An original investigation of the nature of the forces that make members and representatives both loyal and beneficial to a contemporary political party, this book combines theoretical reflection with interview and archive material to provide a unique perspective on power, arguing that it is more complex and nuanced than is frequently assumed.

Hearn, J. (2012) Theorizing Power (Palgrave) is an excellent recent discussion of the concept of power that is aware of its multi-dimensional character, applying it to a wide range of phenomena and moving between a macro and micro analysis. However, my work more explicitly applies different concepts of power in a particular framework to a real life example in monograph form. It therefore more clearly shows how such an approach can provide in-depth analysis of specific political phenomena.Lukes, S. (2005) Power: A Radical View (Palgrave) is the most obvious title people will think of when they hear of multi-dimensional approaches to power. Indeed, I borrow the word 'dimension' to describe different aspects of power which creates a deliberate resonance with his work. Moreover, I also adapt the approaches that he uses as his first two 'faces' of power for my own purposes. However, Lukes' methodological preoccupations limit the scope of his theory which leaves him unable to develop arguments about the real effects of structural power. This is a gap I seek to address.Clegg, S (1989), Frameworks of Power (Sage)Clegg, S. and Haugaard (eds) (2009) The Sage Handbook of PowerStewart Clegg's (1989) work on 'circuits of power' and more recently on organisational power (2009) is also relevant, especially as it draws on Foucauldian and Weberian ideas to conceptualise power in organisational contexts. However, this work is more specifically oriented around the firm and the influence of management theory, whereas I argue that the unique location and political role of party organisation give rise to unique insights about power.Mark Haugaard is another key scholar who takes a multi-dimensional approach to power and has attempted to build on Lukes' framework by introducing a Foucauldian 'fourth dimension' (see Haugaard in Journal of Political Power 2012 5:1, 33-54). However Haugaard is simply adding a layer to Lukes' existing theory (which has also been attempted by Digeser in Journal of Politics 1992 54:4), whereas my 'five dimensions' should be considered as a heuristic framework which reveals different modes of power in organisational settings, accounting for agents, their capacities and the contexts in which those capacities are produced and exercised.Political Parties and Power:Although this book follows the traditions of political party analysis of writers like Duverger (1959) and Panebianco (1988), it takes a different direction to more contemporary accounts in that tradition. It is an innovative theoretical reflection on power which in some sense returns to some of the more sociological concerns of earlier theorists of parties like Robert Michels and Max Weber, but one which draws on developments in the understanding of power since that time.In this sense, it complements accounts of power in parties and party change like Eric Shaw's books on the Labour Party (esp. The Labour Party Since 1979 Routledge 1994; Losing Labour's Soul Routledge 2008) and Tim Bale's on the Conservatives (The Conservative Party from Thatcher to Cameron Polity 2010; The Conservatives Since 1945: Drivers of Party Change Oxford University Press 2012) but also challenges them in that it is concerned with developing a more specifically theoretical approach to the concept of power in these kinds of contexts.It provides a challenge to more explicitly theoretical approaches to parties, like Thomas Quinn's Modernising the Labour Party (Palgrave 2004), which in my view takes too narrow a view of the forces at work in parties, especially behind party change. For similar reasons, my approach also challenges recent work on parties more generally such as Luther and Muller-Rommel Political Parties in the New Europe (Oxford University Press 2005) and Gunther, Montero and Linz Political Parties: Old Concepts and New Challenges (Oxford University Press 2002).

1. Power and the Analysis of Political Parties 2. The Concept of Power 3. Individualistic Power 4. Strategic Power 5. Bureaucratic Power 6. Constitutive Power 7. Disciplinary Control 8. Conclusion: Political Parties and the Concept of Power