Electing the Leader: The British Labour Party's Electoral College

Abstract

This article uses a principal-agent model to explore how leadership selection rules affect the autonomy and security of tenure of the British Labour party's leader. It examines Labour's electoral college, which was intended to enable activists and trade unions to hold the leader to account. However, it had the reverse effect, increasing leaders' autonomy. Nomination rules frustrate activist attempts to instigate leadership contests, while a range of ‘transaction costs’ rule out anything but the most serious challenges to incumbents. The college was originally dominated by trade unions because block voting enabled union leaders to determine the trajectory of contests. The introduction of ‘one member–one vote’ curtailed the power of union leaders, shifting power mainly to MPs. The conceptual tools deployed can be used to analyse leadership selection mechanisms in other parties.