Political Parties Flashcards
How do the left and right differ on taxation?
- The left want higher taxes on the wealthy
- The right want tax cuts and generally lower taxes
How do the left and right differ on government spending and public services?
- The left want higher government spending to finance a high quality of goods and services available to the people
- The right want private provision with only basic public services
How do the left and right differ on welfare and benefits?
- The left favour an extensive welfare and benefits system
- The right believe in the bare minimum for those on benefits to incentivise them to work
How do the left and right differ on foreign policy?
- The left strive for international cooperation
- The right strive for national security and strength
What are the 5 main functions of political parties?
- To represent
- To encourage participation amongst the population
- Recruiting office holders
- Formulating policy
- Providing government
How are MPs paid?
General taxation
How do parties fund campaigns?
Membership, donor money, fundraising and if the party is the opposition party it gets a special state provision known as “short money”
What were the effects of Blair’s 2000 Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act?
- Independent electoral commission to supervise party spending on election campaigns
- Donations of more than £5,000 nationally and £1,000 to constituency party have to be declared and parties have to post details of donations
- Donations from individuals not on the UK electoral roll were banned
Pros of state funded political parties
- Play a huge part in our representative democracy
- Curbs possibility of corrupt monetary influence
- Would remove resource disparities between parties meaning more equal campaigning capabilities
Cons of state funded political parties
- Greater state regulation reduces party independence
- Taxpayers are forced to fund parties that they strongly disagree with
- How much support do parties really need for funding?
How did Labour used to be mainly funded?
Trade Union membership fees, however, you can pick whether or not you would like to donate as a trade union member
What is conservative policy on the health service?
They support the NHS but would like to see more private services and contracting within the NHS including PFI contracting
What is conservative policy on race relations?
Success is built off of individual merit and ability, race has no factor. This is just conservative popular opinion in the party, not official party policy.
What is Conservative policy on taxation and government spending?
Low taxation and reduced government spending (this has been changed by COVID though)
What is Conservative policy on law and order?
Strong belief in law and order and punishment of those who break the law
What is Conservative policy on Education?
They support more grammar schools, and support selective education and tuition fees
What is Conservative policy on immigration?
They support reducing immigration, particularly unskilled migrant workers
What is Conservative policy on welfare and benefits?
They support universal credit (one monthly payment for all benefits)
What were the original principles of the Tories?
In the late 1600s they represented defence of the monarchy, the Church of England and the land owning aristocracy. In the mid 1800s they became the party of defence of property and authority against the threat of revolution.
What is/was One Nation Toryism?
It was first pioneered by PM Disraeli in late 19th C, it included:
- A social obligation of the privileged to look after the disadvantaged
- Social reform
- National unity of classes under patriotic banner
- Patriotic foreign policy
- Was a form of moderate/centrist conservatism
Was the dominant party until Thatcher
Why was Thatcher opposed to ONTs?
She wished to dismantle the welfare state and saw ONTs as too soft
What were the principles of Thatcherism?
- Control of public spending and tax cuts
- Mass Privatisation
- Limits to trade union powers
- Tough approach to law and order
- Strong defence of British interests abroad
- Protection of loss of sovereignty to the EU
- Individuals take more responsibility of themselves and their families
- “Roll back the state”
What was Thatcher’s famous economic policy?
Monetarism. This included reducing inflation by cutting the money supply in the economy
What did Thatcher’s government do in 1981?
They increased interest rates in order to get people to save more and spend less which destroyed millions of pounds of paper cash, the economy went into recession and unemployment shot up
Who succeeded Thatcher?
John Major and although the government was more moderate, Thatcherite economic policies remained.
What did Cameron’s government start due to the 2008 crash?
Austerity
What did the more moderate Cameron aim to do?
De-toxify the party and change the image from the ‘nasty party’
What is a conservative faction on the further right?
The cornerstone group, very traditionalist (Jacob Reese Mogg)
What did Johnson do to Labour in the 2019 election?
He broke the red wall in N England, N Wales and the Midlands
What is socialism?
Social and economic system characterised by public ownership of the means of production and co-operative management of the economy
What are the origins of the Labour Party?
- Founded in 1900
- Started as political arm of the trade union movement
- Socialist roots but only really ‘socialist in spirit’ (especially when actually in government)
- Aims to create equal and classless society
What was Labour like post-War?
- Proudly ‘socialist’
- Criticised market economy and praised power of the state to do good
- Created welfare state and founded NHS
- Strong working class support
- Advocated for higher taxes on rich and nationalisation
When did Labour move further left?
1979-1983 under Michael Foot
What happened with Labour from 1983 to 1997?
Labour gradually abandoned many of its traditional policies
When did Labour win its biggest election victory ever?
In 1997 (Tony Blair)
What was different about Blair’s New Labour?
- Emphasis on wealth creation as opposed to redistribution of wealth
- Harsher on Law and Order, “tough on crime and the causes of crime”
- Responsible handling of national resources (conserving resources before spending)
- Using private sector to deliver some public services (PFI contracts)
- Influence of a more liberal ideology on Labour (human rights act passed)
When was Corbyn elected as leader?
2015
What was Corbyn’s political career described as?
The career of a rebel and a socialist. Anti-New Labour.
What did Corbyn aim to do?
- Increase government spending significantly
- End austerity
- Re-nationalising the railways
- Strengthening trade unions
- Ending uni tuition fees
What does Liberalism seek to promote?
Freedom of the individual above everything else, socially and economically
What were the historical Lib Dem’s?
The Whig party
What happened in regards to the Liberal Democrat party in 1988?
The Liberal party and Social Democratic Party (breakaway group from Labour) merged to form a centre/centre left party to threaten the big 2.
What has been the Liberal Democrats’ main issue in its history?
As the 3rd party it gets a fairly good share of the vote nationally and has a large membership but the party struggles to get individual seats
What did Classical Liberals believe in?
Freedom of the individual, constitutional reform, minimal role for the state and free trade. Early Thatcherites in terms of economic policy.
What do Modern Liberals believe?
Society needs to be changed through social reforms and equality needs to be enforced by the state to bring about real freedom. Modern liberals also pursue moderate redistribution of income and resources to reach a level playing field.
What did the Lib Dem’s do in 2010?
They entered a coalition with the Tories and supported large cuts in public spending and dropped their opposition to uni tuition fees
What did the Lib Dem’s actually do in gov’t?
- Clegg and the party tamed the Tory right wing
- Secured a referendum on changing the voting system (lost)
- Convinced Cameron to legislate for same sex marriage
- Had to compromise
What happened to the Lib Dems in 2015?
They effectively collapsed after entering into a conservative coalition and they lost 49 seats down to just 8 MPs, they are making a small comeback now
What are the 2 major factions within the Liberal Democrats?
- The Modern Liberal majority (very socially liberal and centre-left)
- The ‘Orange Book’ minority (centre-right economics and classical approach)
