MAY'S LAW OF CURVILINEAR DISPARITY REVISITED: Leaders, Officers, Members and Voters in British Political Parties.

Explaining ideological conflict has always been a classic theme of studies of party organizations. The aim of this paper is to re-examine May's law, based on rational choice theory, which suggests that due to differential incentives sub-leaders are likely to prove the most extreme stratum in parry organizations, while non-leaders are the most moderate, and top leaders are located equidistant between these groups. The study, based on large-scale surveys of politicians, local constituency officers, party members and voters in the 1992 British general election, throws considerable doubt on this proposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]