Political Parties

Features of a Political Party

• Associations of people who hold similar political views and wish to promote them
• Seek to gain political power at all levels
• Most have a system of membership

Functions of a Political Party

• Develop policies and political programmes to improve society
• Select suitable candidates for office at all levels
• Identify and train political leaders
• Educate public about political issues
• When not in gov., call them to account

Sources of finance

• membership subscription
• findraisers
• donations
• loans from wealthy individuals
• self-finance

There is up to £2 milion per party available in grants from Electoral Commission.

Proposals for reform of party funding include:

• impose restrictions on size of individual donations
• impose tight rerstrictions on how much parties are allowed to spend
• restrict donations so they can onkly come from indicuduals, not businesses, pressure groups etc.
• replace all funding with state grants for parties 

Left-Wing - tends towards scoalism.

• redistribute income from rich to poor
• strong support of welfare state and strong opposition to private sector involvement
• support for workers rights and trade union power
• state should support industries which are vital to economy and society
• support for aid in poorer countries

Right-Wing - tends towards free market capitalism

• low levels of personal and corporate taxation to encourage work
• acceptance of private-sector involvement in provision of public services
• state should not intefere with working of economy
• free markets for goods
• strong psoition on law and order
• stress on national unity and patriotism

Ideology

• stress on order and harmony in society (one nation) 
• oppose strongly held ideology
• gentle reform over radical ideas
• nationalism

Prominent Ideas

• pragmatic approach to decision making
• low taxation
• importance of private property
• support for capitalism
• community rights over individual rights
• stress on law and order and security

Ideology

• reduce inequality
• regulate capitalism
• promote social and economic reform
• balance workers interests
• promote equal oppurtunities

Prominent Ideas

• support extensive, well-funded welfare state
• progressive tax system
• high direct taxes
• promotion of equal rights
• reduce poverty

Momentum  is a faction that supports Jeremy Corbyn. They support left-wing socialist policies  such as the re-nationalisation of important industries etc.

Ideology

• strong belief in individual liberty
• belief in equality of oppurtunity
• stress on equal rights and rule of law

Prominent Ideas

• constitutional reform to make UK more democratic and to decentralise power
• redistribution of income through tax and welfare
• greater protection for environment and natural resources
• abolition of inherited privelige
• strong, free, well-supported education system

• They may divert votes away from main parties
  • E.g. The SNP has decimated Labour support in Scotland
  • UKIP took away votes from Labour and the Conservatives in 2015
• When a constituency is marginal between large parties, small parties may split the vote one way or another
  • E.g. The Green Party splits the centre-left vote
• Small parties may affect the policies of large parties if they present an electoral threat
  • E.g. UKIP has pushed the Conservative Party to take a harder line on negotiations with the EU

• Dominant party- one party dominates the number of seats in the legistlative body
  
  • operates in the Scottish parliament
• Two-party- Only two parties have significant representation
  • In English Constitiuencies
• Three-party- Three parties have sig. representation
  • After 2015 only three parties had a sig. number of seats in the House of Commons- Tory, Labour and SNP
• Multi-party- Four or more parties  have sig. number of reps elected
  • The Northern Irish and Welsh assemblies plus many local goverment areas.

Multi Party systems thrive in devolved assemblies and in local government;

• Scotland- a four/five-party system
• Wales- a five-party system
• Northern Ireland- a five-party system
• Local Assemblies- two, three and four party systems are all commmon

• Quality of leadership- includes experience, decisiveness, intelligence etc,
• Valence- refers to how people generally view the party's image. Includes, how competant they were they were last in office, how economically responsible do they seem, are they trustworthy? etc
• Unity- parties that are disunited tend to fare badly at elections. United parties tend to do better at elections and are successful. 
  • In 1983 and 1997, a divided labour were defeated by a united Conservative party under Thatcher
  • In 1997, the Tories were divided over Europe and lost heavily to Labour, which was united under Tony Blair's New Labour Agenda
  • In 2015, the divided Liberal Democrat Party lost most of its seats in UK Parliament.