Parties And Party Funding

Question 1

What was the 2000 PPERA

Answer 1

Political parties elections and referendums act 2000

Set up electoral commission
Set 30k spending limit per constituency
Must declare donations over 5k

Question 2

What has happened to membership of the 3 main parties

Answer 2

3 million in 1960s fallen to 400k in 2015
Partisan dealignment

Question 3

What was the Cash for Honours scandal

Answer 3

Blair government accused of giving peerages as a quid pro quo for loans to the Labour Party (loans as a way of getting around declarations mandated in the PPERA)

Question 4

What was the controversy with Bernie Ecclestone in 1997

Answer 4

He gave 1 million to the Labour Party, it was alleged that this contributed to the government being slow to ban tobacco advertising in F1

Question 5

What state funding exists now

Answer 5

Short money and cranborne money for opposition parties in commons and lords respectively

Question 6

Arguments for and against state party funding

Answer 6

FOR
- reduces tendency to have vested interests
- decreases major parties advantage in funding, allows parties like Lib Dem’s to compete on an even footing
- Improves transparency of funding which is in voters/ taxpayers interests

AGAINST
- parties may become disconnected from wider society if they do not have to seek financial and electoral backing from interest groups
- measures already exist to reduce their advantage eg trade union act. They still have an advantage under state funding if it’s allocated via votes/ seats/ previous party performance.
- taxpayers/ voters shouldn’t have to fund parties they don’t support/ didn’t vote for

Question 7

Philips report 2006

Answer 7

• recommended capping individual donations at 50k
• recommended extending the reach of state funding and increasing it by 25 million

Question 8

2016 trade union act

Answer 8

New trade union members must opt in to making donations to the Labour Party

Question 9

Functions of political parties

Answer 9

Representation- represent values and ideology of those who identify/ vote for them

Participation- offer the opportunity for people to participate in politics eg choosing the leader etc
However this function is weak because of party dealignment

Question 10

Party functions argument for state funding

Answer 10

If parties perform essential functions for democracy they should be funded like any other public service