Political Parties- The Importance Of Other Parties Flashcards
Small and emerging can…
can impact the outcome of elections
Importance of smaller parties :
-divert votes
-may split the vote
-affect policies of large parties
Limits to importance of smaller parties:
-support may be regional
-electoral system
-subsumed by larger parties
Importance of smaller parties
-divert votes
They may divert votes away from the main parties.
Examples: the SNP has decimated Labour support in Scotland; UKIP took votes away from both the Conservatives and Labour in 2015.
Importance of smaller parties
-may split the vote
When a constituency is marginal between large parties, small parties may split the vote one way or the other.
Example: the Brexit Party did not campaign in marginal, Conservative-held seats in the 2019 election, allowing leave supporters to vote for the Conservative Party.
Importance of smaller parties:
-affect the policies of larger parties
Small parties may affect the policies of large parties if they present an electoral threat. Example: UKIP’s success at the 2014 European Parliamentary elections lead to a Conservative manifesto promise of an in-out referendum on EU membership. The Brexit Party’s popularity at the 2019 European elections had a similar effect, encouraging the Conservatives to adopt a ‘hard’ Brexit stance.
Limits to importance of smaller parties
-regional support
Their support base might be limited to a specific region (e.g. the SNP in Scotland) and their electoral impact might be limited to one election (e.g. UKIP’s vote collapsed in the 2017 general election).
Limits to importance of smaller parties
-electoral system
The first-past-the-post electoral system is not kind to parties whose vote is wide but shallow, rather than concentrated.
Example: UKIP won nearly 13% of the vote in the 2015 general election but won only a single seat.
Limits to importance of smaller parties
-subsumed by larger parties
The policies of the smaller parties are often subsumed by the larger parties, leaving them with limited appeal.
Example: the Labour Party supported bringing forward the date for net-zero carbon emissions in its 2019 manifesto, dampening support for the Green Party.
One major challenge smaller parties oppose?
As the importance of small parties is not confined to how many seats they may win in representative assemblies. Small parties may threaten to win some of the votes normally cast for a large party. The policies of the larger parties might then be changed to head off this challenge.
