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본인은 이 논문에서 1963년에 알렉 더글라스-흄(Alec Douglas-Home)이 영국의 수상으로 선출되는 과정에서 1960년대의 전국보수연합연맹(National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations)이 미쳤던 영향력을 검토한다. 이 논문은 전국보수연합연맹의 힘이 정부의 정책 결정 과정에 미치는 영향력이 아니라 연맹 활동의 홍보적 효과에 있었고, 이런 효과 덕택에 더글라스-흄이 1963년에 역임하고 있었던 전국보수연합연맹의 회장직은 일반적으로 생각되었던 것보다 훨씬 정치적으로 중요하고 의미 있는 직책이었다고 주장한다. 이 논문은 1963년 10월의 당권 경쟁 당시의 흄과 연맹의 관계를 살펴보고, 연맹 회장직이 흄에게 수상이 되기 위해 그가 필요로 했던 대중적 친숙함, 민주적 정통성, 절호의 기회 그리고 랩 버틀러와 그가 이끄는 정책자문위원회(Advisory Committee on Policy)의 힘을 견제할 도구를 제공했다고 주장한다.
Alec Douglas-Home’s role as President of the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations in 1963 is a fact that is barely mentioned in all of his few biographies. It is given the spotlight only once when, in his duty as President, he read out the resignation letter written by Harold Macmillan to the Conservative Party Conference delegates in Blackpool that year which had placed Home under the conference spotlight and had supposedly robbed Rab Butler of his chance to lead the Tory Party. It does seem to have been good fortune that Home happened to be in that office at that time for him to have been able to undertake such a fate-changing task: indeed Richard Thorpe, Home’s official biographer, calls this event a ‘coincidence which contributed to the eventual outcome’. But the Presidency of the National Union was so much more to Home than just providing a platform for himself to read the speech of his political life. It was Home’s first official role within the party machinery, and as such provided the legitimacy and the opportunity for the hereditary peer to formally and actively connect with the Conservative grassroots. It might not have been the best known or the most feared organization within the Conservative Party, but as the grouping that claimed to represent the whole Party membership the National Union was a symbol of democracy for the Tories. Anyone who had intentions of leading the Conservative Party would certainly have found that being able to claim experience of being directly involved in National Union affairs was to their benefit: indeed, it cannot be said that the occupation of the Presidency of the National Union by various Tory heavyweights and leadership contenders of the era such as Rab Butler, Quintin Hailsham and Henry Brooke was merely a coincidence. This essay will argue that the influence of the National Union during the 1960s was not so much in policy-making as it was in public relations, but that the influence itself made the Presidency of the National Union a much more politically significant office than is often thought. The essay will then examine the relationship between the National Union and Alec Douglas-Home during the period leading up to the Conservative leadership crisis of October 1963, and will argue that the Presidency was instrumental in providing Home with the familiarity, democratic legitimacy and the opportunity he needed to realize his ultimate political objective of succeeding Harold Macmillan into Downing Street, as well as providing Home with an efficient countermeasure against Rab Butler and his own great political weapon, the Advisory Committee on Policy.
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Alec Douglas-Home, 1963, The National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations, Conservtive Party, Leadership Crisis, Party Conference, Advisory Committee on Policy
