Ten Good Reasons Not to Have a Leader

1. We are a party of diverse, grassroots, participatory democracy. A party of decentralisation, that empowers its members and encourages collective leadership locally, regionally and nationally. Having single leaders would tend to take us away from all that. It would tend to reinforce the Party as a national, centralised body, rather than a network of local, regional and international Green parties.

2. The ‘figurehead’ leader envisioned by the motion would have no constitutional powers so would have little respect from those inside or outside the Party who expect a leader in the conventional sense of the word.

3. Conversely a leader or leaders would have a lot of responsibility placed on them by their public exposure, with little accountability to the Party to match it. The proposed motion provides virtually no mechanisms of accountability short of recall - and the two year term of office is out of line with annual elections for existing Executive positions.

4. Electing the 'wrong' leader could be a disaster, for instance, someone with no charisma, a lose canon, out of line with policy, inflexible, reinforcing stereotypes, having their own agenda or worse. Just look at the effects that ineffective or authoritarian leaders have had on the other parties in this country in recent years.

5. If a leader makes a public statement against party policy or the wishes of members, it can't be retracted in practice. Both the leader and the Party could be ‘held hostage’ by statements made or commitments extracted by the media.

6. The media may be personality oriented, but that's far from the whole story. We want people to identify with our policies and see us achieving things at every level. Just as the media build up personalities, they can ruthlessly tear them down. Anything goes when it sells a story.

7. It's elected Greens who really gain the respect of the media. Elected Greens generate a large part of the Party’s media coverage. Focusing on a single leader could take attention away from elected members as well as our many experienced and specialist speakers.

8. Much as good use of the media is important to an election campaign, it’s Party activists that are crucial to getting Greens elected. The Party has got two MEPs, GLA members and over a hundred councillors elected without a having a leader.

9. A Leader is not the ‘silver bullet’ many imagine it would be to greater electoral success or to addressing perceived weaknesses in the Party structure. Just as winning votes and getting elected is primarily about engaging with voters locally, effective organisation within the Party is about involving all members. The top-down approach of leaders hopefully providing the motivation and inspiration for everyone else is most likely doomed to failure.

10. A Leader would have a particularly unenviable workload. It would be unreasonable to expect them to work voluntarily and they would most likely need full time back up from a PA and/or Press Officer. Making these posts paid would place major extra and ongoing financial demands on the Party. Given the money, it could probably be more effectively applied to help get more Greens elected.

See also: Ten More Good Reasons Not to Have a Leader

Tim Turner
Wandsworth Green Party