Historically it has always been a battle between two parties for a majority. The government has consistently been one of two parties since 1922 – Conservatives or Labour. Before then, it was between the Liberals and the Conservatives. Some would argue that the current coalition disproves this as an argument, but it seems that in many ways the liberals have ‘sold out’ to the Conservatives, through their support of conservative policies that they condemned in the run-up to the election.
One feature of the British political system which reinforces a two – party system is its electoral system. First Past The Post (FPTP) makes it much more likely for there to be a single party majority, and the areas of the constituencies make it unfairly biased towards the Conservatives and Labour. In the FPTP system the party that loses out the most is the 3rd party, which at the moment is the liberals, as they come 2nd in many constituencies and gain a significant proportion of the votes, but this proportion does not correlate into seats. This is why the Liberals have been pushing for a referendum to swap FPTP for a more proportionately representative system, AV. This referendum was meant to come about May 2011, but has been delayed by the opposition of the House of Lords.
Electoral evidence has shown that in a proportionally representative system the big two would almost never be able to create a government on their own. It also shows that the Liberal share of the vote is close to that of the Conservatives or Labour. If the Liberals are successful in their attempts to bring in a more proportionally representative system then our two – party system would effectively be ended. It may also cause the Liberal to gain too much power, as if either of the big two wanted to form a government they would probably have to create a coalition with the Liberals. We have also seen minor parties grow in power, including the 1980 election in which the SDP (Social Democratic party) got ¼ the vote.
In Britain, the different social classes have traditionally voted certain ways. The Working class naturally tend to support Labour, who are meant to represent them but have grown apart from their core ideologies, but the upper/middle classes tend to support the Conservatives for the same reason. People are reluctant to change the party they vote for, and in many constituencies it would be unthinkable for the traditional winners of that seat not to win it. Also, SMP (single-member plurality) penalises parties with similar ideologies who stand against each other in the same constituencies, something which has also hampered the Liberals who, as they are closer to the middle and not as left wing as Labour, have found themselves unable to present a meaningful case for change. Another important point is that voters know that it is unlikely for a 3rd party to gain power, which dissuades them from voting for anything other than the big two.
Despite this class system, we have been seeing more examples of disillusionment with the major parties, and the growth in the support of minor parties and of ‘Partisan Disalignment’. From the EU elections we have seen how extremist groups have gained power, and membership of the major parties has fallen, as has party activism, whereas political protests, particularly individual protests such as boycotting certain products have risen.
In conclusion, Britain can still be described as having a two-party system, crucially due to its unfair voting system, but from recent events such as the creation of the coalition and its plans for voting reform, Britain is being pushed towards a multi-party system.
