2.4 UK Parties in Context

Question 1

3

To what extent does the UK have a multi-party system?

Answer 1

P1: Minor parties can form coalitions - alternatively supply and confidence agreement (DUP £1bn), can directly or indirectly influence govt policy e.g. LD scrapping of ID card plan to enhance civil liberties vs coalitions usually dominated by one party - LD tuition fees, lost over 90% of seats, more manifesto commitments not kept, limits pluralism and reinforces ‘wasted vote’ idea

P2: Major parties don’t have monopoly elsewhere - NI has own parties, Scotland SNP, enabled by diff electoral systems vs success limited to one, non-general, election - e.g. European Elections Brexit Party, FPTP (e.g. 2015 - UKIP 13% of vote, 0.2% of seats)

P3: Minor parties receive some media attention - 2010 debate led to LD rise in popularity and ‘Cleggmania’, social media leads to some more focus on smaller parties with effective media campaigns, Worker’s Party of GB and tiktok vs major parties dominate media, political agenda and policy making - 2019 debate between BoJo and Corbyn, think tanks associated mostly with major parties in hope of insider status and influence on govt policy

Question 2

8

List factors that contribute to a party’s sucess or failure

Answer 2

• Popularity and image of leader
• Relationship with media
• Record in government/opposition (Osborne criticsed GFC response as Shadow CX)
• Funding
• Choice of candidates
• Campaign methods
• Policy statements and manifestos
• Impact of referendums

Question 3

3

Evaluate the view that leadership is the most important factor in a party’s success

Answer 3

P1: Competency - Sunak personally trusted on economy and preferred PM to Starmer, to navigate crises effectively vs Party image - current Con economic credibility shattered by Mini-Budget

P2: Experience - major parties’ leaders more experienced, LD coalition inexperience led to manifesto u-turns, pre-2016 PMs often had long tenures in office (e.g. Thatcher, Major, Blair, Cameron), Farage is good example vs Wider Political context - Brown experienced but lost partly due to 2008 Financial Crisis, reinforces view that economic state of nation pre-election determines result, wartime leader popularity occurs

P3: Ability to lead - Sunak at behest of divided and faction-dominated party; whether they have strong mandate (e.g. Cameron - yes, May - no) vs Media influence - present sig images of party leaders (e.g. Miliband = weird), publish online polling data that can influence voting behaviour (2001 landslide inevitable - record post-war low 59% turnout), newspaper endorsements - present policies in favourable light

Re-drawn points:
- competence vs wider political/economic context
- experience vs media influence
- ability to lead vs party image (though former directly affects latter)