Roles of political parties

• Encouraging greater political participation• Giving the electorate choice of government and

policies• Articulating the interests of groups in society:

representation• Recruiting and training future politicians• Organising the executive branch of government

(providing MPs)• Ensuring scrutiny of government• Educating and informing the public on issues

Criticisms of political parties• Represent only part of society• Put own interests above those of country• Promote conflict between sections of society• Suppress freedom of thought and the politics of individual conscience• No longer command support from large sections of society (falling

memberships). Are social groups/pressure groups more influential now?• Bureaucratised political machines intent on gaining power• Tainted by corruption and lust for power. Far removed from normal

people• Controlled by big business/unions?• Offer little real choice (between policies)• Fail to deliver on promises/ manifestos?• Unrepresentative of electorate• AO2 – you must assess in some way. E.g. little choice in policy but still

choice in who they trust to run the government effectively

Political parties are essential to democracy

• What is democracy?• Roles of political parties (see previous slide!)• How well do they fulfil those roles? With

examples.

Discuss the view that political parties no longer have an important role in UK politics (plus sources)

• What is role of political parties?• To what extent are they still fulfilling this role?• To what extent do they offer choice?• To what extent do they effectively hold

government to account?• To what extent do they represent the electorate

and channel their interests?• To what extent do they educate the public?• To what extent do they encourage participation?

Advantages/disadvantages of a two party system (plus sources)

• What is a two party system?• Some knowledge of recent changes ie. move to

something closer to a multi-party system.• Lack of choice for voters.• Value of strong government.• Problems of minority or coalition governments.• Party/government accountability or lack of it.• Permanence in power and impact thereof• Adversarial politics (opposition for opposition’s sake)• Having to build consensus.

How to organise your revisionMUST KNOW:1. Roles of political parties.2. What is democracy?3. Direct/representative democracy.4. Adv/Disadv of referendums.5. How each voting system works – what do voters do and how are

votes/seats calculated.6. Where different voting systems are used.7. Adv/Disadv of different systems (definitely very strong on systems used

in UK)8. Purpose of elections.9. Voting behaviour models10. Short vs long term voting behaviour

How to organise your revision

SHOULD KNOW:1. Some key data from recent elections (general election

2010, European Parliament 2014, Scottish Parliament) e.g. votes vs seats %, representation of different groups (gender, ethnicity)

2. Some key issues in recent elections (e.g. Iraq war, expenses scandal, austerity)

3. Key policies of main parties.4. Some key data from referendums (turnout, results). Use

Scottish independence, AV, EU).5. ‘isms’ to describe stance of parties.