A Study On The Transition Of British Labor Party

Political party plays a pivotal role in representative democracy. As a bridge and linkbetween the state and society, political party must be rooted in the community and hasa broad and solid social foundation for the support and recognition of the society inorder to grasp the power of the state, and thus to be able to survive and develop. Thecontinuous development of the productive forces promotes economic and socialchange. In order to adapt to the changing social environment, political parties areconstantly seeking change. From the perspective of political party typology, politicalparty has continued to evolve with the changes in economic and social developmentto adapt to the new political and social conditions, as a result, political party is notstatic but in transition. From1980s to the1990s, after a series of adjustment andreform, Labour Party achieved the transition from mass party to catch-all party. In the1997election, Labour Party won with an absolute advantage put an end to the historyof the Conservative Party’s18years in power. Labour Party also won in the next fewelections. There is no doubt that the transformation from mass political party tocatch-all political party is the key factor that Labour Party could return to power. Tosome extent, without this transformation, Labour Party is likely to remain theopposition party in British parliament and cannot become the ruling party. LabourParty does not mean it could rest easy since then become catch-all party. In fact, as long as the social productive forces were to grow, the political and social conditionswould continue to change. There is no doubt that Labour Party must respondappropriately to the political and social changes and initiative adjustment and reform,which is the only way to maintain its advantage. In this case, after the completion ofthis transition from mass political party to catch-all political party, Labour Party facestransition once again. The transition process of Labour party is not once and for allbut relatively slow process and affected by the British social environment factors. Thereasons for the transition come from the new conditions in British society. In face ofpolitical apathy in post-industrialized society, the rise of new intermediaries indemocracy and mass media, Labor Party is facing unprecedented crisis and challenges.In this case, the new round of adjustment and change of Labour Party followed andled to a series of consequences. From the perspective of party competition, there isincreasing convergence between Labour Party and other political parties in terms ofcampaign platform. Labour’s campaign operation showed a high degree ofspecialization trend. From the point of view of the financial resources of politicalparties, Labour Party is increasingly dependent on state funding, and it means thatLabour Party has ushered new round of transformation: from catch-all political partyto cartel political party. Calm and rational analyses on reasons, path and process ofthis transition of Labour Party is of great significance for the understanding of thelatest development of British party politics but also the status of political parties inwestern countries.