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Two Faces of the ALP in the 1980s

1989; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 25; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/144078338902500201

1839-2555

I. M. Ward,

Labor Movements and Unions

During the 1980s Labor has been extraordinarily electorally successful. Yet as the Queensland ALP State Secretary has acknowledged ALP 'membership numbers are virtually static ... and there remains a high degree of alienation and disillu sionment amongst the rank and file' (Courier Mail 1 August 1988). Each of these very different faces of the ALP can be traced to the 1960s and 1970s when the ALP attracted a new middle class clientele. Their growing presence within the party offset declining working class involvement, encouraged reform and gave Labor a far more electorally attractive image. Yet middle-class party members provide it fickle support. In Parkin's (1968) terms they tend to have an expressive rather than instrumental orientation toward politics. With often al truistic motives for joining the ALP they grow readily disillu sioned with the real politik of internal party politics and chafe at surviving party habits and practices which bear the stamp of Labor's working class origins. Despite Whiteley's (1983) finding in the case of the British Labour Party, ALP middle class mem bers show little sign of forgiving Labor governments for failing to act upon party policy.