Political parties Flashcards
Describe what a political party is?
- Members share similar political values and beliefs
- Seek to secure the election of their candidates as representatives and to form the government at local regional and national levels
- Have some kind of organisation that develops policy, recruits candidates and identifies leaders
Give an example of a mass membership party
Labour
Give an example of parties that seek support rather than membership
The main US parties
Give an example of a highly organised party with a permanent formal organisation
The German Christian Democrats
Give an example of a party with a loose, less permanent organisation
US parties that only organise formally at election time
Give an example of a party with a narrow range of views that are intensely united around those views
The Brexit Party
Give an example of a party that has a broad range of views and values and so splits into factions
The Conservative Party
Give some examples of parties that are focused on gaining power
The big 2 in the US and UK
Give an example of a party that accepts in won’t gain power and so just looks to influence politics
The Green Party
List the 3 key features of established political parties in the UK
- Aim to gaining power by winning political office through elections
- Broad focus across lots of areas like health, education and finance
- Membership tends to share a common ideology like socialism, liberalism or conservativism
List the functions of parties
- Reinforcing consent
- Political education
- Contesting elections
- Identifying leaders
- Selecting candidates
- Representation
- Policy making
Describe the function of policy making
Perhaps the most recognisable function of parties is developing policy and political programmes. This role is especially significant when a party is in opposition and wishes to become the gov. When a party controls the gov, its leadership is the gov, and there is virtually no distinction between the two. The policy making function of the party will therefore be the same as the policy making function of gov. As well as political leaders it will also involve civil servants, advisory units, advisory and committees and private advisors. The rest of the party, backbench MPs, peers, local activists and ordinary members will all have some say through policy conferences and committees, but they have an ultimately background role. Most policy in the ruling party is made by minister and their advisors. In opposition, the party leadership is not in such a pre-eminent position. Although the leadership will still have the most influence, the LOTO in particular, it is in opposition that the general membership can have the biggest impact in policy making. Through various conferences and party committees, they can communicate the leadership the ideas and demands they would like to see as official policy that could one day become gov policy. This kind of influence occurs at the local, regional and national level. The policy making function is also known as aggregation. This involves identifying the wide range of demands made from the party membership, the masses in society and various different groups and then converting these into consistent and compatible political programmes. It tends to be undertaken by members of the party leadership as these people may one day become ministers and will have to put the policies in practise in gov
Explain the function of representation
Most parties in the past claimed to represent a specific section of society, like Labour being developed in the early 20th century to represent the working class and TU members. The Cs largely existed in the 19th century to protect the interests of the aristocratic and landed classes. This has changed in modern times as all parties now claim to represent the national interest rather than just that of specific classes or groups. When we say representation today we therefore mean that they ensure that all sections of society have their demands considered by gov. Of course, based on their core values and ideologies, parties do tend to favour certain sections of society over others
The emergence of populist parties needs to be taken into account in terms of representation. Their appeal is emotional and they play on people’s fears and dissatisfactions. Defined by what people are opposed to rather than what they favour. Often in favour of a small state, low taxes and are anti big business and established politics
We are also seeing the rise of issue parties that represent a particular cause. However most parties still claim to represent the national interest
Give two recents examples of populist movements being reactionary rather than looking for progressive change
- Trump’s MAGA
- UKIP’s ‘take our country back’
Describe the function of selecting candidates
Parties spend lots of time and effort on selecting candidates at all levels. Finding prosprective local councillors, mayors, members of the devolved assemblies and MPs. This is mostly done at the local and regional level, through party committees staffed by activists. The national party leaderships do have some say in which candidates should be chosen, but local constituency parties have the greatest role to play here
Describe the function of identifying leaders
Parties need leaders. They could one day become gov ministers. They have procedures for identifying political leaders. It is in this area that established party leaders play a key role. For the ruling party, the PM completely controls the appointment of ministers. In opposition parties the leader will choose a small number of frontbench spokespersons who form the leadership. Despite the dominance of party leaders in this field, potential leaders cut their teeth in internal party organisations and committees. The formal organisations of parties give opportunities for members to become trained as leaders. The issue of party leadership was thrown into focus in the 2015-6 Labour Party, when Ed Miliband resigned and left a power vacuum following the 2015 GE. The party membership overwhelmingly voted to elect Jeremy Corbyn party leader. However, his views were far to the left of most Labour MPs. He was Labour leader until 2020, but many Labour MPs refused to acknowledge him as their leader
By contrasts, the conservatives, after losing faith in May, found no problems in finding a successor. Johnson was the overwhelming favourite among MPs and it was clear that the party membership, who had the power to elect the leader, agreed with the MPs
The Lib Dems use a slightly different system that involves more of the grassroots party membershi in the nomination process. Candidates had to be an MP and have the support of 10% of Lib Dem MPs and the support of at least 200 members spread across at least 20 local parties, to ensure widespread support across the party. Once the nominations are made, all members of the party vote on the basis of one person one vote.
The Lid Dems use AV in the hopes of ensuring a clear majority. The leadership election of 2020 split the party, with Ed Davey representing the more centrist, orange book side of the party and Layla Moran representing the more progressive wing
Describe the function of contesting elections
As well as supplying approved candidates, parties publicise elections issues, persuading people to vote and informing them about candidates. Without the huge efforts of thousands of party activists at election time, turnout would be even lower. Party representatives will be present when votes are counted, so they are important in ensuring elections are fair and honest
Describe the function of political education
They also have this function outside out of election time. Continuously involved in the process of informing people about the political issues of the day, explaining the main conflicts and outlining their solutions. Part of this involves educating people about how the political system operates. This can be seen in the way the Green Party raised the profile of environmental issues, UKIP made the role of the EU a source of debate and Labour raised the issues of low pay, zero hours contracts and funding the bedroom tax all of which introduced these ideas to sections of society that may not have previously considered them
This function is becoming less important. To some extent the media and TTs have taken over in supplying info to the public and the growth of the internet and social media has further marginalised parties. PGs play an increased role here. Parties do still present the electorate with clear choices in a coherent way
Explain the function of reinforcing consent
Hidden but vital function. All the main parties support the UK political system. By supporting and operating within this system, they are part of the process that ensures the general population consents to the system. If parties were to challenge the nature of the political system in any fundamental way, it would create political conflict within society. Parties that challenge the basis of the political system are generally seen as extremeists and are only marginal elements of the political system
Where do the conservatives receive their funding from?
Attracts large donations from businesses and wealthy individuals. Other parties do too but on a smaller scale
Where do Labour receive theirs from?
TUs
Why have the proportion of Labour party funding that comes from TUs dropped
Due to rule changes that have made it easier from individual TU members to opt out of funding the party
