2.1Political parties/funding Flashcards
which parties are considered to be left wing
labour, the Green Party, socialism, communism
which parties are considered to be right wing
the conservatives, UKIP, reform UK, fascism
why is participation important to parties
- in order to win power or influence, parties encourage people to vote
- eg, labour increased its membership as people payed £3 for one, later raised to £25
how are parties funded
- their members pay subscription fees
- they get ‘short money’ which is a special state provision
- labour is traditionally funded by trade unions and conservatives are traditionally funded by his businesses however in recent time labour has become more friendly with the business world
what is the 2000 political parties, elections and referendum act?
- independent electoral commission set up to supervise party spending in election campaigns
- parties capped to spend 30k per constituency
- parties had to publish details of donations at regular intervals
- donations from people not on UK electoral roll banned
what are the arguments for state funding
- parties play an important role in representative democracy so deserve public funding
- public funding removes disparity in resources available to different sized parties
- would curb the potential corrupt influence of private bankers on party policy
what are the arguments against party funding
- increased state funding could leas to calls for greater regulation possibly reducing parties independence
- public funding could isolate the parties from the wishes of the voters
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How are parties funded in Australia
- state fund political parties
How are parties funded in UK
- parties rely heavily on private funding
- policy development grants allocate 2 million to all main parties so that they can employ policy advisors
- short money: named after ted short in 1974, provided to opposition parties for their rock in HOC based on number of seats they have
- leader of opposition is funded around 800k for running their office to provide a suitable and credible opposition (fits with duty of functions and features of political party
What are the checks and balances on donations
- political parties, elections and referendum act (2000)
- parties need to declare donations over 5k, limiting donations over 7.5k to those who could prove they were UK residents for tax purposes
What does PURDAH stand for
Pre election period declaring all spending - expenses
What does IPSA
Independent parliamentary standards authority, MOs have a budget they cannot go over
What were the problems of attempting to reform the UK system
- Blair scandal ‘cash for honours’, ended with no prosecution to him and public outrage led to the “Phillips reform” to investigate party funding
- argued there was a strong case for political parties to mainly be funded through taxation and for a limit of 50k to be put on donations from individuals and organisations
- this never happened however
What is the effectiveness of the PPERA (2000) act
- it introduced some restrictions, ban on overseas donors, however as long as requirements are met, there’s no limit on amounts an individual, trade unions, and companies can donate to political parties
How much did the conservatives and labour receive from donations in 2023
Conservatives : 44.5 mil
Labour : 21.5 mil, 5.9 from trade unions, 14.5 from companies + individuals
What is an example of cronyism
Cronyism: people trying to buy political influence through donations
Eg: labour in 2024, “freebigate”, Lord Waheed Alli donated 500k since 2020, 16k in gifts to keir starmer, after election was given a temporal security pass to Downing Street which he used to organise post election event and advise on public appointments - “operation integrity”
How have reform UK had more success in party funding in 2024
- Nick candy became their treasurer, aiming to get enough funds to win them the next general election, donating 1 million himself
