Political parties

• Policy making involves not only political leaders but also civil servants, advisory units and committees, and private advisers
• Most policy is made by ministers and their advisers in the ruling party
• populist parties typically represent people who feel they’ve been ignored by conventional parties. These parties usually emerge rapidly then disappear
• “Issue parties” usually respresentative a certain cause e.g. the Green party
• Parties spend a great deal of time selecting candidates for office at all levels
• Parties have procedures for identifying political leaders. In the ruling party the leader chooses a small group of “front bench” spokes persons who form leadership
• % of seats won by the two main parties has decreased from 95.8% in 1979 to 87.2% in 2019 suggesting they still dominate but the largest third party is gaining popularity
• in 2005 the largest third party won the most seats - 62 seats
• over a period of 40 years the two main parties have always collectively had a majority
• Labour is the main party in wales, sometimes securing a majority, sometimes working in coalition and sometimes as a minority gov - again suggesting a dominant-party system
• Northern Ireland has its own party system, appearing to be multi-party but the system is dominated by the DUP and Sinn Fein, suggesting two-party dominance
• As a whole I think the UK is a multi party but in terms of electoral results the UK elections reveal a dominant or two-party system