Paper 1: Political parties Flashcards
What were the main policies of the post-war consensus?
1-A mixed economy (made up of both publicly and privately owned industries and enterprises.)
. These industries included coal, steel, ship building, the railways, gas, and electricity
2-Economic management (an economy that is regulated by the government.)
. Labour introduced boards or public corporations to run these industries, to avoid the claim that the nationalised industries were a tool for government.
. These boards were given the necessary freedom to operate outside of government interference and were only answerable to parliament.
3-Comprehensive social welfare
. Under Attlee the welfare state was expanded on the basis of the Beveridge Report (1942).
. This expanded the welfare state, based on a comprehensive system of social security and a NHS, sought to protect citizens ‘from the cradle to the grave’.
-It brought about a major redistribution of wealth, as it was funded by a system of progressive taxation.
What was one nation conservativism
-Society should be left to evolve organically rather than with the intervention of government.
-Paternalism: The privileged and wealthy have obligations, passing on theirs benefits to aid the less fortunate.
What was the de-industrialisation and the rise of unions in the UK?
• Starting during the 1960s as the process of de-industrialisation occurred and the UK economy began moving away from heavy industry, full employment became much harder to achieve.
• Higher levels of inflation also made it harder for Labour in power to support all of the demands of the unions.
• Increasingly union leaders became political figures in their own right and challenged the Labour leadership.
• Labour Party policy had to be approved by the party as a whole and union leaders had a block vote, meaning the leader would cast the votes for all their members – meaning they dominated discussions and decisions in party policy.
• This is one of the reasons the party moved to the left in the Thatcher period during the 1980s and maintained its commitment to nationalisation and full employment at a time when the economy was changing, and these ideas were becoming less popular.
What was the economic decline seen in the postwar consensus?
• By the 1970s there was a growing political awareness of the fact that international league tables showed that Britain was at the wrong end for figures regarding strikes, productivity, inflation, economic growth and rising living standards.
• Britain became known as the ‘sick man of Europe’.
• The targets for blame included: failure to invest in new
plant and machinery; restrictive working practices and outdated attitudes on the shop floor (‘us and them’); amateurish management; loss of markets; and rise of competition.
• Britain was plagued by high inflation, low growth and what many came increasingly to regard as irresponsible trade union power.
• Measures to boost economic activity and reduce unemployment sucked in extra imports, thereby worsening the trade balance, and seemed to lead to unacceptable rises in inflation.
• The financial markets’ loss of confidence meant a sharp slide in the value of sterling, which in turn led to the International Monetary Fund’s ‘rescue’ in 1976.
• In the ‘Winter of Discontent’ in 1979 a rash of strikes in crucial public services against the Labour government’s income policies seemed to show that the country was ungovernable and that no government had an answer to inflation.
What was ‘new right conservativism’?
The term ‘New Right’ was used to describe a set of political values and ideas, largely emerging in the USA between the 1970s and 1980s, which were adopted by conservatives throughout the developed world. It was a reaction both against socialist ideas and traditional conservative values – seen as too weak to deal with contemporary problems.
The two elements within Thatcherism are:
-Neoliberalism (‘economic Thatcherism’), its central pillars are the free market and the self-reliant individual.
-Neoconservatism (‘social Thatcherism’), a form of authoritarian conservatism that calls for the restoration of order, authority, and discipline in society.
What was Privatisation during the Thatcher government?
• The ‘mixed’ economy was transformed by the privatisation of most of the industries that had been nationalised in the 20th century.
• These included telecommunications, gas, electricity, water, steel, buses and railways.
The state, therefore, lost direct control of major UK industries.
What was deregulation under the Thatcher government.
Deregulation:
-The Thatcher government removed a wide range of restrictions and controls on the economy.
-Controls on exchange rates were ended, allowing the poundw to ‘float’.
-Financial markets were deregulated.
-Subsidies and supports for ‘failing’ industries were scaled down or scrapped.
What was the tough law and order seen under Thatcher’s government?
Tough Law and Order:
-Greater emphasis was placed on maintaining public order through a fear of punishment, reflected in the belief that ‘prison works.’
-Custodial sentences were more widely used, prison terms were lengthened, and, in some cases, ‘tougher’ prison regimes were imposed.
What were the traditional values seen in the Thatcher government?
