MacDonaldite

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See also: macdonaldite

English

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Etymology

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From MacDonald +‎ -ite after Ramsay MacDonald, founder of the British Labour Party.

Noun

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MacDonaldite (plural MacDonaldites)

  1. Someone who was loyal to Ramsay MacDonald, especially after he split from the Labour Party in 1931.
    • 1986, Reginald Bassett, Nineteen thirty-one political crisis, page 160:
      He had been, as she says, 'a great MacDonaldite.'
    • 2003, Philip Williamson, National Crisis and National Government, page 5:
      Morrison, a MacDonaldite up to October 1931, later resorted to outright fiction in order to present himself as a leading anti-MacDonaldite during the August crisis.
    • 2011, Michael Oakeshott, The Vocabulary of a Modern European State:
      Circumstances had something to do with the slackening of his partisan activities (in 1931 he was a MacDonaldite and ceased to be a member of a political party); but it was characteristic of him that the only cause which held his unwavering allegiance was that of Parliamentary democracy, which he understood to be a noble and historic manner of conducting politics, reaching decisions and digesting the differences characteristic of a modern European society.

Adjective

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MacDonaldite (comparative more MacDonaldite, superlative most MacDonaldite)

  1. Characteristic of MacDonaldism.
    • 2008, Andrew Thorpe, A History of the British Labour Party:
      MacDonaldite gradualism had assumed that progress could be piecemeal, incrementally gaining support and improving society – more and more people would come over to socialism as they saw its benefits in action.
    • 2013, Leon Trotsky, Where is Britain Going?:
      It is not possible to improve the policy of MacDonald by mosaic corrections. If centrism comes to power, it will inevitably carry on a MacDonaldite, in other words a capitalist, policy.
    • 2014, Steven Fielding, A State of Play, page 61:
      Cronin makes sure readers appreciate that Davey's contempt for the MacDonaldite argument justifying this omission – 'We've got to be careful. We've got to be constitutional' – is a righteous one, for it is only advanced by Labour MPs corrupted by public life.