ABSTRACT
The Christian Democratic recruitment of working-class leaders thus tends to strengthen the argument concerning the relation of a class-conscious society to political recruitment. Except for a few famous socialist intellectuals, whose role was not primarily in political organization or candidature, the original Labour party leadership was almost exclusively working-class. Australia and New Zealand have working-class parties whose leadership recruitment patterns resemble those of the European socialist parties. The degree of motivation might also be important. Perhaps workers in a society class-conscious enough to produce a working-class party would be more highly motivated to become political leaders than would workers in the United States. Leaning backward, away from the argument, it is worth while to look at the membership of American national party committees, where the work is less time-consuming than in Congress and where working-class leaders could function without leaving their union positions.