-One of the enemies of social Thatcherism was the spread of liberal or permissive values, associated in particular with the 1960s.
Instead, traditional, ‘Christian’ or ‘family’ values were defended.
What was the national patriotism seen under Thatcher?
Thatcherites placed a particular stress on strengthening national identity, seen as one of the cornerstones of political strength and social stability.
Over time, this came increasingly to be expressed in the form of Euroscepticism.
What was Thatcher’s issue with the Falklands?
• The recapture of the Falkland Islands from Argentina in 1982 was important for the success of the Thatcher project.
• It coincided with an improvement in the public standing of the government and of Thatcher herself.
• The victory seemed to vindicate her claims in domestic politics that she could provide strong leadership and stand up for the nation.
The war rhetoric could now be turned against the enemies within - particularly the trade unions
What was ‘blairism’
- The first change towards new labour was the rewriting of clause IV, a demonstration of old labour’s socialist origins.
- ‘Blairism’ combined thatcherite market-oriented economic strategy with continued support for public services.
What was market economics under blair?
• Labour came to accept that the economy should be regulated by the market and not by the state.
• Blairism built on Thatcherism – privatisation, reduced union power, lower taxes, deregulation.
• Semi-independence was granted to the Bank of England in setting interest rates (1997).
• Nevertheless, after 2001 Labour embarked on an expansion of public services, with unprecedented spending on health and education.
What was constitutional reform under Blair?
• A bold series of constitutional reforms included devolution, The Human Rights Act and reform of the House of Lords.
• However, Labour’s conversion to constitutional liberalism was partial, for example alternatives to the Westminster voting system were dropped, reform declined after 2001.
• After 2007 Brown took steps to reduce the prerogative powers of the PM and expand the role of Parliament.
However, more radical reforms such as an elected second chamber, ‘written constitution’ and entrenched bill of rights, never progressed beyond the discussion phase.
What was third way welfare under Blair?
• Blair’s approach to welfare was a middle way between the post-war welfare consensus and Thatcherism.
• There was wider use of ‘targeted’ benefits, an emphasis on the idea of ‘welfare to work’ and attempts to reform the public services.
• Welfare reform was based on the idea that the public services should be more market-orientated and consumer responsive.
• It was however an area where differences between Brown and Blair were most acute, as Chancellor Brown slowed the pace of public sector reform, after 2007 plans for further reform were effectively abandoned.
What was the strengthening of responsibility under Blair?
• Blairism contained the idea that rights should be balanced against responsibilities.
• The desire to strengthen social duty and moral responsibilities was reflected in the so-called ‘respect agenda’, under which new public order laws were introduced (including ASBOs), the prison population rose steeply and a series of new anti-terrorism laws were passed.
• This led to allegations that New Labour had succumbed to neoconservatism and was endangering a range of vital civil liberties.
What are the main sources of party funding?
-Collecting membership subscriptions from members
-Holding fundraising events
-Receiving donations from supporters
-Raising loans from wealthy individuals or banks
- Up to 2 million pounds per party available in grants from the electoral commission.
-Money granted to opposition parties in the commons and the lords
Explain the significance of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act (PPERA)(2000) and the Political Parties and Elections Act (PPEA) (2009).
Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act (2000):
-People not on the UK electoral role can no longer make donations (reducing foreign influence)
-Limits placed on how much could be spent on parliamentary elections,
- Donations over 500 pounds had to be declared.
-Donations over 7500 pounds were to be placed on an electoral register.
this regulation stressed transparency, rather than any serious limits on the amount being donated.
These regulations were further developed in the week of the MPs expenses scandal with the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009, which gave the electoral commission, the power to investigate and impose fines, restricted donations from non-UK residents and imposed tighter regulations in the run up to elections.
What was Austerity under the last conservative governments?
When the Conservative Party returned to power in 2010, it was faced with an economic crisis, specifically a huge, growing budget deficit arising from the bailout of banks in 2008 and the fact that successive governments had been spending considerably more than their taxation receipts. The national debt was huge, standing at £1.13 trillion in March 2010. This led to the party adopting a rigorous approach to economic management. Above all, its economic policy was dominated by the aim of eliminating budget deficits (i.e. having a balanced budget) and reducing the national debt.
