What is a political party? : A Level Government & Politics

Politics is a topic that we come across everywhere: on television, on flyers and leaflets, on the radio… An A Level in the subject may seem quite daunting but breaking it down can help. This article examines exactly what a political party is and what it does.

Political parties are organisations that:

1. Have a set of policy goals, often based around an ideology. These policies are mainly proposals to change the law or the way that the government works in some area. The party may have an overarching set of beliefs about politics – an ideology – that will help to decide which policies a party adopts.
2. Seek to win elections so that they can enact their policies. Pressure groups often have policies and even ideologies as well – political parties are different from pressure groups because they actually try to win political office, instead of simply trying to influence the government.

Function of political parties

Parties are integral to British politics, and they perform several key functions:

Firstly, parties create policy.

Party members try to identify which are the most important and pressing problems facing a society – whether they are economic, social or international - and consider the different options available for solving them.

Whatever the party decides is the best course of action becomes ‘party policy'.

At election time, parties publish manifestos.

These are booklets that outline the party's policies on all the major issues of the day. Even when there is no election coming up, parties are always on the look out for new and innovative policies to adopt. By performing this task of creating policy, parties help to keep the public informed about what problems are facing society and what the possible solutions might be.

Secondly, parties provide the organisational structure needed to form a government. Winning elections and forming stable governments require huge amounts of planning and organisation. Party organisations are geared up specifically to meet these tasks. When in government, a party will work hard to keep its MPs united and well-organised – for example, through the whipping system.

Thirdly, parties provide a link between Parliament and the people. The largest parties in the UK all have a local branch in each of the Westminster constituencies, with members drawn from the local area. These local activists meet regularly with their party's candidate/MP for that seat and help to keep him or her in touch with the concerns, issues and problems affecting people in the area. In practice, the local branch of a sitting MP's party plays an important role in maintaining the link between the voters and the elected official.

Fourthly, parties give people a clear choice of prime ministers. The leader of the largest party following an election is invariably appointed prime minister, so voters can have decide who to vote for on the basis of the character and beliefs of the party leaders.

Parties also  allow voters to make meaningful choices between candidates without having to do a lot of research into each of them.

Most voters know very little about their local candidates except which party they are standing for, and they use this single piece of information to make some likely assumptions about what sort of policies they will support if they are elected.

Parties are also nurseries for future politicians. Many MPs have previously worked and volunteered for their local or national party organisations, where they will have learned first hand about campaigning, how Parliament works, how to interact with the public and many of the other skills needed in politics. Most would-be MPs are expected to put in plenty of hours delivering leaflets and knocking doors before they will be considered as a candidate. In this way, parties provide ambitious politicians with a route to possible power.

Parties also allow people to become active in their area's politics, by joining the local party. Local parties regularly hold debates and discussions about all sorts of political matters and also campaign on issues of local and regional importance. While party members cannot expect to have a decisive influence on policy-making, their views are at least taken into account by the leadership. In this way, parties encourage people to get involved in the democratic process.

One of the most important functions of political parties is to aggregate (bring together) society's desires. People want different things from their government. Elderly people might be most concerned with healthcare and pension provision, for example. Wealthy people may feel low taxes should be the priority. It is the parties' task to bring together these competing interests and to create a policy programme that pleases as many people as possible. The party that can please the most people with its policies  will win the election (provided that the voters trust that party to deliver on its promises!)

This article has been put together by the distance learning organisation Start Learning who are experts in home study.

If you want to find out more about A Level Government and Politics or many other distance learning courses please browse their website: http://www.start-learning.co.uk