Political parties

What are the functions of political parties?

Representation

Participation

Developing policies

Political education

Choice

Providing candidates for elections

Selecting political leaders

These all feed into a representative democracy.

What are memberships?

Parties can offer memberships where people pay a subscription to join,

Recent membership data figures

Labour - 330,000

Reform - 230,000

Conservatives - est 130,000

Lib Dems - 80,000

Green - 70,000

Data on membership costs yearly

Labour - £70.50

Conservatives - £39

Reform - £25

Issues with memberships

• High membership does not equal high support due to varying membership prices

• Excludes people who can’t afford to pay

• Those who can pay have more influence than those who can’t, doesn’t reflect wider society as a whole

• Memberships on decline, 2029 all parties below 500k members

Strengths of memberships

• Good for participation, allows people to show support to the party they agree with

What are donations?

Highest form of funding. Unlimited, no cap, but parties must report donations over £11,000

Give some examples of donors

Lord Sainsbury - 2.5m to Labour

Zia Yosuf - 200,000 to reform

Give some donation controversies

1997, Eccleston donated 1M to Labour to exclude F1 from the tobacco advertising ban.

2024, Hester made racist remarks about Diane Abot. Conservatives accepted a large donation from him.

Issues with donations

• Parties more influenced by wealthy donors than the general public

• Unlimited donations may put many people off donating because they think their donations won’t make a difference compared to other large donations

• Speculation on whether they are given for influence/corruption

Strength of donations

It is a method of political expression for many and it provides useful funding for parties to develop policies.

What is state funding (2 types)?

Short money - given to opposition parties.

Policy development grants - 2m a year split between parties. First million split between eligible parties, 2nd based on vote share in election.

2024 policy development grant allocation

Lab & Cons - 432,000

SNP - 145,000

What does the state pay for?

• Political broadcasts

• Free postage for one leaflet

Arguments in favour of state funding

• Allows all parties to develop polices

• 2nd million is representative

Arguments against state funding

• Lowest source of party income, makes little difference

• Increasing it would damage representation as it would provide more funding to parties who lack support

• Participation may decrease if people become unhappy their tax is going to parties they dont support

Old Labour

Established 1900’s. Socialist routes, originally focused on representing workers.

Clause 4 1918

“Secure for workers the full fruits of their industry”

“Most equitable distribution”

“Common ownership by means of production”

Blair’s New Labour

“Competition”

“Public interest”

“Dynamic economy”

Labour began embracing capitalism. Thatcher calls Blair her greatest achievement,

Starmer’s conference speech 2025

“Too much faith in globalisation”

“With stronger workers rights”

These show elements of old labour.

“Public investment does not out crowd the private”

“Government and business”

These are more leaning towards New Labour.

Starmer era policies

• support businesses through a stable policy environment

• Target truancy and youth offending (‘Antisocial behaviour’)

• Support welfare institutions

Conservative routes

• Sought to conserve society and is suspicious of change.

• Values pragmatism.

• Organic analogy

• Respect for law, order and authority

• Inequality is natural but everyone should feel like they are contributing to society

One nation conservatism

• preservation of traditions and institutions

• Organic analogy

• Dominant during post war consensus

• Welfare state, education and council housing

New Right

• ideological, not pragmatic

• Authoritarian, economically right

• Laissez faire approach

• Free market capitalism

• Thatcher - reducing state involvement encourage innovation and creates more wealth. Against ‘nanny state/ dependency culture’

What’re the aims of