The Transition to Mass Parties and Ideological Politics

Abstract

The dominant views in the literature on the evolution of ideological mass-membership parties, which hold that these parties emerged with the entry of the masses into politics and as a result of prolonged electoral competition moderated their ideological stands to appeal to more centrist voters, cannot account for the case of a mass party which, after years of electoral competition, moves sharply to the left and maintains or increases its electoral base, as was the case for the People's National Party (PNP) under Michael Manley in Jamaica in the 1970s. One element of the political strategy of “Democratic Socialism” of the PNP under Manley was the organizational strengthening of the party and the adoption of a stronger ideological profile and a commitment to ideological education at both the elite and mass level. This article discusses the importance as well as the limitations of the process of party transformation. On the basis of two surveys of the Jamaican elite, one carried out in the summer of 1974 and one in 1982, it documents the dramatic effect of this process on the ideological alignments in the Jamaican elite. Drawing on Gramscian ideas, the article develops an explanation for the process of party transformation in Jamaica, which emphasizes the importance of the extent of popular organization and mobilization for the center of gravity of public opinion and thus for the ideological and electoral room for maneuver of mass parties.