Political parties as street gangs. Except in #Manchester of course…

This below is from a Quarterly Essay  called Unfinished Business: Sex, Freedom and Misogny by Anna Goldsworthy.  It’s in the correspondence bit, talking about the previous essay, ‘Not Dead Yet‘ by Mark Latham. I have added the link.

Part of the explanation of this organisational shortcoming lies in the fact that political parties are strange beasts. The activities they undertake are important and complex, including electing MPS and leaders, formulating pubic policy and running campaigns. Yet their corporate culture is very different to that of other enterprises undertaking similar activities, such as the public service, academic institutions or even advertising firms. Instead, as the academic Glyn Davis [read the link – it’s an excellent article!] and others have detailed, political parties and their parliamentary groupings have an ethos which is more akin to that of a street gang, those groups of disenfranchised youths who band together for mutual profit and support.

Reece, N. 2013. Correspondence, in Quarterly Essay 50, p.109