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Politics (
FUNCTIONS OF POLITICAL PARTY
(Representations (Parties are…
Politics
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Key Words:
Legitimacy:
Legal right to rule. There is an argument that any form of govt could be seen as legitimate if able to maintain the nation’s peace and security.
Three types:
Traditional - Monarchy, inherited.
Force - Military, ie: Coup/ Revolution
Consent: Key form of legitimacy as it is the basis of our democracy. This is where power is exercised with the broad consent of the people, expressed specifically through elections. It can also be called democratic legitimacy.
Power
In a general sense, can mean the ability to make other people do what one wishes them to do, regardless of if it’s against their own will. When thinking about power we need to consider the different levels of power, which are as follows:
Coercive power is the strongest form, can also be described as force. Coercion involves the use of physical force, or the threat of physical force. In extreme cases coercion can include the use of executions, torture, terror and imprisonment of opponents.
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Political power is perhaps how we generally understand the concept of power. This is the power exercised by members of the political community, including parties, their members, and other institutions. Political power involves the skill of persuasion, but it also normally involves rewards and sanctions.
Sovereignty and State
Sovereignty
Legal: means the ultimate source of all legal authority. In practice, it amounts to the ultimate source of all laws and legal power.
Political: refers to the location of real political power, it considers who makes political decisions. Eg: at election time, the public are politically sovereign as they will decide the next govt.
Popular: is a form of political sovereignty. It relates to when the public make decisions, like referendums
State
A state is a country, a territory within which sovereignty can be identified and is widely recognised within said country and abroad.
However, the state refers to institutions within the country, normally that administers a territory. We’d normally the following is included when referring to the state:
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The bureaucracy or civil service - politically neutral bodies which may stay in office even when political govts change.
Other govt owned institutions such as: The NHS, state education system, the BBC etc
Bodies that exist at sub-central, such as local authorities.
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Party system: The number of political parties realistically vying for power.
Political Party: A political party is an organisation possessing a set of political goals and policies which it seeks to implement through the winning of political office.
Features: Things that stuff have, ie: Flowers all have…
Function: What something does, ie: What do all flowers do?
Safe seat: A constituency in which the incumbent party has a large majority, and which is usually retained by yhe same party election after election.
Marginal Seat: A constituency in which the incumbent party has a small majority and which thus may be won by another party next election
Minority Govt: A government consisting of one political party which does not have an absolute majority of seats
Coalition govt: A government consisting of two or more political parties, usually with an absolute majority, formed after an agreement on policy and ministerial posts.
Key Political Theories
Liberalism
Core liberal beliefs:
Foundational equality - everyone’s born equally, and therefore should be treated the same.
Individualism - individuals own themselves, not god, a collective nor a monarch. (John Locke) Individuals will always disagree with one another and have a different vision of ‘the good life’ so making them conform to laws is oppressive (Isaiah Berlin)
However, Liberals are not anarchists, they believe government ‘necessary’. Having a state with laws limits freedom, which is bad, but it does also protect individual rights and freedoms better than anarchy does.
Liberty and License - Liberty is freedom without the detriment to others. (The harm principle). So Liberals believe government should be minimal: “a Night watchman state (Humboldt)” existing to guarantee rights and freedoms. The freedoms being to life liberty and private property.
With liberals, consent comes from the bottom, the people, not from above.
A definition
Liberalism starts from the assumption the most important political goal is to maximise liberty for the individual. Liberals believe that individuals matter more than the collective and that the only form of govt that is just is one that benefits individuals by equally guaranteeing all individuals a set of inalienable rights and freedoms.
Anarchism
Pros: Absolute freedom, the right to determine how we live our lives without any forced outside influence.
Cons: Safety could be seen as an issue, however people have morales, and there's no reason why people would suddenly stop doing their jobs - no cash incentive but if things don’t require paying for then why wouldn’t people do things for the sake of keeping society in motion.
