Another function expected of political parties is the electoral function. Simply by existing parties give the electorate someone to vote for. It allows the public to make sense of politics as they can predict the ideological direction of each party and will therefore know where they stand for most issues. This has led to party alignment where voters associate with a political party with life as they have similar political views. In ‘safe’ constituencies the public vote for the same party each general election such as Kensington. Despite this there has been doubt over how effectively parties actually perform this role. Although parties give the electorate someone to vote for none of the three main parties are good at appealing to minorities such as women or the black and Asian community. Therefore for minorities it is very difficult to have their view voiced in Parliament. Political parties also exist to represent the views and opinions of the electorate and so perform a representative function. Their job is to run the country the way the public wants it run, regardless of whether they voted for the party. The Labour party has always taken this very seriously because of the nature of its evolution. Mass membership came first and leaders were appointed by the working classes to represent them in Parliament. This idea is imperative to political parties because if they do not give the electorate want they want they will pay for it at the next election. A major criticism of parties is that they are very bad at performing this function, as they do not represent all voters but only their core supporters. For example the Conservatives only understand the concerns of the wealthy suburbia while Labour are limited to the poorer urban areas.
The recruitment and participation function of political parties is important. If a person feels strongly about politics they may join a party rather than just vote and therefore act as link between the government and the governed. This is the principal method by which parties recruit MPs and ministers. Mass membership provides parties with captive support, financial support, future leaders, new ideas and free labour. However there is increasing concern that parties are failing to carry out this role effectively. Parties must recruit to survive, as they have no income they are reliant upon donations. Yet due to the changing nature and ideals of parties they source of financial support is changing to. For example in 1986 around 70% of all Labour income came from Trade Unions but by 1995 this had reduced to 50%. In 1986 Labour was clearly a socialist party with very little appeal to capitalist organisations. This had changed by 1995 with ‘new’ Labour and in response to this the donation charter changed. The party is gaining more capitalist donators for example Bernie Ecclestone, a well-known donator to the Labour party after its transformation. Labour has become more open and now attracts donations from businesses such as Somerfield as well. As a result their income has swelled. However this is not true of the Conservatives. They never received money from Trade Unions and instead were dependant on wealthy capitalists such as Paul Sykes. Yet since Labour has become more capitalist they must compete for those donations and their income is falling as a result. Small parties have the most problems raising money and rely upon benefactors such as the Sean Connery donating money to the SNP.
However there has been increased public concern over these donations as there is worry that the motives of those giving money may be less than pure and often do so in an attempt to buy favours or influence. Asil Nadir, a Turkish tycoon donated large amounts of money to the Conservatives. In 1993 he fled Britain for Northern Cyprus to avoid fraud charges. He had given over four and a half thousand pounds to the Conservative Party but it is impossible to know whether that was actually his money to give. A second example of corrupt donations was when Bernie Ecclestine the owner of Formula One donated 1 million pounds to Labour in a possible attempt to buy favour. In the same year as the donation Labour introduced a policy that banned tobacco advertising in all sport with the exception of Formula One. Labour denied it had anything to do with the donation and claimed that Formula One was an exception as it is a national sport therefore it would not be feasible to expect drivers to paint their cars every time they visited the UK. Despite this the public did not believe them and as a result the damage was done. In order to combat sleaze in donations and to allow parties to perform this role more effectively Labour commissioned a investigation called the Neil Report, which said all donations are to be declared publicly. A second problem which arises from the reduce ability to perform this function is the spiralling costs of election campaigns. The amount of donations have decreased yet parties find themselves having to finance increasingly expensive campaigns. Most the money is spent on advertising. In 1997 both Labour and the Conservatives spent around twenty million pounds each. In an attempt to control this Labour also included in the Neil Report a spending limit of twenty million pounds for election campaigns.
A perhaps less obvious function of political parties is their ability to reconcile conflicting interests. A single party represents coalitions of many different areas of society and combines them into one workable political system. Opposing ideas are harmonised and allow members to collaborate for example the differing views of left and centre MPs combined in Labour. However it could also be argued that parties do not perform this role effectively as political debates often shift within a party and members are simply expected to ‘toe the party line’. Political parties also have a socially disruptive effect. By appealing to particular sections of society they can cause a division in the country for instance the traditional class divide represented by the Conservatives and Labour.
Political parties are central to our democratic system. They perform a number of roles including representing the electorate, making policies and providing a recruiting ground for future leaders. However there has been growing awareness that parties are failing to perform these functions as effectively as they should do.
Bibliography
Politics UK by Bill Jones
Talking Politics
UK Politics magazine
British Politics by Roy Bentley