Leading the Party:Coordination, Direction, and Communication

Torun Dewan and David Myatt

STICERD - Political Economy and Public Policy Paper Series from Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE

Abstract: Party activists face a coordination problem: a critical mass (a barrier tocoordination) must advocate a single policy alternative if the party is tosucceed. The need for direction is the degree to which the merits of thealternatives respond to the underlying mood of the party. An individual'sability to assess the mood is his sense of direction. These factors combine toform an index of both the desirability and the feasibility of leadership: wecall this index Michels' Ratio. A sovereign party conference gives way toleadership by an individual or oligarchy if and only if Michels' Ratio issufficiently high. Leadership enhances the clarity of intra-partycommunication, but weakens the response of policy choices to the party'smood.

Date: 2006-10
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Leading the Party: Coordination, Direction, and Communication (2007)
Working Paper: Leading the Party: Coordination, Direction, and Communication (2006)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cep:stipep:22

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