Types of political systems Flashcards
Examples of UK Mainstream parties?
Labour, Conservates, Lib-dems
What is a Nationalist Party?
-Nurture the shared cultural identity and language of a certain geographical area
(UKIP, BNP, Plaid Cymru
What is a Single issue party? Examples?
- Policies rooted in a political ideological perspective
- Green party
What do political parties do? (4)
- To contest elections with a view to securing control of government
- Offer members an input in key decisions
- Open membership structures
- Offer a broad portfolio of policies
What is a one- party system?Examples (2)?
- One party dominates, bans other parties. Enjoys a monopoly of power
- Exercises total control
- Nazi germany
- North Korea
What is a dominant party system? Examples?
- Number of parties but only one is likely to achieve absolute majority and hold government power
- Japan under the Liberal Democratic Party 1955-1993
- African National Congress
What is a multiparty system (4 points)? (examples x3)
- Many parties compete for power
- Common in european countries
- coalitions
- eg. italy 1945-1993 , finland, belgium
- not clear between government and opposition
- common where systems of proportional representation are present
What is a Two party system?
2 fairly equally parties compete for power at elections and others have little realistic chance of breaking their duopoly
-common in countries with FPTP systems
In 2010 how many voters backed the ‘big two’?
34.9%
What 5 main roles do political parties perform?
- Presenting Representation
- Facilitating political Partcipation
- Engaging in political recruitment
- Formulating policy
- Providing stable government
What are the 4 advantages of a two party system?
- Promotes effective, stable, and strong government
- Simplifies voter choice
- Goverment is clearly accountable for the electorate
- Moderation is encouraged
What are the 3 disadvantages of a two party system?
- It restricts voter choice
- Far from promoting moderation, it can sometimes be characterised by adversary politics.
- Growing dissatisfaction with the performance of the main parties
what is an example of a ‘predominant party system’?
The conservatives won four consecutive elections followed by labour winning three consecutive elections.
What is an example of a ‘two-and-and-half party system’?
The electoral rise of the Lib-Dems surged at a 19.3% of the vote resulting in the first post war ‘hung’ parliament.
In 1951 what was the percentage of votes and seats were achieved by the labour and conservative party?
- 6% if votes
96. 8% of seats
What 6 conditions have helped to create and sustain the British two-party system?
- The natural tendency to be ‘for’ or ‘against’ on issues (either labour or conservative)
- The electoral system (FPTP)
- ‘catch all’ parties aim to win back sections of the electorate
- Traditional absence of ethnic, religious differences within the population
- Problem faced by other parties (lack of finance, no identity)