This chapter examines the role and impact of the national party organisations on party groups on councils. Although the impact of the party outside the council house operates differently for the three major parties, in each case there is an important effect on local government politics and policy making.

The chapter is structured in the following way. First, the different values and philosophies that underpin the structures and processes which link the national parties with their local institutions and individual members are discussed. Second, their formal structure, processes, disciplinary procedures and selection mechanisms are compared and contrasted, noting in particular recent changes in these different elements. Third, a case study that sets out and analyses the circumstances in which the national Labour Party intervened in a local dispute in Walsall is presented. Finally, there is a brief conclusion, which argues that there is a convergence developing in the practices of the Labour and Conservative Parties.

The philosophy underpinning the organisation of the three major political parties

Each party has a distinctive perspective. The Labour Party has a stronger view of its elected representatives as delegates. There is a more clearly defined role for the wider party and also formal hierarchical structures that emphasise the collective and disciplined nature of a wider movement. The Conservative Party, with a strong Burkean tradition, has a stronger sense of its elected representatives as trustees, with each unit of the party possessing (until 1999) a strong sense of formal autonomy. The Liberal Democrats emphasise individualism and empowerment while the wider party lays stress on qualities such as consultation and participation backed by a highly effective source of advice – the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors (ALDC) – used solely at the discretion of local party units.

The Labour Party

There has historically been a tension within the Labour Party between the local and national objectives of the party. One common view, particularly at the senior levels, is that the primary objective is the achievement of the party's national policies, which should override local priorities. Writing in the 1980s, Sue Goss argued that local government was threatened with becoming the administrative arm of an increasingly centralised national government. In particular, the ‘experiments in municipal socialism have been an attempt to assert the centrally political nature of local-government decision-making, and the possibility of alternative choices’ (1988, p 197).