parties over time. Thinking systematically about the politics insurgents make offers a new way of understanding the role of social movements and political entrepreneurs in party development.