Selection of Parliamentary Candidates

At a time when politicians are increasingly becoming subject to criticism, it is important to throw light on one of the most difficult hurdles the would-be politician has to surmount. Ostensibly this hurdle is election to the House of Commons, but since about two thirds of the seats are securely in the hands of the Conservative and Labour parties, the nomination of the appropriate party in any one constituency makes the actual election a formality: selection often becomes tantamount to election. Dr Rush's new book examines in depth the machinery by which candidates are selected in the Conservative and Labour parties and seeks to uncover the factors which influence their selection. It forms an important and original investigation into the whole machinery of parliamentary democracy, and is essential source reading for all students of political science and for anyone actively or potentially involved in the political arena.