ECONOMY Conservatives continue to share Thatcher’s belief in the free market – e.g. they privatised Royal Mail in 2013. However, May talked about new industrial strategy to support certain struggling industries - She has created a new Department for Business, Energy,...
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 - 118 Conservative MPs in favour, 129 against (Free vote) This free vote on same-sex marriage highlights the divisions that exist between the Conservative Party’s more religious, traditionally conservative,...
WELFARE Welfare Reform and Work Bill July 2015 - 48 Labour MPs defy orders to abstain and vote against the bill. The bill included plans to limit child tax credit to two children and further lower the household benefit cap. The then acting-leader, Harriet Harman, had...
EU Conservatives: disagreements between high-profile Remainers such as Kenneth Clarke and supporters of Brexit such as Jacob Rees-Mogg Tory hard Brexiters in European Research Group – 60 members including Rees-Mogg, Tory Soft Brexiters such as Dominic Grieve and...
NATIONAL DEFICIT AND DEBT The recession led to a sharp drop in tax receipts, while bank bailouts, stimulus packages, and rising unemployment stretched public spending, greatly increasing the national deficit - Conservatives argued that Labour had overspent during the...
ECONOMY Monetarism & Dealing with a Recession - Monetarist theory - governments can foster economic stability by targeting the growth rate of money supply. Based on the monetarist theories of Milton Friedman, the base interest rate was raised to 30% in 1979, in...
REPRESENTATION Traditionally, parties were said to represent the views of their members. This was certainly true in an age of mass-membership parties, when parties and voters were clearly divided along class lines. Partisan and class de-alignment, accompanied by the...
FPTP While the combined vote share of the Labour and Conservative parties has fallen from 96.8% in 1951 to 67.3% in 2015, the percentage of seats held by the two parties has only dropped from 98.6% (1951) to 86.5% (2015). This is because the electoral system used for...
CAMPAIGN Conservatives: 3 main manifesto points were defence, employment and economic prosperity - remained committed to membership of the European Community, a nuclear deterrent, trade union reform, more privatisation, long-term tax reduction and lower inflation. ...
THIRD PARTIES The UK has become a multi-party system now due to the increasing influence of third parties. In the 2010 GE produced hung parliament leading to Con-LD coalition Even as a minor coalition partner, the LD’s were able to act on a number of significant...
VOTING BEHAVIOUR Gender: There was a swing to Labour in both genders, with no real difference in the final result. Many women decided to vote Labour in the 1997 general election due to the increase in women working, mainly in the public sector. Also, Thatcher’s...
PARTY LEADERS Since 1998 Conservative MPs vote in a series of ballots that involve party members and narrow the field of leadership candidates down to two - members vote on a one member, one vote basis to decide which of these two becomes party leader. A leadership...
VOTING BEHAVIOUR 2019 saw so much issue voting on Brexit that it was dubbed ‘the Brexit Election’ The Conservatives, being the strongest leave party won 74% of leave voters Labour only secured 49% of the Remain vote Labour received 56% of the 18-24 vote and 14% of...
LEADERS In the 2017 leadership election, there were five candidates, after two rounds of MP ballots, Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom emerged as the top two candidates. However, before the vote could go to party members, Theresa May was declared the winner after Andrea...
SINGLE MEMBER CONSTITUENCIES Good MP to constiuent link. TWO PARTY SYSTEM It favours major parties that have strong nationwide support, which gives them a good chance of securing a parliamentary majority. New 'outsider' parties also find it difficult to break through....
EU One way in which Conservative Party policy has changed since the 1990s is the stance on EU membership. This is because in the 1990s, John Major’s government were largely pro-EU, and fought to pass the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 which formally established the union...
LINK It maintains the relationship between an MP and their constituency and the geographical link between parliament and the constituency, meaning constituents are well represented. This is done through surgeries that MPs hold to gather the views of their constituents...
ONE-NATION Tory Reform Group – Founded in 1975 to promote more moderate policies influenced by Benjamin Disraeli’s ‘One Nation’ Conservatism and Harold Macmillan’s ‘’Middle Way’. The group’s website explains that it has historically aimed to combine “economic...
