The establishment of local party associations in most constituencies soon after the second Reform Act nearly doubled the electorate, the affiliation of these associations with national umbrella organizations, and the role these new organizations played in disciplining MPs became the subjects of a series of polemical contemporary examinations. W. E. Forster's well-publicized altercation with the Bradford Liberal Association in the 1870s was painted as an intemperate attack by rabid non-conformists on a moderate statesman. The fancied resemblance of the Birmingham plan of organization to American big-city machines, the vigorous activity of the National Liberal Federation in the 1880s, Randolph Churchill's attempt to use the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations as a vehicle for his ambitions – all these made lively topics in the periodical literature and, later, in books. The culmination of this literature was Mosei Ostrogorski's forceful attack at the end of the century on the new forms of British party organization, which put forth a view of this organization – emphasizing its importance in disciplining MPs – that is still widely influential, especially among political scientists.

This chapter examines Ostrogorski's views. The first section reviews the history of extra-parliamentary party organization from an Ostrogorskian perspective, then turns to more recent and rather different assessments. The second section focuses specifically on what effect, if any, local party associations had on the party loyalty of MPs.

EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY PARTY ORGANIZATION

Election campaigns before the second Reform Act were still organized in an ad hoc fashion.