Political Parties

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old labour (social democracy)

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key labour principles - nationalisation, redistribution of wealth and continually improving welfare and state services, largely rejected Thatcherite/free-market reforms

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new labour (third way)

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a revision of the traditional Labour values in old labour, influenced by Anthony Giddens, Third Way' saw Labour shift from a focus on the working class to a wider class base, less robust alliance with trade unions

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61 Terms

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old labour (social democracy)

key labour principles - nationalisation, redistribution of wealth and continually improving welfare and state services, largely rejected Thatcherite/free-market reforms

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new labour (third way)

a revision of the traditional Labour values in old labour, influenced by Anthony Giddens, Third Way' saw Labour shift from a focus on the working class to a wider class base, less robust alliance with trade unions

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one nation

paternalistic approach adopted by conservatives through Benjamin Disraeli in 19th century, continued by David Cameron and Theresa May in 21st century, the rich have an obligation to help the poor

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new right

Neo-conservatives - want the state to take an authoritarian approach to morality and law and order.
Neo-liberals - endorsed the free-market approach and the reducing role of the state in people's lives and businesses

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classical liberals

early liberals who believed that individual freedom would best be achieved with the state playing a minimal role

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modern liberals

emerged as a reaction against free-market capitalism, believing it led to many individuals not being free, freedom no longer simply defined as 'being left alone'.

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party systems

the way in which the political parties in a political system are grouped and structured

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left wing

those who desire change, reform and alteration to the way in which society operates, involves radical criticisms of the capitalism made by liberal and socialist parties

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right wing

support for the status quo, little or no change, stressing the need for order, stability and hierarchy - generally relates to conservative parties

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functions of political parties

representation, participation, recruiting office holders, formulating policy, providing government

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functions - what is representation

representing the views of people with a certain set of beliefs, this function could be preformed by lots of individuals or pressure groups but the value of the parties is they bring order to the political system

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functions - what is participation

in order to win influence, parties encourage people to participate in politics, to vote, join a party and support it through funding, all parties have procedures that involve members selecting candidates to stand for local and national elections.

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functions - example of participation

labour party increased its membership by allowing supporters to join for an annual subscription of £3 (later raised to £25), a development that played a part in the election of jeremy corbyn in september 2015

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functions - what is recruiting office holders

party membership can sometimes lead to recruitment as candidates for public office, candidates can learn political skills as campaigners and organisers, paries can also reject or deselect candidates who fail to live up to expectations

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functions - what is formulating policy

parties generate policies that embody ideas for which they stand, at general elections they put out these proposals in a maefesto

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functions - example of formulating policy

in the 2015 general election the nhs was a key debate, conservatives promised to give people access to their gp 7 days a week, while labour pledged that patients would be given an appointment within 48 hours.

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functions - what is providing government

the winning party at a general election has the power to form a government, that party then controls the business of parliament, ability to pass its manifesto into law, the prime minister is not directly elected by the people, but is the leader of the largest party, a prime minister who losed the confidence of their party is vulnerable

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functions - example of providing government

in 1990, margaret thatcher lost the support of a large number of conservative mps and failed to win a leadership contest, she resigned and was replaced by john major, who was regarded as better placed to unite the party and lead it to renewed electoral success

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funding case study - tony blair and bernie ecclestone

blair faced criticism within months of becoming prime minister in 1997 following the revelation that bernie ecclestone, the motor racing boss, had donated £1 million o labour, it was alleged that there was a connection between this and a delay in implementing a ban on tobacco advertising in f1 racing, blair was forced to justify himslef in a tv interview, the money was then returned

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funding - consequence of blair and ecclestone

2000 political parties, elections and referendums act, an independent electoral commission was set up to supervise party spending on election campaigns, the amount a party could spend in a constituency was capped at £30,000, donation for individuals not on the uk electoral roll were banned

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funding - how are parties funded

membership subscriptions, fundraising in constituencies, public funding

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funding - potential reforms

in 2007, sir hayden phillips proposed o address the problem of private donations by moving towards a system funded by taxpayers money, no government has acted on this recommendation

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funding - arguments for state funding

parties play an important role in representative democracy, so deserve public funding, would remove the great disparity in resources available to different sized parties, would curb the possibly corrupt the influence of private backers on party policy,

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funding - arguments against state funding

could lead to calls for greater state regulation, possibly reducing parties independence, hard to decide how much support a party should to qualify for funding, taxpayers would resent compulsory contributions to parties of which they disapprove

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funding - example of hard to decide how much support a party should to qualify for funding

in 2019, brexit party spend £4.15 million and won no seats, snp only received £25,000 in donations and won 48 seats

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funding - current situation

political parties accepted £93 million in donations last year, boosted by new conservative and labour mega-donors, conservatives raised £9.8 million and labour £6 million in the last quarter of the year, labour said 2023 was its biggest ever year for fundraising, emphasises the unfairness for minor parties, as they are unable to compete with the funding for major parties

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margaret thatcher

conservative leader 1975-1990

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thatcherism

sought to reduce state intervention in the economy, while restoring order to society in the face of militant trade unions

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thatcherism - key themes

control of public spending with tax cuts to incentivise business leaders and stimulate economic growth, privatisation of state owned industries and services, tough approach to law and order with increased police and judicial powers

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david cameron

conservative leader 2005-2016, part of a coalition government with lib dems

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current policies on the economy - cameron, conservatives

cameron’s priority was to reduce the budget deficit inherited from the previous labour government, they insisted on a programme of public spending cuts, ‘dubbed austerity’, to prevent britain’s borrowing costs from rising, budgets of whitehall departments were cut up to 25%, except for health and school etc