WEAK MAJORITIES Has been known to deliver weak majorities that give governments weak mandates. While the 2015 General Election did produce a single party government, the strength of its mandate is questionable – Conservatives won 330 seats with just 36.9% - only 24.4%...
NEW/PURPLE LABOUR The think-tank Progress, founded in 1995, was one of the original pressure groups to support Tony Blair’s ‘Third Way’, and continues to champion New Labour policies. In 2011, the group published a series of essays by Blairite MPs in book called ‘The...
ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION It is argued that few people join political parties because members have little influence over policy decisions and candidate selection. In contrast, referendums give everyone an equal voice, without concerns about broken manifesto promises or...
UNDERMINE REPS Some would argue that Parliamentary sovereignty, and the flexibility of our constitution, is an important asset. Elected representatives are expected to make informed decisions that are in the long-term national interest. If governments make poor...
CLASS Although the link between class and voting behaviour has weakened since the 1940s (class dealignment), it was still noticeable in the 2015 general election. The Conservative Party still received the majority of its support from upper middle class and...
SALIENT ISSUES According to an April 2015 YouGov poll, the most ‘salient’ issue in 2015 was the economy. Whilst Labour was considered the best party to manage the economy in 1997, 2001 and 2007, YouGov found that, in 2015, 39% of voters felt that the Conservatives...
PARTY LEADERS The nature of media in the UK has led to a growing focus on party leaders during general election campaigns which in turn encourages people to vote on the basis of leadership, as oppose to class, or valence issues. For example, in the 2017 election,...
ELITE If political parties are not funded, they would then be funded by wealthy individuals which is not fair. Rise of large individual donations to PP’s since the 1990s has led to the perception that one might be able to buy access or political influence. g., in 2006...
OPPOSITION Taxpayers should not be expected to bankroll parties that they oppose. The fundamental right to support and sustain causes and interests that are important to us is one to be valued and protected. Political parties have no less a right to the kind of...
UKIP As a result of the 2009 European election UKIPs profile increased with it securing 13 seats at this election. Nigel Farage captured many disenchanted Eurosceptic Tory voters & those who felt that the main PPs don’t offer sufficient direction in tackling...
NATIONAL STATISTICS National statistics mask significant variation in participation in our political system. In the 2015 general election, people aged over 65 were almost twice as likely to vote than people under 24. Only 43% of 18-24-year olds voted, compared with...
MAYORS Establishing directly elected mayors. By 2016, 52 referendums had been held on moving to the directly elected mayor model, with only 16 approving the move. The referendums were triggered by central government, a decision by the local authority or a petition by...
COMPULSORY VOTING A system that fines people who do not vote, perhaps £20-£50 a time, would encourage more people to vote in elections and referendums. Since compulsory voting was introduced to Australia in 1924, turnout has never dropped below 91% - would increase...
COALITION A referendum on replacing first-past-the-post with the alternative vote system was a central feature of the 2010 Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition agreement. It also included commitments to referendums on Welsh devolution, directly elected mayors and...
FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABLE Our government is drawn from Parliament and depends on the confidence of the House of Commons for survival. It is arguable that MPs have become increasingly assertive in defending what they believe to be in the best...
TURNOUT Turnout has declined, the Lords remains unelected, and MPs and peers are unrepresentative. Turnout at the 2015 General Election was just 66.1%, far below the high levels of the 1970s, (turnout reached 78.8% in 1974) - low turnout makes it harder for even a...
ENGAGEMENT Will engage more people in politics and increase participation. When they were allowed to vote in the 2014 Scottish Ref, more than 100,000 turned out and there was an overall turnout of 84%. Voting is a habit, and those who start young are more likely to...
COMPLETE DEVOLUTION It would complete devolution within the UK, and resolve the English Question, by giving England its own parliament. It would create a more coherent system of devolution, with a federal UK Parliament and government responsible for UK-wide issues —...
BALANCED DEVOLUTION It would bring decision making closer to the people and address the differing interests of the English regions. It would create a more balanced devolution settlement within the UK because England is too large to have its own parliament. It would...
