Political parties Flashcards
what is a one party system?
- This is where only one party is allowed to operate and is mostly associated with highly authoritarian regimes
- They are not considered democratic
What is a Dominant Party System?
- They allow parties to operate freely however, there is only one party that has a realistic chance of getting into power
- They are very stable but lack accountability and competition
What is a Two party system?
- Only two parties have a realistic chance of coming into power
- It occurs when two parties win the vast majority of the votes in elections and seats in the representative assemblies of the state
What is a Two-and-a-half party system?
- This is when there are two main parties that contest in the elections however, there is also a sizeable third party
- Usually, the third party sits somewhere in between the two main parties ideologically and can be seen as ‘holding the balance of power’ between the two main parties e.g. Lib dems in 2010
What is a Multi party system?
- This is when several parties (more than two parties) have a realistic chance of coming into power and compete for votes and power
- The governments are usually formed by a coalition
- They can look quite fragile and unstable however, there is actually far less volatility as many of the same parties will regularly find themselves in government, time and again
What type of party system does the UK have?
Two-party:
- Since WWII has always been either conservatives or Labour in power
- all metro mayors are all conservatives and labour
- majority of other mayors are conservatives and Labour
- Local councils across the UK are dominated by Conservatives and Labour
Not two party:
- coalition 2010-15 (conservatives and Lib Dems)
- SNP is the dominant party in Scotland since 2007
- Labour has always been in power in wales but some coalitions with Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru
- some Lib Dems and independent mayors
- quite a few independent and Lib Dem local councillors
- EU elections 2014 - UKIP won most votes and in 2019 Brexit party won most votes, conservatives came 5th in 2019
What are the main functions of a political party?
- policy formation - e.g. at party conferences
- making policy
- Representation
- Selecting candidates
- Identifying leaders
- contesting elections
- political education
- Reinforcing consent
what are the 5 main sources of party funding?
- membership subscriptions e.g. Labour party membership
- Fundraising events e.g. Conservative party conference
- Donations - e.g. trade unions with Labour
- grants from electoral commission - e.g. £2m per party
- money granted to opposition in commons and Lords - Short money in commons and Cranborne money in the Lords
How has party funding changed in recent decades?
- all parties receive less from membership subscriptions due to decline in members
- Labour receive less money from trade unions due to their ideological parting but now receive far more from individual donors
- Conservatives remain the party with the highest donations
What was the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000?
- people not on the UK electoral roll could no longer make donations
- limits were placed on how much could be spent on parliamentary elections
- donations over £500 had to be declared and donations over £7500 had to be placed on the electoral register
what was the expenses scandal 2009?
- freedom of information request found that MPs and peers were exploiting their ability to request for expenses - done by:
- nominating second homes in order to gain more expenses
- exploiting the ‘no-receipt’ rule - no proof of receipt on goods under £250
- overspending at the end of the financial year - using up allowances without being challenged
What was the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2009?
- gave the electoral commission the power to investigate and impose fines
- restricted donations from non - UK residents
- imposed tighter regulations in the run-up to elections
what is Short Money?
distributed to all opposition parties to fund their parliamentary work in the commons
What is Cranborne Money?
distributed to all opposition parties to fund their parliamentary work in the Lords
Why has Labour’s funding from Trade Unions reduced since 2016?
- the party has become more centrist since the departures of Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn
- Kier Starmer is less committed to working with Trade Unions
