Since 1867, annual conferences have been key institutions for understanding the nature and evolution of relationships between leaders and members in British political parties. Although essential for the maintenance of party cohesion and the legitimization of leadership, policies and procedures, conferences have largely been ignored. Based on seven years of participant observation and interviews, this book examines how four political parties in contemporary Britain (Labour, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Greens) have changed at the turn of the Millennium. This groundbreaking work brings together insights from anthropology and political sociology and opens up new vistas in the study of modern political institutions.

'Changing parties is a welcome in-depth study of the transformation of the British party conferences...This is a thoroughly-researched book which provides a welcome insight into the transformation of these annual seaside gatherings and the changes within British political parties in the 1990s; it is a welcome addition to the study of political parties and more generally to British political ethnography'. - James Stanyer, Political Studies Review

An Anthropological Approach to 'Conventional Politics'
Why do People Attend Conferences?
Imagined Communities
Constructing Leadership and Authority
Setting the Agenda
Making the News
The Public Performance
The Discourse of 'Deliberative Democracy'
Direct Democracy: The Vote as Fetish
Fringe Benefits: Dissent vs Commercialisation
Conclusion: Politics in the Age of the Individual
Appendix
Bibliography

FLORENCE FAUCHER-KING is a Professor at the CEVIPOF in Sciences Po, Paris, France, where she teaches and researches. Her interests include political parties, new social movements and green politics. She has previously taught at Stirling University and she is the author of Les Habits Verts de la Politique (1999).