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current policies on the welfare policy - cameron, conservatives

the coalitions policies were intended to cut costs and encourage those receiving benefits to be more self reliant, the ‘universal credit’ system, which merges a number of in work benefits in one payment to simplify the welfare ssytem ad encourage low income people to take up employment,

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current policies on the law and order - cameron, conservatives

cameron supported tough sentencing o certain crimes, especially after 2011 london riots, but promoted a ‘rehabilitation revolution’ to reduce reoffending after leaving prison, coalition government rewarded charities and private firms that helped criminals on their rehabilitation using a ‘payment by result’ scheme

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current policies on the foreign policy - cameron, conservatives

cameron’s approach was consistent with thatcherism, strong links with the usa, support for airstrikes against islamic terror groups in syria and iraq and pragmatic euroscepticism, cameron resigned after 2016 referendum resulted in a majority vote to leave the eu

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tony blair

labour leader 1994-2007

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new labour key themes

emphasis on wealth creation rather than redistribution to reduce poverty, people need to be aware of their responsibilities to the community as well as their rights and brought in legal measures to deal with anti social behaviour, responsibility in handling the national finances to differentiate themselves from other social democratic administrations by conserving resources before investing more in key public services

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jeremy corbyn

labour leader 2015-2020

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current policies on the economy - corbyn, labour

called for large scale funding of industry and infrastructure organised by a national investments bank, renationalisation of railways, demanded that companies publish pay audits in aim to counter discrimination in the workplace

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current policies on the welfare policy - corbyn, labour

strongly opposed benefit cuts, he argued for a wholly state run nhs, and called for a ‘national education service’ a opposed student tuition fees

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current policies on the law and order - corbyn, labour

opposed policies such as increased powers to combat terrorism and the introduction of identity cards, thought cuts to police numbers was jeopardizing public safety

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current policies on the foreign policy- corbyn, labour

favoured the withdrawal of the uk from nato’s military structure and the abolition of trident nuclear weapons system, followed the support of continued british membership in the eu

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nick clegg

liberal democrat leader 2007-2015

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current policies on the economy - clegg, liberal democrats

emphasised continued commitment to eliminating the budget deficit but in a way that would be fair to the poor, progressively raising the income-tax threshold so low-income people can be relieved from paying tax, commitment to renewable energy and the expansion of the green investment bank to find products such as offshore with farms

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current policies on the welfare policy - clegg, liberal democrats

control spending on benefits but pledge to curb benefits paid to better off pensioners in order to afford more support for the low paid, they pledged increased funding into nhs

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current policies on the law and order - clegg, liberal democrats

regard defence of civil liberties as key so opposed to conservative's ‘snooper’s charter’, the communications data bill, to allow the monitoring of internet use, and emphasis on rehabilitation of prisoners and use of community service instead of short prison sentences

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current policies on the foreign policy - clegg, liberal democrats

most enthusiastic about eu and was reluctant to accept results of brexit referendum

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importance of other parties in the uk

campaigning for a particular issue or a group of issues, no expectation of winning but instead their aim is to force larger parties to accept their agenda, if an emerging party wins a considerable number of votes it can be influential in the house of commons

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the united kingdom independence party (ukip)

started in 1991, mostly associated with nigel farage, concerned with britian’s membership to the eu

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ukip key policies

restricting immigration was the main policy at the 2015 election, needing a points based system to ensure migrants with necessary skills get priority and there should be a cap on numbers of migrants entering, ‘taking back control’ from the eu, membership to the eu damages uk interests to an unaccountable european bureaucracy, taking back control of policies on trade, fisheries ect, support for grammar schools, scrap ‘green taxes’

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the green party

founded in 1985 after being evolving from another party ‘people’ founded in 1973

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the green party key policies

environmental issues, phase out of fossil fuels and implement renewable energy, fracking should be stopped, reducing social inequality, the privatisation of the nhs has to end, abolish university tuition fees, a wealth tax to fund the creation of new jobs

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one party dominant system

a number of parties, but only one has a realistic prospect of holding power

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two party system

two parties compete for power at elections, other parties have no real chance of breaking their monopoly

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two and a half party system

two large parties are the main players, but are challenged by the growth of a smaller third party

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multi party system

a number of parties contend to form a government, coalitions become the norm

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development of a multi party system

the use of additional member system (ams) for elections to the scottish parliament and welsh assembly has produced very different outcomes from the trends observed at Westminster, a partly proportional system that tends to increase representation of smaller parties

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scottish nationalist party (snp)

redistribution of income, strong support support for public sector health and education, investment into renewable energy

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factors that affect party success

strength of party leadership, voters tend to respond positively to party leaders who demonstrate a clear sense of direction, the extent to which parties are united or divided between different party factions, divided parties do not perform well at general elections, the role of the media in projecting a particular image of a party

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strength of party leadership - example

labour government, james callaghan seemed weak because he was unable to control trade unions demands for pay increases during the ‘winter of discontent’, conservative government, margaret thatcher won the 1979 election because she offered a tough response to strikers

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the extent to which parties are united or divided between different party factions - example

conservative government, john major suffered a heavy loss in 1997 election largely because they were seen as incompetent and divided on the subject of the eu, at the election both pro and anti-eu conservatives lost seats, labour government, tony blair reshapes the party by imposing strong discipline so that it appeared united

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the role of the media in projecting a particular image of a party - example

the use of televised debates between leaders in the 2010 election enhanced the appeal of nick clegg, which denied conservatives an overall majority, forming a coalition, though the libs dems emerged with five fewer seats than 2005