features of political parties

what’s a political party

• at most basic level, political parties are an organisation with similar political values and views, that develops a set of goals and policies that it seeks to covert into political action by obtaining gov office or share in gov, or by influencing gov in power.

parties

• members of parties share similar political values and views

• parties seek either to secure election of candidates as representatives to form government at various levels

• have some kind of organisation that develops policy, recruits candidates and identifies leaders.

typical variations in features of parties

• some are mass membership parties w many members (labour party) others may have a small leadership group who seek supporters rather than members (main US parties)

• some parties may be highly organised w formal permanent organisation (German christan democrats) others have a loose, les perm organisation

• some parties may have very narrow range of values and views and are intensely united around those views, others have a very broad range of views and values and so may be divided into factions

• some parties focus on gaining power, others recognise they will not gain power but seek to influence the political system

key features of established political parties in the UK

• parties aim to gain power by winning political office through elections

• memberships of parties tends to share common ideologies (conservatism, socialism or liberalism)

• parties have a broad focus across many different areas (such as health, education, finance, etc)