QUASI-FEDERAL UK Limited parliamentary sovereignty. Westminster remains sovereign because it can overrule or abolish the devolved bodies. However, Westminster is no longer sovereign over domestic matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — it does not have...
SCOTLAND The Scottish Parliament has 129 members (MSPs) elected by the additional member system (AMS) - 73 MSPs (57% of the total) are elected in single-member constituencies using the FPTP system - 56 MSPs (43% of the total) are ‘additional members’ chosen from party...
REPRESENTATION PARTICIPATION ACCOUNTABILITY MP Zac Goldsmith promised he would not stand as a Conservative candidate at the next election of the party backed the Heathrow expansion, meaning he stood as an Independent in a by-election in 2016. This shows the clear...
GENERAL ELECTIONS These elect all 650 MPs who make up the House of Commons. The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 introduced fixed 5-year terms for governments. Before 2011, the prime minister could call a general election at a time of his or her choosing within their...
MAJORITARIAN The winning candidate must secure an absolute majority of the vote. Candidates are usually elected in single-member constituencies. The output of FPTP could be described as majoritarian because the voters who’s candidates didn’t win are not reflected in...
VOTING People transfer power to elected officials through general elections, referendums, local council elections and more. General Election turnout in the UK has been known to be quite low, however, since the incredibly low turnout of 59% in 2001, it has begun to...
MORE CHOICE Voter records first and second preferences on the ballot. If no candidate wins a majority of first preferences, all but the top two candidates are eliminated and the second preference votes for them are added to their first preference votes. Candidate with...
ELECTION TYPE The electorate are more likely to turnout for more important elections, e.g. General Elections. The 2015 General Election got a turnout of 66.1%. Local elections get a turnout of 31.1% on average and the Police and Crime Commissioner Elections got a...
CHOICE Reps are elected in large multi-member constituencies. In NI Assembly elections, 18 constituencies lect 6 members. Proportional Representation. Used in Northern Ireland Assembly and European Parliament election in Northern Ireland. Voters vote by ranking as...
TURNOUT Since compulsory voting was introduced to Australia in 1924, turnout has never dropped below 91%. This would increase the legitimacy of elected representatives as declining turnout undermines the democratic process, particularly in local by-elections, where...
MIXED Mixed electoral system which includes elements of FPTP and regional list prop rep. Used in Scottish Parliament, Welsh Parliament and London Assembly. Proportion of seats elected in single-member constituencioes using FPTP. g. 57% of Scottish Parliament....
ELECTION TURNOUT Low turnout at elections undermines the legitimacy of the results. Turnout at the 2015 General Election was 66.1%, far below the high levels of the 1970s, where it reached 78.8% in 1974. Of the 66.1% of the electorate that participated in 2015, only...
DIRECT DEMOCRACY An element of direct democracy has been injected into a political system previously wedded to representative democracy. However, the extent to which referendums have enhanced UK democracy is debatable. Referendums have extended political participation...
HELD ACCOUNTABLE The convention of individual ministerial responsibility places significant pressure on ministers. The 2010-15 coalition had multiple ministers resign over their personal behaviour. In 2012, the Chief Conservative whip Andrew Mitchell resigned after it...
COMMITTEES Much of the day-to-day work of devising and agreeing policy is done in committees. Each committee is chaired by a particular minister and is usually composed of cabinet ministers with portfolios connected to the committee’s area of responsibility. In...
REORGANISATION PMs have the ability to reorganise the structure. May streamlined the committee system she inherited from David Cameron - decided to scrap a number of long-standing committees, like the constitutional affairs and public expenditure committees, and has...
COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY Under normal circumstances, the convention of collective responsibility can strengthen the prime minister, as they can rely upon government ministers to support government policy in public. However, due to coalition government, David Cameron...
COALITION USE OF CABINET INFLUENCE
MANAGE DEPT. Some senior ministers will have a dual role of observing a departmental select committee and being a member of the cabinet, the senior decision-making body Most ministers have to manage a government department, being responsible for its policies and...
FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS You are only unable to vote if you are not a UK citizen, a member of the Lords, in prison or have been committed of illegal practices in an election in past 5 years. FTPA (2011) requires general elections to be held every five years on the...
REFERENDUMS Occasionally done to prevent ministerial resignations. g. in 2016 Cameron allowed ministers to campaign to leave the EU – they were, however denied access to the civil service – 5 ministers did this. COALITION The 2010 coalition identified 4 issues on...
PARLIAMENTARY What we have in the UK - Parliament stands as the highest form of authority - executive branch will be drawn from and accountable to reps in parliament. This means that parliament is sovereign – can counteract SC decisions, Gov is accountable to...
LEAKS Disgruntled ministers may leak cabinet info to the media. g. Ed Balls and Nick Clegg revealed cabinet discussions in their books. DISSENT/NON-RESIGNATION Cabinet members that oppose important parts of gov policy have survived in office even when their concerns...
REPRESENTATION ACCOUNTABILITY PARTICIPATION
MISTAKES Rare – ministers often survive e.g. reports into arms sales to Iraq in 1996 and BSE in 2000 uncovered mistakes but ministers survived. Estella Morris, education secretary resigned over not reaching the numeracy targets promised in 2002. POLICY FAILURE Foreign...
LEGITIMACY People are more likely to respect and follow decisions if they have been made by the whole population. It gives the law legitimacy. This is especially important in places like Northern Ireland in 1998 where they needed strong support for the Good Friday...
PM HAS MORE POWER The powers on the PM have expanded significantly since the 1970s - this is due to an increasing focus of the media upon the PM at the expense of other cabinet ministers and the public tends to approve of strong decisive leadership. Therefore, the...
SUFFRAGETTES The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) Founded by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, Christabel and Sylvia, in 1903. Frustrated by the slow pace of change of the NUWSS – used violent and illegal protest methods to draw attention to the cause and...
NATIONAL LEADER PM is seen as a national leader in the UK and abroad. Represents the UK in the EU, G8 and the UN. The PM is expected to be a dominant political personality. Election victory is treated as a personal mandate for the Pm. Introduction of TV debated in...
SC This was begun by the legal challenges of John Hirst and, following the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Hirst v UK (2005), which declared that the blanket ban on all prisoners was a violation of their human rights. Other groups, such as the...
RETURN TO CABINET GOVERNMENT The need for both the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties to negotiate policy strengthened the role of cabinet under the Coalition. The cabinet met much more regularly than under the previous Labour government, meeting every Tuesday...
DECREASED USE OF THE CABINET Under the Coalition, the media regularly talked about formal and informal meetings of the ‘Quad’, which consisted of the Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Deputy Prime Minister and Chief Secretary to the Treasury. As key leaders...
RETURN TO CABINET GOVERNMENT The need for both the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties to negotiate policy strengthened the role of cabinet under the Coalition. The cabinet met much more regularly than under the previous Labour government, meeting every Tuesday...
SPECIAL ADVISORS Ministers have access to resources other than the civil service, such as their own special advisers. Special advisers (spads) are temporary political appointees who work for ministers, writing speeches, helping with policy ideas and corresponding with...
SEPARATION OF POWER/JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE Open in Oct 2009 and replaced Appellate Court of House of Lords. Objective of creating clearer distinction between legislative and judicial functions of the state. Court has acted as an important constraint on the executive...
PREROGATIVE Set of powers exercised by ministers/monarch that don’t require parliamentary approval. Most PPs are exercised by ministers on behalf of crown e.g. ratifying treaties, deploying AFs overseas and PM’s patronage powers – apt imp positions and rec dissolution...
PATRONAGE PM can appoint life peers to the lords – enables PM to alter party balance within Lords. Blair appointed 162 Labour peers. There was a police inquiry in 2006 which questioned whether Labour party donors were being rewarded with peerages – no charges but led...
PARTY SUPPORT The PM must maintain the support of their party; if the party turns against the prime minister then they will lose a great deal of power and possibly could lose office. Margaret Thatcher lost the support of the Conservatives in 1989 for the unpopular...
