ABSTRACT

A democratic Socialist movement that attempts to transform a capitalist into a socialist order is necessarily faced with a choice between two incompatibles — principles and power. The experience of socialist government in the Soviet Union provides the obvious material for a socialist theory of politics, but the disadvantages of that system have been so often trumpeted by its enemies that even its friends are ashamed to learn any lessons from it. The ideology revolves around the assumption of the sovereignty within the party of the annual conference. The Labour Party has succeeded in getting manifestoism accepted as part of political life in Britain. In the nineteenth century the British constitution evolved two different roles for senior politicians: executive and opposition. Part of the friction between Labour ministers and their civil servants arises from the differences between the organisations which support them.