What Are the Problems with the Uk's Party System, and How Might They Be Resolved?
What are the problems with the UK’s party system, and how might they be resolved?
This essay will analyse the challenges and problems UK party system is facing. The essay will look into public apathy and mistrust, resulting in low party membership and low electoral participation. The main argument is that political parties do not have strong enough incentives to connect with voters. Proposals to resolve these problems will be changing electoral system, further limiting donations to the political parties and banning their trade activities, forcing more ideological changes and showing strong real actions to ignite the political debates.
As we all know, UK political system is dominated by main two political parties, Labour and Conservatives. Historically, most of the elections, apart from few exceptions, resulted in one party forming the government whilst other party being in opposition. Throughout the history, British political parties enjoyed large memberships and enthusiastic support from all sections of population during the elections. Voters were more politically aware and active in political life. British Election Study’s survey in 1964 showed that three quarters of population had strong or fair affiliation with a political party (Pattie & Johnston, 2007, p. 2). In 1950’s Labour had 1 million members while conservatives had 2,800,000 (Fieschi, 2006, p. 143)
However, political parties lost the trust and support of public. Membership of parties is at all-time low. According to the recent study, only 2 percent of voters in the UK are party members (Beetham, Blick, Margets, & Weir, 2008, p. 42). People abstain from voting in general elections, the trend observed especially amongst young voters. Pressure groups and lobbyists are gaining more influence and political parties are increasingly getting disconnected from the general public. Latest MP’s expenses scandal dramatically reduced the trust in politicians.
The trend is not unique to Britain. Other European
This essay will analyse the challenges and problems UK party system is facing. The essay will look into public apathy and mistrust, resulting in low party membership and low electoral participation. The main argument is that political parties do not have strong enough incentives to connect with voters. Proposals to resolve these problems will be changing electoral system, further limiting donations to the political parties and banning their trade activities, forcing more ideological changes and showing strong real actions to ignite the political debates.
As we all know, UK political system is dominated by main two political parties, Labour and Conservatives. Historically, most of the elections, apart from few exceptions, resulted in one party forming the government whilst other party being in opposition. Throughout the history, British political parties enjoyed large memberships and enthusiastic support from all sections of population during the elections. Voters were more politically aware and active in political life. British Election Study’s survey in 1964 showed that three quarters of population had strong or fair affiliation with a political party (Pattie & Johnston, 2007, p. 2). In 1950’s Labour had 1 million members while conservatives had 2,800,000 (Fieschi, 2006, p. 143)
However, political parties lost the trust and support of public. Membership of parties is at all-time low. According to the recent study, only 2 percent of voters in the UK are party members (Beetham, Blick, Margets, & Weir, 2008, p. 42). People abstain from voting in general elections, the trend observed especially amongst young voters. Pressure groups and lobbyists are gaining more influence and political parties are increasingly getting disconnected from the general public. Latest MP’s expenses scandal dramatically reduced the trust in politicians.
The trend is not unique to Britain. Other European
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