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> When the ruling party is in office, i.e. the labour party, the chain of responsibility lies with the cabinet, to parliament and then to the electorate. It cannot be from cabinet to parliamentary party to annual party conference and then to the mass membership of the party organisation. The mass organisation does not have an important influence on the activities and policies of the parliamentary party which it sustains.

Its influence tends to be greater when the parliamentary party is out of office. In the past the conservative party had a rigid idea in the powers which a prime minister should have. Conservative literature since the premiership of Lord Salisbury (1890- 1894) has stated that the leader should have sole responsibility for almost all party activity. The leader would not have to submit him self for periodic re- election, nor is he required to report his work to the party in parliament or national union. Lastly whether the conservatives are in power or not the leader may choose his ministerial colleagues and shadow cabinet.

These rules began to reflect a totalitarian government not a democratic system, as the powers granted to a conservative leader were dictorial. The formal description of powers which the conservatives provided gives a grossly misleading interpretation of the divisions of powers within a parliamentary party, however it also shows the lengths to which people in power will go to, to retain there supremacy. In the early years of the 20^th century a reading of party literature would suggest that the conservative and labour party had completely different forms of organisation.

The conservative party appeared to lay all power in the hands of the party ‘leader’, whereas the labour party appeared to have no ‘leader’ at all. The conservative party declared that there mass organisation was no more than a ‘handmaid’ to the party in parliament, where Labour insisted that the annual conference of the mass organisation exerted ultimate control over the parliamentary labour party as well as the party outside parliament.

Fifty years on both these parties still present the same description of its internal organisation, but the description is highly misleading as the distribution of power within these two parties is remarkably similar. The leader of the conservative party is nothing like the all powerful figure which its literature suggests. The leader would exercise great authority so long as he retains the confidence of his followers. The moment he loses there confidence his authority will collapse immediately.

This happened at a surprising frequency in the modern history of the party. Of the party’s seven leaders since Disraeli, three (Balfour, Austen Chamberlain and Neville Chamberlain) were in effect, destroyed following a revolt from there followers. The fourth Stanley Baldwin had to fight tremendously to regain there confidence and retain his position of authority. The labour party also follows the same guidelines when they are in power.

This shows us that the level of power which leaders possessed deteriorated rapidly in the early 20^th century due to backlash from the mass. However the levels of power still exercised by leaders are still high and the amount of 本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。