Political Parties

Question 1

What are Political Parties? Who are they formed by? - Political Parties

Answer 1

Political parties are formed by like-minded individuals with shared goals to make change. They seek power at elections to achieve this.

Question 2

What are typical examples of left-wing economic policies? - Political Parties

Answer 2

Left wing parties typically economically advocate for state intervention, collectivism, restricted markets, redistributive taxation and public ownership of industries.

Question 3

What are typical examples of right-wing economic policies? - Political Parties

Answer 3

Right wing parties typically economically advocate for a free-market economy, individualism, low state interference and regulation, low taxes and private ownership of industries.

Question 4

What are typically left-wing social policies? - Political Parties

Answer 4

Left-wing parties typically socially advocate for large spending on public services to create an equal and prosperous society, a multicultural and liberal society embracing difference, social equality and tolerance, social justice.

Question 5

What are typically right-wing social policies? - Political Parties

Answer 5

Right wing parties typically socially advocate for limited spending on public services, individualism, a meritocracy within society, traditional ideas on gender roles and ethnicity, law and order and tough criminal sentences.

Question 6

What views do right-wing and left-wing parties traditionally have on human nature respectively? - Political Parties

Answer 6

Right-wing: pessimistic and believe that humans need to be ordered so that they do not fall into despair.
Left-wing: much more optimistic and believe that humans are naturally inclined towards collaboration.

Question 7

What are the 7 main functions of political parties? - Political Parties

Answer 7

Campaigning at elections, aggregating supporters’ views, selecting election candidates, appointing leaders, representing (people or an issue), informing the public, making policy.

Question 8

How do parties fulfil their roles of campaigning at elections and making policies respectively? - Political Parties

Answer 8

Campaigning: parties facilitate party activism, as well as take part in canvassing, hustings, debates and engagement with the public.
Policy: consult a party’s general membership to formulate policy, consult swing voters to gain votes from other parties to reach power, consult think tanks.

Question 9

How do parties fulfil their roles of aggregating views of supporters and appointing a leader respectively? - Political Parties

Answer 9

Aggregating views: canvass and organise surgeries at local level to understand the needs of the electorate.
Appointing leaders: can mean leaders of parties elected by a party membership or people into ministerial/influential positions.

Question 10

How do parties fulfil their roles of representation and informing the public respectively? - Political Parties

Answer 10

Representation: parties nowadays aim to represent the national interest, but can at times represent a certain issue or represent specific groups within society (Labour and workers).
Informing: educates the public about the actions of parties and the decisions of groups so that the public can make informed choices.

Question 11

What is a manifesto? What is a mandate? - Political Parties

Answer 11

A manifesto is a summary of a party’s commitments that they intend to fulfil should they be elected by the people.
A mandate is the principle of the people consenting for a government to carry out its agenda if they win a majority at an election.

Question 12

What examples are there of FEATURES of parties? - Political Parties

Answer 12

A core membership/supporter base who share similar beliefs, the desire to secure election to power or be representatives, a group that formulates policy and recruits leaders and candidates, a leader of the party.

Question 13

What forms of non-state party funding are there? - Political Parties

Answer 13

Membership and subscription fees, holding fundraising events, receiving donations from supporters, raising loans from wealthy individuals/banks, self financing of candidates for office, up to £2 million in electoral commission grants.

Question 14

Why might membership and subscription fees be seen as controversial methods of funding? - Political Parties

Answer 14

Membership fees can be seen as paying to receive a louder voice or more attention from a party, larger parties have larger memberships, meaning their incomes and financial power is disproportionate to smaller parties.

Question 15

How can the holding of fundraising events be seen as a controversial method of funding? - Political Parties

Answer 15

These events can often act as a way for the rich and powerful to have shady access to politicians in exchange for large sums of money. Large scale donations can often be ‘reciprocated’ with patronage, as seen in cash for honours.

Question 16

How can recieving donations from supporters be seen as a controversial method of funding? - Political Parties

Answer 16

These donations, particularly large scale ones, can promote excessive influence over party leaders by wealthy individuals. They may have an ulterior motive for donating such large sums.

