political parties Flashcards

1
Q

what are the roles of parties?

A
  • representation
  • political recruitment
  • policy formulation
  • participation
  • stable government
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2
Q

what are the different types of parties?

A
  • main stream - Conservatives
  • nationalist - SNP
  • single issue - Brexit party
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3
Q

what are the similarities between labour and conservative?

A
  • they are both pro democratic parties with no intention to revolutionise the democratic system.
  • neither have extreme views and in some parts have similar outlooks on policy e.g., Bercow being a tory MP and switching to labour
  • in 2015, many policies were shared between the two parties e.g., no rise in VAT or national insurance or working towards cutting the deficit.
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4
Q

what are the differences between labour and con?

A
  • key ideological differences e.g., although reworded in 1995, clause IV still shows labour’s socialist commitments
  • differences in who has historically supported them and who gains access when in charge e.g., Labour = trade unions Con = big business
  • differences in recent manifesto promises e.g., in 2015, Con wanted to make at-sea deterant continueous whereas labour wanted a minimal, independent deterant
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5
Q

what were some of old labour’s policies?

A
  • creation of the NHS
  • nationalisation of industry
  • creation of comprehensive welfare system based on the report by Lord Beveridge
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6
Q

where did old labour start to change to new labour?

A
  • after defeat in 1983 of michael foot who had a vey left wing, socialist manifesto known as the ‘longest suicide note in history’.
  • this shows that socialist ideals may be outdated and unpopular
  • they reworded clause IV in 1995 and Blair followed a ‘third way’ approach
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7
Q

how has the labour party become more left wing in recent years?

A
  • the appointment of corbyn as labour party leader shows a substantial shift to the left with manifesto promises such as free broadband for all. this was accompanied by an almost x3 surge in membership of the labour party
  • although, the defeat in 2019 was catastrophic for corbyn especially because it was against an disunited tory party
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8
Q

what were some of corbyn’s policies in 2019?

A
  • nationalising key industries such as national grid, big six energy, royal mail and more
  • free broadband for all
  • raise minimum wage to £10
  • stop pension age rises
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9
Q

what were some of the conservative’s founding values

A

-robert peel, the founder of the tory party, was a defendant of heirarchy, the monarchy and conserving other institutions

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10
Q

what were some of Thatcher’s policies?

A
  • she adopted a monetarist economic approach such as cutting public spending and taxes as well privatisation of industries such as british airways and electricity
  • a strong foreign and domestic policy e.g., falklands war, strong shutdown of poll tax riots
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11
Q

how has conservative party liberalised since thatcher?

A
  • legalisation of gay marriage by cameron is in stark contrast to article 28 under thatcher
  • May wanted to remove ‘nasty party’ image
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12
Q

how has boris johnson taken a more traditional conservative approach?

A
  • recent rwandan migration policy
  • pro brexit
  • australian style points based immigration system
  • trying to pass policies which restrict protesting rights in the Police, Crime, sentencing and courts bill 2021
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13
Q

give an example of how the lib dems have suffered from FPTP?

A

in 1983, they recieved 26% of the votes, but only 23 seats.

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14
Q

how have the lib dems declined?

A

in 2010, they garnered enough support with 57 seats to gain a coalition, however, since jo swinson has become leader, they have lost lots of support, only gaining 11% of the vote in 2019, and only recieiving 11 seats. this is partly due to jo swinson’s leadership

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15
Q

why did lib dems gain so much support?

A
  • this was largely due to tactical voting in conservative constituencies where labour MPs had no chance of getting in.
  • but also due to the televised events and Nick clegg’s leadership where the two leaders of the big 2 parties often said ‘i agree with nick’
  • another reason why they lost support was because they broke their manifesto promise to not raise tuition fees
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16
Q

in what ways are the lib dems a third party?

A
  • they were the ‘anti-brexit party’ due to corbyn not wanting to actively be against it.
  • they have been the front runner of liberal reforms such as legalising cannabis, prison reform, improving equality of oppurtunity through free childcare and recruiting more teachers
17
Q

in what ways is the UK a multi-party system?

A
  • in 1970, labour and con received almost 90% of the vote combined, this has fallen to 67.3% in 2015
  • if the electoral system was merely based on % of vote, there would not have been a majority government since 1935
18
Q

in what ways is the UK not a multi party system?

A
  • the nature of FPTP makes it extremely hard for minor parties to gain accurate representation - UKIP with 1 seat and almost 4 million votes in 2015
  • no party other than labour or con has had the most votes post war
  • con and labour have lost the uniqueness of their policies and are much more catch all and rather electoral victories are based off of reputation in government