What is the best description of the UK party system? Two-party, Three-party, Multi-party or dominant-party

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07/05/07                                                                        Tim Gloster

What is the best description of the UK party system?

Two-party, Three-party, Multi-party or dominant-party

        A two-party system is a system that always has either one of two main parties in power, for example the republicans and the democrats in the US. The argument for the UK being a two-party system is quite strong. One of the main points is that either Labour or the Conservatives have been in power since 1945, not once since then has another party got into power. There is a compelling argument for why the UK should be considered a two-party system, one of the main points of this argument is that since 1945 either the Conservatives or the Labour party have been in power. Also these two main parties dominate the voting process and the policy and parliamentary agenda. The House of Commons and the House of Lords are also set out towards government-opposition confrontation. During the last couple of centuries there has always been two dominant parties, in the 19th century it was the Wigs and the Tories. At the beginning of the 20thcentruy it was the Liberals and the Conservatives and now it is Labour and the Conservatives. The membership of the two main parties is also larger than any other of the parties. The Conservatives and Labour also receive the largest amount of donations from companies as they are always in power and they dominate campaign funding, though there is an argument against these points. (The US is the best example of a two-party system as only the Republicans or the Democrats have ever been in power.)

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However on the other hand smaller parties have won increasing proportions of the vote in recent elections. Along with the fact that some small parties to well in certain areas, e.g. Plaid Cymru in Wales and the SNP’s in Scotland. Local elections are often contested by three or more parties and these parties get a considerable number of votes but due to the ‘first past the post’ voting system in the UK they get a very low number of seats.

The argument for the UK having a three party system relies on the fact that they are the third largest ...

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