Question 17

How can raising loans from wealthy individuals/banks be seen as a controversial method of funding? - Political Parties

Answer 17

Parties able to access these loans have greater financial force to exert at election time, meaning they can spend more on advertising and policy research. These parties become more prominent and likely draw more votes.

Question 18

How can the self-financing of candidates for office be seen as a controversial method of funding? - Political Parties

Answer 18

Wealthier candidates with greater access to funds have access to increased advertising, leaflets and other promotions, increasing their prominence among an electorate. Furthermore, it encourages only wealthier candidates to stand if they can afford to do so.

Question 19

How can the £2 million in Electoral Commission Grants be seen as a controversial funding method? - Political Parties

Answer 19

The distribution of these funds is particularly questionable, with a perhaps inevitable element of bias involved in their allocation. This means certain parties are disadvantaged. Again, larger parties stand to receive much larger grants.

Question 20

What are policy development grants? Who is eligible for these? - Political Parties

Answer 20

Policy development grants are state-granted funds worth up to £2 million to fund the hiring of policy advisers. This is available to all main parties.

Question 21

What is Short Money? Who is eligible for this? How is it allocated? - Political Parties

Answer 21

Short money is money made available to opposition parties by the government to fund workers and research. This is allocated based on seats and votes won by a party at an election.

Question 22

What is Cranborne Money? Who is eligible for this? - Political Parties

Answer 22

Cranborne money is funds made available to parties in the House of Lords.

Question 23

How much Short Money did Labour receive in 2015? How much did the SNP receive? - Political Parties

Answer 23

In 2015, Labour received £6.7 million in Short Money, compared to £1.2 million for the SNP.

Question 24

What arguments are there in favour of the state funding of political parties? - Political Parties

Answer 24

Parties could be funded by taxes of just 50p / year, with this meaning that there is regulated financing of political parties. This can mitigate corrupt influences eg. Cash for Honours. Rather than being state funded politicians, it can be seen as state funded democracy, and would reduce the advantage of the larger parties over smaller ones.

Question 25

What arguments are there against the state funding of political parties? - Political Parties

Answer 25

State funding of parties can be seen as undemocratic, wrong and entirely statist. It would also be hard to convince the electorate to approve of extra expenditure on parties in the current financial climate.

Question 26

What impacts have the fall in party membership had on the funding of parties and the ethics behind this? - Political Parties

Answer 26

The general decline in membership has meant that there is an increased reliance on donations made by the wealthy and by organisations, meaning that these groups may expect parties to return the favour for them financing the party.

Question 27

Aside from state funding of parties, what possible solutions are there to the issue of excessive party funding from unaccountable sources? - Political Parties

Answer 27

Increased surveillance of donations by the Electoral Commission, restrictions on the size of a donation that an individual can make, restrict donations to only being made by individuals rather than by corporations who may expect the ‘favour’ to be returned, restrictions on party spending.

Question 28

Why do people donate to political parties? - Political Parties

Answer 28

To gain influence over policy, to gain patronage granted by party leaders, to increase financial backing of a party and increase their chances of winning at election, to show support.

Question 29

In 2019, how much did Lord David Sainsbury donate to the Liberal Democrats? - Political Parties

Answer 29

Lord David Sainsbury donated £8,000,000 to the Liberal Democrats in 2019.

Question 30

How much money did Unite the Union donate to Labour in 2019? - Political Parties

Answer 30

Unite the Union donated £3,000,000 to Labour in 2019.

Question 31

How much money did Kwasi Kwarteng (Business and Environment Secretary) receive from pro-fossil fuel companies in 2019? - Political Parties

Answer 31

Kwasi Kwarteng received £16,000 from pro-fossil fuel companies during his electoral campaign in 2019.

Question 32

What proposals have been made for the state funding of political parties? - Political Parties

Answer 32

Potentially 50p per person/year tax to finance these parties, or a grant of £3 per vote that a party receives at an election.

Question 33

What percentage of 2013-17 political donations did the Conservative Party receive? What percentage did the Green Party receive? - Political Parties

Answer 33

2013-17 donation percentage: CON = 50.5%, GRE = 0.7%