8. Political parties Flashcards

1
Q

Conservatives

A
  • traditionally the party to represent the wealthy
  • Thatcherism more racial, neo liberals, one-nation conservatives attract some working class
  • if there is change generally, they like it slow and overtime
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2
Q

Labour

A
  • formed 1900
  • rejected revolutionary socialism
  • socialism - equality between people through common ownership
  • Blair abandoned clause IV 1997
  • Third way - developed by New Lab
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3
Q

Liberal Democrats

A
  • Liberalism - freedom - individual and free trade
  • social democracy - democratic version of socialism - win powers within a democratic system
  • social liberalism - liberal form of social democracy - dismantle Thatcher’s economic politics
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4
Q

2017 election manifesto - economy

A
  • Cons: continue working towards a balanced budget
  • Lab: Nationalisation of railways and energy
  • LD: Infrastructure investment
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5
Q

2017 election manifesto - health

A
  • Cons: £8B extra funding over 5yrs
  • Lab: £30B extra funding over 5yrs
  • LD: £6M per year for NHS and social care
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6
Q

2019 election manifesto - Education

A
  • Cons: increase number of good school places
  • Lab: abolish uni tuition
  • LD: increase education funding
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7
Q

What are the functions of a political party?

A
  1. Representation - represent the ideology and views of members
  2. Participation - provide opportunities for people to politically participate
  3. recruitment - recruit and select canidates for elections
  4. policy - develop polcies and offer these to the electorate in their manifestos
  5. gov - provide voters with a clear choice of different gov
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8
Q

What is the structure and membership of the conservatives?

A
  • each constituency have a con association
  • 1922 committee is made up of backbench con MPs
  • headquarter in London CCHQ
  • March 2018 124,000 members
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9
Q

What is the structure and membership of Labour?

A
  • each constituency has a constituency labour party - small local branches choose local council canidates
  • 14 trade unions affiliated to Labour
  • June 2017 552,000 members
    2022 400,000 members
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10
Q

What is the structure and membership of LD?

A
  • federal structure
  • federal board is the governing board
  • August 2018 99,000 members
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11
Q

How do the conservatives appoint party leaders?

A
  • MPs vote on leadership canidates
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12
Q

How do to Labour appoint party leaders?

A
  • Parliamentary Labour party makes nominations first then canidates must win support of 5% local parties then all members and registered supporters vote
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13
Q

How do the LD appoint party leaders?

A
  • canidate must win support of at least 10% LD MPs and backing from at least 20 local parties then all members vote
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14
Q

What are the sources of party funding?

A
  • membership fees - income from these has reduced membership numbers
  • small donations from individuals - fall in membership has lead to fewer small donations
  • large donations - Blairs Lab gov - £1M donation
  • Trade unions to the Labour party - worth millions, but reduced due to Trade Union Act 2016
  • state funding - designed to counter the financial advantage enjoyed by the party of gov with large funds
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15
Q

What are the types of state funding?

A
  • short money - state funds paid to opposition parties in HoC to pay for administrative costs
  • Cranborne money - State funds paid to opposition parties in HoL for administrative costs
  • Policy Development Grants - any party with 2+ sitting MPs is allocated share of £2M to develop policies
  • funding for election campaigns - subsidies are given to parties to help with costs
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16
Q

What reforms have there been to party funding?

A
  • Political Parties, Elections and Referendums act PPERA 2000 - spending limit on party spending in GE & donations over £5k must be declared
  • Politcal parties and elections act PPEA 2009 - allowed the Electoral commission to investigate cases and impose fines and increased requirements for establishing the source of political donations
17
Q

How does the party leader effect electoral outcomes?

A
  • media coverage is v. focused on the characteristics of the party leader
  • Leaders whose personalities make it difficult to connect to voters e.g. Brown or impress voters e.g. Miliband are likely to have disappointing electoral results
18
Q

How does the funding effect electoral outcomes?

A
  • clear advantages to the Cons - wealthy donors
  • traditionally Lab had trade unions but due to trade union act there are restrictions
19
Q

How do the policies effect electoral outcome?

A
  • appealing and well thought out policies e.g. New Labour have much greater electoral appeal than poorly crafted policies e.g. dementia tax 2017
20
Q

How does party record effect electoral outcomes?

A
  • governments are judged on their record
    e.g. Major 1997 - full of sleaze
    e.g. 1978 Winter of Discontent under Lab control
21
Q

How does the media effect electoral outcome?

A
  • support from key newspapers such as the sun may be helpful
  • social media is increasingly important e.g. Corbyn’s online campaign
22
Q

How does election campaigns effect electoral outcome?

A
  • well crafted election campaign can help secure win e.g. 1997 new lab
  • a poorly crafted election can hinder e.g. 2017 May
23
Q

Who is the SNP and what are the policies?

A
  • Scottish National Party
  • Independence for Scotland
  • won a majority 2011 Scottish Parliament - allowing for the referendum in 2011
  • SNP lost 14 seats 2017
24
Q

Who are UKIP and what are the policies?

A
  • UK Independence Party
  • ‘hard’ Breixt
  • anti-immigration
  • 2014 won 24 seats
25
Q

who are Plaid Cymru and what are the policies?

A
  • Independence for Wales
  • increased investment in Wales
26
Q

Who are the DUP and what are the policies?

A
  • Democratic Unionist Party
  • Northern Ireland to remain in the UK
  • Pro-Brexit
  • 2010 won 10 seats
27
Q

Who are the green party and what are the policies?

A
  • environmental protections
  • investment in public services
  • 2017 won 1 seat
28
Q

What is a two party system?

A
  • two significant political parties compete for power
  • typical product of FPTP
  • 2017 Con & Lab won over 80% of the vote
29
Q

What is a multi party system?

A
  • multiple significant political parties compete for power
  • typical product of proportional voting systems
  • LD held significant positions in the gov form 2010-2015