MacDonaldite

See also: macdonaldite

English

Etymology

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

Noun

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

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.