Closed meetings, not open to the media or non-party members, are, of course, essential to a free and frank expression of differing opinions, without which any system of internal, representative, democracy is impossible. Those who navigate the New Labour ship do not, of course, make their deliberations and discussions open, except as part of the whole complicated exercise of spinning their tale to the media or jockeying for power in their various attempts to be closest to the ear of the Great Leader. Leaders are able to use the machinery of the party, direct mailing, party publications and access to the non-party media, such as the tabloid press or television, to communicate with, and persuade, members to support their policy and organisational initiatives. An increasingly professionalised and bureaucratised party will be top-down to a degree hitherto unseen outside authoritarian parties of various types. This is not a very accurate description of the project.
American parties are very loose coalitions of viewpoints and interests.
The selection of candidates is done by the people themselves, voting in primaries and caucuses. Bill Clinton, as nominal leader of his party, cannot determine who will be Democratic candidates at national, state or local level. This is not a description of New Labour . Back in 1992 Republican voters in Louisiana chose former Klan wizard, David Duke, as their candidate for the governorship of the state. All George Bush, as Republican leader, could do was disassociate himself from Duke and point out that if he was a voter in the state he would not vote for him.