ABSTRACT
This chapter utilizes an historically-grounded variant of S. E. Finer’s two-dimensional approach. The most significant element of labourism was its assumption that piecemeal reform within the existing limits of liberal democracy was the safest route to social progress. The limits of labourism meant that the mainstream of the labour movement was opposed to many socialist ideas. Feminism refers principally to suffrage feminist groups, the most significant of which were the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, the Women’s Social and Political Union, and the Women’s Freedom League. As J. Vernon has argued, the constitution needs to be seen as a cultural construct rather than a clearly-observable set of rules and procedures. The constitution was always being reconstructed and renegotiated out of a perpetual process of discussion and debate. the ‘constitution’ was something to be appropriated, moulded and sometimes redefined for particular purposes.
