Labour's transformation 1983-1989 : a study in political complexity.

This thesis attempts to answer the following question: why and how did the
Labour Party change between 1983 and 1989? This question is approached from
the theoretical perspective of 'complexity' which suggests that socio-political
phenomena are either too complex ever to be fully understood or are too
complex for the methodological tools we presently have at our disposal. These
theoretical conclusions are arrived at following detailed analysis of how the
dominant model of causality employed in social and political analysis has tended
to obscure a large quantity of causal processes involved in the development of
anyone social or political factor. As such, it is proposed that a methodology be
employed which aims to subvert the prevalent tendency to simplification whilst
simultaneously using the insights of complexity to develop a new approach to the
Party. A variety of methodological approaches are proposed and applied in
pursuit of these goals.
Following the identification of simplifications and potential sources of further
complexity in existing analyses of Labour's transformation between 1983 and
1989, the thesis makes a large number of empirical observations about the nature
of that transformation. These empirical observations cannot be easily summarised
in the form of a limited number of over-arching findings for the reason that such
simplification is avoided within the thesis itself. However, it can be stated that
these observations cover the full range of personal, contingent political,
institutional, ideological and rational factors which were causes, aspects and
effects of the transformation.