C1 - UK Politics: Political Parties Flashcards
What is a political party?
An association who hold similar political beliefs or an ideology and who come together with the goal of implementing these by becoming a government or a part of one
What are the features of a political party?
- each party consists of a group of individuals who have a commonly held ideology and a shared set of principles or values; they are united by these
- they are a formal organisation with active members and mass membership
What are the functions of a political party?
- provide representation: the views of the people are broadly represented by the parties and their beliefs can be implemented by the parties
- encourage participation in politics: people can vote for, join a party (with a membership fee) and support a party. Members are able to influence the choice of candidate that stand for election ++ providing a political education
- appointing officials in government: parties recruit these people
- formulating policy: generate policies that embody their beliefs and put these in a manifesto which is then used for campaigning for public support
- providing govt: the winning party forms a govt
What are some features of the left wing?
- collectivism: belief that goals and reform can. Be achieved through the work of groups
- they desire change and alteration of the way society operates
- “for the many, not the few” - hold the interests of the community highly
- universal distribution of benefits like healthcare, education and other social safety nets
- they hold a positive view of human nature -> humans are social and not merely self-interested
- includes socialism (those who are critical of the capitalist economy)
What are the features of the right wing?
- support for tradition and the status quo (little to no change in society)
- they stress the importance of order, stability, hierarchy and private property
- against collectivism
- individualism: individuals are highly important and individual choice should be maximised + they should pursue their own goals instead of those of the community
- security > freedom and rights (traditional right or new right)
- minimal role of state in people’s lives
- inequality = an incentive for people to improve themselves “pull yourself up by your bootstraps”
What is consensus politics? What are some examples of this?
- high level of political agreement between and within parties on a range of issues or within a particular policy area
- society is highly unified so a lack of political conflict
// - climate change
- (pre-corbyn) agreement that the budget deficit should be reduced
- gay marriage policies
What is adversary politics? What are some examples of this?
- large amount of policy conflict between and within parties and ideological splits
- few areas of agreement between the parties
// - reform of the NHS — nationalism vs privatisation public services
- (post-corbyn) disagreement on if the budget deficit should be reduced
- trade unions
What is conservatism?
- an ideology based on the concept of human imperfection, which leads to the belief that we depend on order and security to contain anarchy
- opposition to ideologies such as socialism and liberalism
- prefers a pragmatic approach due to the doubts regarding human nature and rationality + preference of traditionalism
What are the three strands of conservatism?
- traditional conservatism
- one nation
- the “new right” or Thatcherism
What are the principles of traditional conservatism?
- defence of private property
- preserving traditional authority over the threat of revolution
- gradual reform to protect and conserve already established institutions
- they believe in human imperfection
- believe in order + traditionalism
- pragmatism
- an organic society???
What is meant by human imperfection or negative anthropology?
Thomas Hobbes
- theory that humans are both intellectually and morally flawed and individual can lead to unforeseen consequences
- so to depend on the collective wisdom and lessons learnt from the past
What is an organic society?
Edmund Burke
- society is seen as an organism that emerges and evolves gradually over time to meet its needs e.g. the development of certain institutions and mechanism for a cohesive society
- should be allowed to develop naturally and not designed
- all sections of society depend on each other and are party of a whole - “society is indeed a contract”
- large change or reform can be dangerous and contrary to the events of the past
What is meant by order?
- humans require order to survive and without law and order, there is no hope for progress
- believes that anarchy is imminent if there is no government to provide stability (aka the social contract) through authoritarian governance
- belief in strong authoritarian govt + national interest
What is meant by traditionalism?
- to maintain traditional institutions like electoral reform, the House of Lords, monarchy and the uncodified constitution
- traditional family and moral values - state should support these in their values
- leads to a slight opposition to diversity and multiculturalism -> hence the resistance to mass immigration
What are the traditional conservative views on private property?
- taxes on private property should be reduced/removed
- the rights of property owners should be protected
