Paper 1: Political Parties Flashcards
What is a political party?
Group of ppl drawn together by similar set of beliefs known as an ideology, might not all be identical so there are some divisions within parties
Examples of divisions in parties
Tories split over Brexit (May and Cameron remain and Johnson and Gove leave)
Labour split over nuclear weapons
Functions of political parties: Representation
Main function is to represent ppl with certain set of beliefs, ppl can be represented in other ways e.g. pressure groups but parties bring order to the system in a representative democracy
Functions of political parties: Participation
Need to encourage participation to win power such as joining a party and supporting it
Labour proposes more power to party members than other parties
Functions of political parties: Recruiting Office Holders
For small no. of ppl, party membership can lead to recruitment as candidates for public office
Parties have right to reject or ‘deselect’ candidates who fail to live up to expectation
Parties can move candidates to safe seats if they really want them to win e.g Labour party in 2010 when they moved Luciana Berger to Wavertree seat
Tories but Esther McVey in Tatton
Functions of political parties: Formulating policy
Parties generate policies that embody ideas they stand for
Put ideas forward in manifesto
Parties said to have educative function by communicating and explaining ideas to public but likely to distort opponents’ policies in their own interests
Functions of political parties: Providing Government
Winning party forms govt. which controls business of parliament
PM who loses confidence of party is vulnerable e.g Thatcher in ‘90
Where did distinction of left and right wing politics come form?
Came from pre-revolutionary France where seating in French assembly reflected views
Those who wanted democracy and reform on left and those in favour of the King on the right
How are MPs paid?
Payed from general taxation and currently earn £74,692 a year
Allowed to claim expenses to cover running an office, living in Westminster and constituency and travelling between the two
What’s Short Money?
Special state provision to support activities of the opposition in parliament
To qualify, a party must have at least 2 seats in Parliament
Paid £17,000 per seat they have plus funding calculated on amount of votes they receive and travel allowance
Labour gets £6.2 million in short money
Tony Blair and Bernie Ecclestone
Blair faced criticism with months of coming into office in ‘97 after motor-racing boss, Ecclestone had donated £1 million to Labour in return for a delay in imposing a ban on tobacco advertising in F1
The money was returned
Tony Blair and Cash for Honours
2006/7 emerged that Labour had been creating peerages in HofL in return for big loans to the party
Police investigation followed and Labour had to repay the money
John Major and Cash for Questions
MPs accused of accepting money for asking questions (or lobbying) in parliament
What did Blair do in response to the Cash for donors/questions scandal
Passes the 2000 Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act which inc:
Independent electoral commission set up to supervise party spending
Amount that party could spend in a constituency was 30k
Donations form ppl not on UK electoral role were banned
What was the party funding in 2014?
Tories- £29 million
Labour- £18.5 million
Lib Dems- £8 million
Should parties receive state funding: Yes
Parties play imp. role in representative democracy and so deserve public funding
Would be fairer for smaller parties
If state matched donations with party members, might encourage membership
Would curb the possibly corrupt influence of private backers on party policy
Should parties receive state funding: No
Increased sate funding could lead to calls for greater state regulation, reducing parties’ independence
Hard to decide how much support a party should have to qualify for funding
Could isolate parties from the coshes of the voters
Taxpayers would resent compulsory contributions to parties of which they disapprove
What’s a one-party dominant system?
A number of parties, but only one has a realistic prospect of holding power
What’s a two-party system?
Two parties compete for power at elections, other parties have no real chance
Argument that UK has a multiparty system
In 2015 election, 13.5% of voters backed parties other than big two
Some parts of UK e.g Scotland has a genuinely multiparty competition
Although parties such as Green Party, UKIP have struggled to gain parliamentary representation at Westminster, they achieve success in second order elections
Arguments that UK doesn’t have multiparty system
Labour and Tories are only parties with a real chance of forming the govt.
2015, won 86.5% of seats
Only competition is Lib Dems who still were 224 seats behind Labour in 2015
Factors affecting the success of political parties
Representation
Funding
Leadership
Media
Conservatives and media
Supported by Sun, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph + Times
Spent over £1 million on FB ads
2017 said to have lost social media election
Labour and the media
More social media presence than other parties
2017, Labour’s last minute ad was viewed more than double that of Tories videos
Milliband and bacon sandwich
Conservatives and leadership
2016 May became leader after opponent withdrew
Called general election to increase majority but lost seats
2018, faced with ‘vote of no confidence’, 1/3 of her won party voted against her
3 MPs defected into independent group
Labour and leadership
Corbyn has good media presence, appealing to young voters
Won vote of no confidence in 2016 and won leadership election twice
Not seen as overly intelligent + no ministerial experience
What is adversary politics?
Occurs when there’s deep divisions between the parties
As UK is mostly a stable two-party system, adversarial politics are rare
What’s a constitution?
Set of principals which may be written or unwritten that establishes the distribution of power within a political system
What did the constitutional reforms hope to achieve?
Democratisation
Decentralisation
Stronger protection of rights
Modernisation
When was the House of Lords reform?
1999
What was included in the House of Lords reform?
Removal of hereditary peers