Conservatism
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Thatcherism
Thatcher and her govt attempted to roll back the state and shattered the post war consensus. She believed people had become to welfare dependant. Central themes of economic thatcherism were: privatisation - water, gas, electricity, steel. Also reduced power of trade unions. Significant shift in taxation to favour the rich - VAT.
Believed in disengagement from the economy, IE:
THe decision from the government to remove itself from the economy as much as possible. Previous govts had worked to nationalise industries and increase govt involvement, but thatcher worked towards the opposite: Increasing the private sector and reducing public expenditure.
One Nation Conservatism
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adopts a ‘middle way’ economic approach, mixing govt regulation with market forces in the economy. This is called a mixed economy.
The philosophy behind ‘one nation’ conservatism sought to bridge the increasing gap through a paternalistic social policy
Paternalism is action limiting a person's or group's liberty or autonomy which is intended to promote their own good.
The idea was that the ‘natural leaders’ of society (ie the rich) would accept an obligation to act benevolently to the disadvantaged, in return for their right to be the ruling class.
One Nation conservative leaders sought to win popular support through social reform, in order to strengthen patriotism and national unity.
New Labour
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The initial labour response to the challenge of thatcherism (lead by Tony Benn and Michael Foot) was to increase their socialist stance - a move not supported by the electorate.
New Labour felt that the shift in british society was so great under thatcher, that socialist views were no longer appropriate.
Blair, Brown, Gould, Cook, and Mandelson set about creating ‘the third way’ - a centrist stance on politics to appeal to a more right wing nation post thatcher.
NL cancel course 4 - course 4 is nationalisation of industry policy of old labour (democratic socialism)
Universalism vs ‘no rights without responsibilities’ . Old Labour believed in universal welfare for all - equality. NL believes you shouldn’t be given benefits as a right.
Socialism/ Old Labour
The government should not stop people from doing what they want: taking drugs, same sex relations. Human beings social freedom is more important than stability
SOCIALISM (EQUALITY)
The government should play a big part in the economy: providing employment. It is right to redistribute tax.
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State run economy, nationalisation.
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Socially free, let people do what they want.
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Purpose of Elections
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4) Participation
General Elections are the main way that people engage in politics. Voters make judgements based on manifestos, party political broadcasts and media coverage.
5) influence over policy
Election defeats send messages to parties about their policies. This s the main way the public influence policy. Successful smaller parties also enable policies to gain attention. - Green and climate, Ukip and EU.
Types of Elections
First Past The Post:
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650 constituencies. Public vote in a representative for their constituency. Party with 326 seats get to govern.
Pros Vs Cons
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Cons: Constituencies may represent minorities of constituents; party can get more votes than seats; votes that don’t count; swing seat votes count more; negative voting happens; not represented in major issues; encourages two party system.
Supplementary vote (SV):
Where it’s used:
London and other elected mayors, police/ crime commissioners England & Wales
What is it: Two votes, if no candidate gets over 50% then the top two candidates have the second choice votes counted.
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Single Transferable Vote
Where it’s used: EU elections, N.Ireland assembly, Scottish Council.
What is it: Preferential, voters right 1 next to their first preference, 2 to their 2nd and so on.Candidates are elected if they reach a quota. Any excess votes are redistrubted.
Pros Vs Cons
Pros: Meant to result in greater representation. Greater choice, the government is likely to get 50%+
Cons: Complicated, not necessarily proportional. Less links between constituents and MPs. coalition minority parties get more power
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Which would I choose?
I prefer the AMS system of voting. This is because it combines the fairness of equality of voter value through it’s proportional representation elements, with the important link between constituent and representative. Furthermore, it opens up room for coalition governments - which I would argue is a positive thing as it allows for further representation of the british public in shaping the future of their country.
Pressure Groups
Insider Groups
Rely on govt contact, objectives are broadly in line with govts. Can be high profile - using the media - or low profile - behind the scenes. BMA, NEU
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Outsider Groups
Not consulted by Govt - either because objectives are outside of the mainstream or to maintain independence. CND, Greenpeace.
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