Under Theresa May, after 2016 the goal of a balanced budget was abandoned. It was seen as unattainable and as inhibiting economic growth. However, party policy remains pragmatic and cautious about the economy public expenditure must be kept under careful control, but not at the expense of social unrest or failing to pars undertake necessary government action. This was why, in 2020, the Conservative Party authorised unprecedented levels of national borrowing to fund the Covid-19 lockdowns. It was a pragmatic response to maintain stability and ensure businesses and employment could survive.
What was the attitude towards taxation (conservatives)?
The attitude of the Conservative Party to taxation is partly neo-liberal and partly nation. On the one hand, personal and company taxation should never be excessively one high as this inhibits enterprise and wealth creation (a neo-liberal view). The party seeks to reduce corporate taxation as much as is feasible. On the other hand, the party recognises that if taxation on lower incomes is too high, it risks creating higher levels of poverty and dividing the nation (a one-nation view). Wage rises as a result of inflation mean that more people than ever before are now in the 40% tax bracket, so taxation, in terms of money generated from income, has actually reached the highest post-war levels under the Conservative Party and the burden of tax has shifted towards middle-income groups.
What was law and order like under the new conservative government?
The party retains the view that prison and stern punishments are the best deterrent against crime, and sentencing policy should be in the hands of an elected government and not unelected judges. The party is opposed to ‘liberal’ ideas about crime and punishment and opposes such proposals as the legalisation of drugs.
Conservatives stress the need for security and see it as the first duty of government to protect its citizens. In the fight against terrorism, therefore, they accept that civil liberties (privacy, freedom of movement and expression) may have to be sacrificed.
-For this reason, in both the 2017 and 2019 Conservative Party manifestos, the party pledged to alter the Human Rights Act to ensure it could deal with national threats such as terrorism, prioritising social stability and safety above individual rights.
-Between March 2020 and March 2021 the Conservative government also limited various freedoms to ensure the success of lockdown measures during the Covid-19 pandemic.
-Then in 2022 it introduced the ‘Rwanda Plan’ to provide a strong legal deterrent to migrants making illegal channel crossings.
What was the modern conservative attitude to welfare?
Modern Conservative policy concentrates on the need to ensure that welfare benefits are not a disincentive to work. The government has introduced: a stricter system of means testing to prevent unemployment being seen as a preferable option; a living wage (or minimum wage) as a greater reward for work at lower levels of pay; and an overall cap on total welfare benefits for families.
Party policy is committed to maintaining the welfare state, and safeguarding the NHS and the education system. However, the party believes that these two services should be subject to competition and market forces, and that private-sector enterprises should become involved in the provision of services. This, it believes, can increase efficiency so that services can improve without increasing expenditure on them.
What was the new conservative view on foreign affairs?
Conservatives support the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the UK’s close alliance with the USA. However, they also believe that the UK’s best national interests lie in retaining an independent foreign policy. They believe that the country should intervene in foreign conflicts if it is in the UK’s interests or if there is a moral reason, as shown with the support given to Ukraine since 2022. The party is committed to retaining the UK’s independent nuclear deterrent in the form of Trident submarine-based weapons. After considerable internal conflict, the party decided to reduce the UK’s contributions to international aid.
What are the most impactful external influences on the conservative party?
The Conservative Party has had a long history of being the party of business. Groups business interests often exert a powerful influence over Conservative that represent using and direction. Most notable are the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which works to promote British business interests, and the British Banking Association (BBA), which notably persuaded the former Conservative prime minister David Cameron not to impose fines and increased controls on banks following the financial crash of 2008. Yet both the CBI and BBA warned against Brexit, which shows the limits of external influences.
The Conservative Party also has a history of being influenced by major press barons, dating back to the pre-war figures of Lord Beaverbrook and Lord Rothermere.
In the 1980s, Rupert Murdoch (then owner of News International, which owned the Sun and the Times) was a key supporter of Margaret Thatcher and helped to shape the anti-union stance of the Conservative Party as he fought the printing unions. Meanwhile, in 2001, the then owner of the Daily Telegraph, Conrad Black, was made a Conservative life peer having been nominated by then leader William Hague, while Viscount Rothermere IV, owner of the Daily Mail, has continually been an active supporter of the Conservative Party. It is therefore not surprising that so much of the printed media in the UK supports the Conservative Party and the press barons expect the party to support many, if not all, of their positions.
