Power in the Party

This chapter focuses on the exercise of and attempts to utilize power in a very specific context: that of the Labour Party in the mid-1990s. Such a study does not necessitate an understanding of power in its totality, which is perhaps fortunate, and may not contribute greatly to a wider understanding of this much-debated concept (Lukes 1974, 1986; Russell, 1995; Dowding, 1996).