A party system is a contemporary liberal arts topic that refers to the structure of governing by political groups in a democracy. The assumption is that these parties share fundamental characteristics: they dominate the legislature, have a stable platform of widespread broad support, and establish internal processes for regulating finance, intelligence, and appointments (Kitschelt 848). This essay seeks to examine the current party system in the United Kingdom and the factors that form it. In doing so, the paper identifies the adequate number of parties, the cleavage types represented by parties, and the type of party-voter linkage among the main parties. Additionally, this essay evaluates how electoral laws in the UK shape its party system and how the country’s critical historical factors, recent developments, and demographic features shape its party system. Finally, the paper discusses changes in the key features of the UK’s party system in the recent past.
Current Party System in the UK
The two-party framework in the United Kingdom necessitates the establishment of inflexible organizations and parties with significant voting etiquette in parliament. In every considerable vote, all party officials are bound to vote as a unit and strictly adhere to the directions they consented to collaboratively or that the party administrators have determined for them (Denver and Robert 65). There is no genuine separation of authority between the executive and legislative branches because the state and its parliamentary majority create a homogenous and cohesive bloc against which the opposing party has no capacity other than to criticize. Since each party consists of a uniformed group led by a renowned leader who becomes head of state if their party wins the parliamentary elections, these elections select the legislature and the government (Denver and Robert 67). The system has flaws, particularly since it seeks to discourage the innovative aspects of both sides.
The factor that shapes the UK’s political system is the nation’s structure of government. The UK has a parliamentary system, a form of liberal state government in which the administrator’s democratic mandate relies on its capacity to compel the backing of the chamber to which it is answerable (Wollmann 5). The coalition with the most legislative seats establishes the government, with its leader assuming the position of prime minister. Parliamentarians nominated by the prime minister to the cabinet carry out executive duties (Wollmann 5). The minority parties oppose the leadership and are required to challenge it consistently.
The number of political parties in the UK is varied and numerous. The board of elections recorded 408 recognized political groups in the UK as of the 2019 general elections (Norton 20). However, during the 2019 national voting, four political units at the local government association (LGA), conservative, labor, liberal democrat, and independent, each had its office. The organization headquarters manage the polls and composition of LGA councils, panels, conferences, and committees and operate as a clerk for their group’s activity.
Cleavage Types Represented by Parties
Cleavage is a chronologically set of societal or cultural lines that split a community’s inhabitants into groupings with divergent political objectives, culminating in political disputes between these groups. Some of the cleavage categories presented by political parties in the UK include political cleavage, division along political coalitions. Since the 1920s, the Conservative and Labor factions have been the leading organizations in the United Kingdom. The present administration elected in 2019 is a coalition of the Conservatives, widely known as the Tories and the Liberal Democrats. Moreover, gender cleavage exists as presented by UK’s Conservative political affiliation. Women’s voting behavior is characterized by a predilection for conservative parties, which appears to be directly tied to their greater tendency for religious participation and their perceptions of their various societal responsibilities (Choe 50). Given the apparent reformation tendency in the UK and the increased social participation of women, the variations in voting patterns between men and women have been less evident over time, which is a significant aspect.
Among the main parties, the Conservative and Labor parties, there exists a programmatic party-voter linkage. Legislators’ expenditures in programmatic dispute settlement mechanisms and institutional infrastructure support programmatic links (Kitschelt 850). Political parties present policy platforms that they pledge to implement if victorious. The majority of political parties in the United Kingdom recompense voters solely indirectly, without discriminating considerations (Kitschelt 850). For instance, after the 2019 general elections, voters encountered the redistributive results of parties’ policy initiatives irrespective of the coalition they backed.
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How Electoral Laws in UK Shape the Party System
The electoral commission of the United Kingdom intends to implement new legislative criteria for political groups and non-party candidates. The Political Parties, Elections, and Referendums Act of 2000 is current, with all amendments expected to be in effect by November 15, 2022. The restrictions have curtailed the foreign campaigning of significant parties. If a party is situated outside, it can only spend a certain amount on UK election campaigns. Consequently, the Bill would drastically cut the budget cap for these organizations to ÂŁ700. Changes to the legislation restricting election funding from outside the United Kingdom would indicate that foreign influence in British politics is prohibited. In addition, the initial electoral laws of the United Kingdom prohibited non-party candidates from enrolling in political parties. Currently, a group can be certified as both an independent candidate and a political party. This is significant since it allows these organizations to engage quickly in British elections. Additionally, electors can observe and comprehend how these organizations receive and spend finances.
Factors that Shape the Party System
Historically, one of the factors that influenced the two-party state in the UK is Duverger’s law. It argues that jurisdictions employing the First Past the Post (FPTP) election process generally have a two-party structure (Bochsler 503). This results from a technological consequence, in which it is challenging for third parties to field candidates, and a psychological impact, in which people dread wasting their ballot and hence overlook third parties (Bochsler 503). Governments that utilize First Past the Post, such as the United Kingdom, typically have fewer factions than those that implement proportional democracy, even if they are not proper two-party frameworks.
Recent developments, such as broadening the disclosure rules for spending on collaborative electoral campaigns to encompass political parties and non-party challengers, have impacted the political structure of the UK. This is because limitations on combined expenditure only pertain to non-party campaigns working jointly presently. Therefore, these amendments would add additional, difficult-to-understand specifications to the legislation, which would be difficult for many activists to comprehend. The extra sophistication of these measures may discourage individuals from running for office or limit the type of campaign they may finance.
Some of the transformations in the key features of the UK party system in the past 10 years include changes in regional cleavage. As a liberal democratic country, the UK has few gender divisions in society. In the administration, nonetheless, gender differences become problematic. There is a significant imbalance between the number of male and female lawmakers in Parliament, although there are no significant gender-based conflicts in British society as a whole. Feminist groups continue to operate in the United Kingdom, and they continue to agitate for more female privileges to bring public attention to the appalling death rate of women in jails.
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Works Cited
Bochsler, Daniel. “Duverger and the Territory: Explaining Deviations from the Two-Party-Competition-Law.” Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, vol. 32, no. 3, 2022, pp. 501-520. Web.
Choe, Yonhyok. Social Cleavage and Party Support: A comparison of Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom. Södertörn University, 2003.
Denver, David, and Robert Johns. “The Changing British Party System.” Elections and Voters in Britain. Palgrave Macmillan, 2022. Web.
Kitschelt, Herbert. “Linkages between Citizens and Politicians in Democratic Polities.” Comparative Political Studies, vol. 33, no. 6-7, 2000, pp. 845-879. Web.
Norton, Philip. “The United Kingdom: Building the Link between Constituent and MP.” Parliaments and citizens in Western Europe. Routledge, 2020. Web.
Wollmann, Hellmut. “Comparing Institutional Development in Britain and Germany: (Persistent) Divergence or (Progressing) Convergence?” Comparing Public Sector Reform in Britain and Germany. Routledge, 2019. Web.