Function of political parties - participation and mobilisation

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