Functions of political parties

6 functions of political parties

1. Recruitment of leaders

2. Representation

3. Participation and mobilisation

4. Organisation of gov’t

5. Policy formulation

6. Hidden

Importance of leaders

• Possible govt ministers!

Difference of the role of the leader in the ruling vs the opposition party

• Ruling party

  • Party leader is the PM and therefore controls the appointment of all ministers

• Opposition party

  • Leader choses small frontbench who lead with them

Role of parties in shaping leaders

• Internal party organisations and committees allow leaders to ‘cut their teeth’

• This formal organisation gives opportunities for party members to be trained as leaders

Example of importance of party leadership - Labour in 2015-16

• Ed Miliband resigned post-2015 GE defeat

  • Created a power vacuum

• Party membership voted for Corbyn who is v far left compared to the MPs and Peers

  • Corbyn was the party leader from 2015-20 but MPs in Plmt refused to acknowledge him as their leader

Example of importance of party leadership - Conservatives in 2019

• Lost faith in May post-Brexit failure

• Johnson was the favourite among MPs and members of the party (who vote for the leader) which meant he was elected as party leader and therefore PM

Liberal Democrat system of election of a party leader

• 2019 and 2020 - to run for leader, candidates had to

1. Be an MP

2. Have the support of 10% of LD MPs (so 1 other MP)

3. Have the support of at least 200 party members across at least 20 local parties

• Nominations close, candidates campaign and are elected by all party members (1 member 1 vote)

  • Use AV to ensure majority

    • 2019, 2020 - leadership contests only between 2 candidates (Swinson and Davey, Davey and Moran)

      • Ed Davey - centrist ‘Orange Book’

      • Swinson, Moran - socially liberal, progressive

3 reasons political parties are effective in their role of recruiting and training political leaders 

• Almost all senior politicians in the UK are associated with a party

• Parties control who is chosen to stand for election (and therefore who is elected)

  • This means parties then control all the members of elected bodies

• Parties also train up future party leaders by giving political candidates experience of canvassing, debating and running constituency parties

  • They are trained in the values and processes of their party, allowing them to test and grow their political skills and work their way up in a democratic way

2 reasons political parties are ineffective in their role of recruiting and training political leaders 

• Parties choose charismatic and popular leaders as opposed to those who are most competent

  • Skills to win elections ≠ skills to run the country and make difficult decisions

• Party membership elects leaders rather than MPs, who are democratically elected, while the party membership makes up 2% of the population with disproportionate power!

  • Leaders chosen by these few people have been

1. Crazy out of touch with the wider party like Corbyn

2. Rich and also out of touch like Johnson

Sections of society represented by different parties (+ time period)

• Labour, early 20th century

  • W/C, trade union members

• Conservatives, 19th century

  • Landed gentry, aristocracy

Representative function of parties in the present day

• Most contemp parties in modern democracies claim to represent the national interest

  • Seek to ensure all groups have their interests and demands considered by govt

• All parties do have a bias towards some sections of society due to their core values and ideology

Populism + recent examples

• Reactionary, quickly emerging political mvmt and way of campaigning that appeals to people’s emotions and prejudices by telling them what they want to hear

  • Seeks to go back to popular ideas of the past, not looking for progressive change

  • Defined by what they are opposed to, often anti-govt/taxation/establishment

• Finds support among groups who feel their concerns have been ignored by established groups

• E.g. MAGA, ‘take our country back’ (UKIP)

Emergence of populist parties

• Reform in the UK

Rise of issue parties

• Represent a specific cause

  • Green parties

  • Women’s rights parties (especially recently across Europe

Parties are effective at representing the interests of the electorate - mandate

• They act as a link between the govt and people by turning public opinion into policies

  • This gives the winning party the popular mandate to carry out its policies

Parties are effective at representing the interests of the electorate - universal suffrage

• Parties emerged to represent the views of the new wider electorate

  • Labour stemmed from socialism and trade unions to represent the W/C

  • Conservatives - represent interests of M/C and private businesses

Parties are effective at representing the interests of the electorate - ‘catch-all’

• Increasing wealth and move away from heavy industry has meant parties have distanced themselves from their traditional ideology and instead develop policies that appeal to the mass of the electorate

• All major UK parties are now catch-all parties

Parties are ineffective at representing the interests of the electorate - catch-all parties

• Labour has reduced its trade union links under Blair to attract uncommitted voters but have therefore stopped properly representing the interests of the W/C

• Some say that pressure groups are instead more effective at articulating interests to policy makers

Educative function

• Parties have an educative function all year round

• Inform citizens about political issues and then outline their solutions

  • Esp for those that are not directly affected by the issues

• Educate the public about how the political system works

Examples of political parties educating the population

• Green party

  • Awareness of environmental issues

• UKIP

  • Awareness of the role and position of the EU

• Labour

  • Awareness of low pay, 0 hour contracts, funding of the bedroom tax

Partisan dealignment

• Process by which individuals no longer long-term identify with a particular party

Mandate

• Instruction or command that gives authority to a body to act in a certain way

  • Mandate confers legitimacy on a political actor

Catch-all party

• Party that develops widely-appealing policies (contrast to ideological parties)

Current role of parties in participation and mobilisation

• Less significant

  • Has been taken over by the internet, media, think tanks, pressure groups and social media

• Parties do coherently present the electorate with clear choices

Parties are effective at fostering participation and mobilising people - reducing disillusionment

• Parties provide opportunities for like-minded people to join together and shape party/govt policy

• They also educate and mobilise the electorate during their daily activities

• These both build up loyalty and identification among the electorate

Parties are ineffective at fostering participation and mobilising people - partisan dealignment 

