Publisher's Synopsis
This is a study of the "what, why and so what" of the process of selecting party leaders in Britain and elsewhere. It seeks to answer the questions - by what means does a party select is leader; why does it use that particular method, and what consequences flow from its use of that method?.;While the book's primary focus is the selection of the leaders of the main British parties, the British experience is placed in a comparative context and is used to illustrate general features of leader-selection processes in competitive party systems. Current practices are also placed in historical perspective.
