Week 19

Question 1

What are the roles of parties by activity levels?
(The three faces of political parties)

Answer 1

• Party in public office
• Party in central office as an organisation
• Party on the ground and in the electorate

Question 2

What does a party in public office do?

Answer 2

E.g.: Parliamentary party
- Form governments
- Select leader of executive
- Effect policy outcomes

Question 3

What does a party central office as an organisation do?

Answer 3

• Nomination/selection process
• Advocate ideologies and policies
• Organisational leader (sometimes distinct from parliamentary leaders but not in the UK)
• National executive board and party conferences

Question 4

What does a party on the ground and in the electorate do?

Answer 4

• Local parties - activists and inactive members
• Fight elections
• Do administrative stuff

Question 5

What were elite/cadre (caucus) parties?

Answer 5

• Party on ground = in public office
• No central office
• Party in public office dominant

Question 6

Why did elite/cadre (caucus) parties have no central office?

Answer 6

• They weren’t needed because MPs relied on their own resources
• Local elites weren’t subordinated to a national party

Question 7

What were mass parties?

Answer 7

• Rise of socialist parties, not part of the elite
• New party structure
• Mass parties developed outside parliament

Question 8

What was the new party structure of mass parties?

Answer 8

• National parties were more important than local parties
• Party conference making decisions
• Ancillary organisations - esp. trade unions

Question 9

What are the consequences of mass parties developing outside of parliament?

Answer 9

• Large party on the ground, dependant on fees
• Powerful central office for coordination
• Full-time bureaucracy

Question 10

How did the lives of the working class improving benefit catch-all parties?

Answer 10

• Decline of class struggle
• Undermined the purpose of cadre and mass parties

Question 11

What were the consequences of the convergence of organisational traits under catch-all parties?

Answer 11

• Three faces of political parties
• Central office: conflicts between party on ground/in public office
• Central office: agent of members or MPs?

Question 12

What are cartel parties?

Answer 12

• Ascendancy of party in public office: parties merging with state
• Empowerment of MPs and erosion of party on the ground

Question 13

What are the consequences of parties merging with the state under cartel parties?

Answer 13

• Professionals became more important than bureaucrats
• Declining power of party conferences, executives and members

Question 14

What are the defining features of intra-party democracy?

Answer 14

• Decentralised decision-making
• Inclusive decision-making
• As opposed to leader-dominated parties

Question 15

What are some examples of ways that intra-party democracies could hold the leadership accountable?

Answer 15

-Parties may grant the members the right to
- Elect the leader
- Choose candidates for general elections
or
- Hold referenda on coalition agreements

Question 16

What principles are intra-democratic parties founded on?

Answer 16

• Participation
• Competition
• Representation
• Inclusiveness
• Transparency

Question 17

What are the four key areas of decision making?

Answer 17

• Who determines party policy?
• Who chooses the party leader?
• Who chooses parliamentary candidates?
• Who decides the content of political communications with voters?

Question 18

What is the history of the Conservative Party?

Answer 18

• Initially cadre party in parliament
• Formed organisation in 1860s
  Party office/on the ground to serve MPs (not mass party)

Question 19

When and how was the Labour Party formed?

Answer 19

Formed by trade unions in 1900
- Unions dominated central/local organisation
- Subordination of party in public office

Question 20

Organisation of the Labour Party

Answer 20

Culture of internal democracy
- Party conference is the sovereign on policy
- Imperfect democracy - union block votes

Question 21

What reforms to the organisation of the Labour Party were made under Kinnock, Smith and Blair?

Answer 21

Reforms under Kinnock, Smith and Blair
- Reduced union power and power and centralisation in leaders’ hands
- Membership ballots to choose party leader

• Corbyn and Starmer: new move towards democratisation?

Question 22

How do the Conservative Party select their leader?

Answer 22

• Parliamentary party nominates
• If more than two nominees, parliamentary party votes until no more than two nominees left
• If only one nominee, that person wins. If there are several nominees but they withdraw the remaining nominee wins
• If there are two nominees, the membership votes

Question 23

How do the Labour Party select their leader?

Answer 23

• 20% of parliamentary party to be nominated + 5% of constituencies or 5% of affiliates (trade unions)
• Election by members, registered/affiliated supporters

Question 24

How do the Liberal Democrats select their leader?

Answer 24

• Nominees: support by 10% of MPs + 200 members (across 20 local parties)
• Election by membership