Economic performance or electoral necessity? Evaluating the system of voluntary income to political parties

Whilst the public funding of political parties is the norm in western democracies, its comprehensive introduction has been resisted in Britain. Political and electoral arrangements in Britain require parties to function and campaign on a regular basis, whilst their income follows cycles largely related to general elections. This article shows that the best predictor of party income is the necessity of a well-funded general election campaign rather than party performance. As a result, income can only be controlled by parties to a limited degree, which jeopardises their ability to determine their own financial position and fulfil their functions as political parties

The Effect of Inappropriate Calibration: Three Case Studies in Molecular Ecology

Time-scales estimated from sequence data play an important role in molecular ecology. They can be used to draw correlations between evolutionary and palaeoclimatic events, to measure the tempo of speciation, and to study the demographic history of an endangered species. In all of these studies, it is paramount to have accurate estimates of time-scales and substitution rates. Molecular ecological studies typically focus on intraspecific data that have evolved on genealogical scales, but often these studies inappropriately employ deep fossil calibrations or canonical substitution rates (e.g., 1% per million years for birds and mammals) for calibrating estimates of divergence times. These approaches can yield misleading estimates of molecular time-scales, with significant impacts on subsequent evolutionary and ecological inferences. We illustrate this calibration problem using three case studies: avian speciation in the late Pleistocene, the demographic history of bowhead whales, and the Pleistocene biogeography of brown bears. For each data set, we compare the date estimates that are obtained using internal and external calibration points. In all three cases, the conclusions are significantly altered by the application of revised, internally-calibrated substitution rates. Collectively, the results emphasise the importance of judicious selection of calibrations for analyses of recent evolutionary events

Supply or demand?: women candidates and the Liberal Democrats

The numerical under-representation of women in Westminster is a source of particular embarrassment for the Liberal Democrats who claim to fight for equality of opportunity for all. This article addresses the current situation within the Liberal Democrats through empirical analysis of qualitative and quantitative research. It identifies recruitment, political culture and thoughts on positive action as the key themes in relation to the question of supply and demand, drawing on ideas from feminism and the wider field of political science. In so doing it tackles substantive questions surrounding the party's commitment to increasing its number of women MPs

The Renewal of the Local Conservative Party Campaign Capability: An Organizational Insight into Central Co-ordination

The importance of local campaigning for general election success is widely accepted. By focusing on the British Conservative Party, this article offers qualitative support through a research design in which interviews were conducted with local activists in four target constituencies and with regional officials; as a result, some understanding of the long campaign was also obtained. Embracing the contemporary view that campaigning effectiveness is a function of the party centre's ability to direct local parties, this study provides an organizational insight into how the centre was able to enhance its control, but also discusses the implications of this for local activists and for the local party organizational structure. The findings reveal that activist de-politicization and de-skilling, and a more formal and dismissive approach to party management, have undermined the local effort with the result that the party's local campaigning effort remains organizationally sub-optimal. The engagement of outside expertise and supporter networks has also changed the nature of the local party, so that it is moving towards a network of local political capabilities

From Two-Partism to Alternating Predominance: The Changing UK Party System, 1950–2010

This article uses Sartori's classification of party systems to map changes in the post-war UK party system. Using measures of the effective number of parties and of parties' policy positions, the article shows that ‘classic’ two-partism from 1950 to 1970 broke down amid ideological polarisation. This development created a ‘vacated centre’, which the Liberals filled, leading to fragmentation of the electoral-party system. This period gave way in 1997 to one in which ideological convergence returned, alongside further electoral fragmentation. The uneven decline in the vote shares of the parties finishing first and second led to supermajorities and two long periods of single-party rule from 1979 to 2010. The article argues that the UK had an alternating-predominant party system in this period. This system was a hybrid of single-party predominance and classic two-partism, in which competition between the two main parties was usually very weak but where there was some scope for governmental alternation. </jats:p