REGISTERING DECISIONS It formalises and legitimises official government policies; this is because all legislation needs the cabinet’s stamp of approval in order for it to be generally recognised. Although cabinet carries out this function, it does not make the...
HRA 1998 CRA 2005 POLITICAL ROLE
CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM ACT The SC was established under the Constitutional Reform Act (2005) – opened in 2009. Established a much more independent appointments process - created new Judicial Appointments Commissions, made up of legal professionals and several...
CONVENTIONS There has long existed a constitutional convention that the executive should not criticise judges or their decisions. In return, judges are expected by convention to not comment outside the court room on government legislation. It is arguable that both...
UPHOLDS RULE OF LAW & JUDICAL REVIEW The process allows groups to challenge the actions of, for example, government ministers, police officers or local councils - it is the role of the judiciary to uphold the rule of law and ensure that such bodies act within the...
PARLIAMENTARY SOVREIGNTY In the case A and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department (2004), the Law Lords declared that the indefinite detention of suspected terrorists at Belmarsh prison was incompatible with Article 14 of the ECHR because the Act...
UK LAW Human Rights Act 1998 and Freedom of Information Act 2000 - judges can go against Parliament if they threaten liberties. Belmarsh case 2004. EU Judges can issue a Declaration of Incompatibility if UK laws don’t comply with EU laws. The Factortame case (1990)...
EU EU laws can’t be enforced by force, so Parliament doesn’t in theory have to follow Declarations of Incompatibility. Parliament refused to follow EU law and give the vote to prisoners. SC Judges can still be pressured from other sources. Theresa May criticised...
JUDGES HAVE CRITICISED EROSION OF CIVIL LIBERTIES The 2001 Anti-Terrorism Act was declared unlawful by 8/9 Lords that heard the case - extremely willing to challenge government powers when individual rights are threatened. JUDGES HAVE BECOME MORE POLITICALLY INVOLVED...
INCREASED POLITICAL ROLE AFFECTS EXEC/PARL PARL STILL SOVEREIGN
BACKGROUND OF JUSTICES The main argument is that judges have come from a narrow social and professional background. The majority are from middle and upper-class families. They are almost exclusively male and the majority have been educated at independent schools. Up...
JUDICIAL REVIEW SC able to question the lawfulness of decisions made by public bodies, such as local councils, government departments, police forces or health authorities. However, it’s limited by parliamentary sovereignty. Al Rawi v Security Service (2010) – gov...
HRA In 1998, the ECHR was incorporated into UK law by Blair gov, stating that all legislation, actions and decisions made by any decision makers had to conform to the convention. This has meant citizens can assert their rights more forcefully. In cases where human...
OPPOSITION FROM JUDGES CRITICISM PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT
ENOUGH HAS BEEN DONE 1911: After Lords rejected Liberal’s ‘People’s Budget’ in 1909. Could only delay for 2 years and couldn’t delay money bills. 1949: could delay for one year - the Commons can use the 1949 PA to force the bill through - allows the Lords to delay a...
LACK OF SEP OF POWERS The ancient office of Lord Chancellor was a member of all three branches of government. His position was the most dramatic example of the lack of separation of powers in the UK. If Britain were to claim to be a modern democracy it had to rid...
SCRUTINY Scrutinise the actions of the public and government. Health Select Committee inquiry (2011) into public health identified problems with the coalition government's proposals for NHS reform. It helped persuade the government to make significant changes to the...
SUPERIORITY OF EU LAW There were two famous cases that established that EU law was superior to UK law. One of these was the Factortame case in 1991. It ruled that the 1988 Merchant Shipping Act that limited the rights of foreign ships to fish in British waters...
LIMITED IMPACT A government with a majority in the Commons will also have a majority in committees. Ministers and civil servants may not provide much information when questioned, and access to documents may be denied. They have no power to propose policy — governments...
JUDICIAL REVIEW The rapid growth of judicial review can hold up the work of democratically elected representatives. In 1982, 685 applications for judicial review, in 2013, there were over 15,700 applications. Critics argue that judicial review can unnecessarily hold...