• Voters have become more and more dealigned with parties and are now less likely to vote, and when they do vote are unpredictable

• This has been seen in falling membership numbers - parties have been unable to moblise the public to participate in both wider and internal democracy

Parties are ineffective at fostering participation and mobilising people - changing ways of campaigning 

• Rather than grassroots party members and MPs campaigning, party leaders use the media and social media more and more to replace the role of party activists

• Election campaigns are based on centralised messaging instead of personalised calls to action

Explanation - ruling party

• Parties form govt as the UK has a system of party govt

  • Whichever party has a majorty in the HoC forms the govt and implements its manifesto

• They organise the legislative programme and ensure it is carried out

• Parties are held accountable for their actions in govt

Explanation - opposition parties

• Parties scrutinise and criticise govt policy

• They provide a govt in waiting

Parties are effective in their role of organising government - stability and coherence

• They give the govt stability and coherence as the members are from a single party (usually)

  • Members of govt are therefore united by common sympathies, attachments and ideologies

Parties are ineffective in their role of organising government - unity

• Party unity has declined massively post-1970s so govts are not ideologically aligned and therefore not stable or coherent

  • There are often clear internal splits even if a party is ideologically aligned

    • Brexit

• This weakens their control of the HoC

1970 - Heath govt (C) HoC majority

31

1983 - Thatcher govt (C) HoC majority

144

1997 - Blair govt (L) HoC majority

178

2010 - Coalition govt (C/LD) HoC majority

80

2015 - Cameron govt (C) HoC majority

12

2017 - May govt (C) HoC majority

No majority

2019 - Johnson govt (C) HoC majority

80

Policy formulation of the ruling party and 6 groups involved

• Policy formulation of ruling party = that of the govt (duh)

• Includes

  • Political leaders - ministers

  • Civil servants

  • Advisory units and committees

  • Private advisors

  • (Backbench MPs)

  • (Peers)

Policy formation of the opposition

• Very important as they’re trying to replace the govt of the day

• Includes

  • Leader

  • Leadership of the group

  • General membership of the party through conferences and party committees on a local/regional/national level

Aggregation (= policy-formulating function) and those who undertake it

• Process undertaken by political parties of converting policies, demands and ideas into practical policy programmes for govt

• Includes

  • Identifying range of demands from party members, society and other groups

  • Converting demands into consistent and compatible actions

• Involves

  • Removal of contradictions

  • Making compromises

• Undertaken by

  • Party leadership as will be the ones to eventually put it into practice in govt

Policy formulation’s role in supporting democracy: accountability

• Govts can be held responsible for their performance in govt using their manifesto promises

Policy formulation’s role in supporting democracy: choice

• Clarity of choice: allows electorate a clear choice between potential govts by enabling the presentation of distinct policy options and ideologies

• Breadth of choice: increasing numbers of parties post-WW2 gives more electoral choice

Green Party and policy formulation

• Green Party operates a one-member-one-vote system on policies the party should adopt

• There are divides amongst members about nuclear energy so many members hope this will encourage the party to be pro-nuclear energy even if the leadership isn’t

Breadth of choice - number of candidates put forward and number of seats won by 8 largest parties in 2019 election

Number of C candidates put forward and number of seats won in 2019 election

• 635 candidates

• 365 seats

Number of L candidates put forward and number of seats won in 2019 election

• 631 candidates

• 203 seats

Number of LD candidates put forward and number of seats won in 2019 election

• 611 candidates

• 11 seats

Number of Green candidates put forward and number of seats won in 2019 election

• 476 candidates

• 1 seat

Number of Brexit Party candidates put forward and number of seats won in 2019 election

• 276 candidates

• 0 seats

Number of SNP candidates put forward and number of seats won in 2019 election

• 59 candidates

• 48 seats

Number of UKIP candidates put forward and number of seats won in 2019 election

• 44 candidates

• 0 seats

Number of PC candidates put forward and number of seats won in 2019 election

• 36 candidates

• 4 seats

Lack of efficacy of policy formulation: personalities over ideology

• Parties have become less interested in long-term good for society and their ideological foundation

  • More interested in the technocratic choice of who will run the country better/which leader is more personable

• They follow public opinion as opposed to shaping it

Lack of efficacy of policy formulation: lack of choice

• C and L dominate seats in GEs, so there is no real choice for voters between potential govts

Lack of efficacy of policy formulation: apathy

• Lack of clear ideology and voter choice leads to apathy and low turnout

% turnout and % of voters who percieved a large difference betwen parties - 2015

• 66% turnout

• 27% great difference

% turnout and % of voters who percieved a large difference betwen parties - 2010

• 65% turnout

• 23% great difference

% turnout and % of voters who percieved a large difference betwen parties - 2005

• 61% turnout

• 13% great difference

% turnout and % of voters who percieved a large difference betwen parties - 2001

• 59% turnout

• 17% great difference

% turnout and % of voters who percieved a large difference betwen parties - 1997

• 71% turnout

• 33% great difference

% turnout and % of voters who percieved a large difference betwen parties - 1992

• 78% turnout

• 56% great difference

% turnout and % of voters who percieved a large difference betwen parties - 1987

• 75% turnout

• 85% great difference

Explanation of hidden function

• All main parties support the political system of Plmtary democracy

  • Therefore, they are part of the process that ensures the general population consents to the system

Parties that fundamentally challenge the nature of the poltical system

• Seen as extremist

• Are only marginal elements of the system

Events that would occur if parties fundamentally challenged the nature of the political system

• Political conflict within society at large