James Lloyd traces the decline of the political party. He warns without a much-needed revival of party membership, this key aspect of democracy will erode, along with its numerous and irreplaceable benefits

Lloyd, James

English

LSE Research Online

blo gs.lse.ac.uk http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/po liticsandpolicy/archives/26817“The  thre e  main p o litical p artie s cap ture  the  vast majo rity o fvo te s, so  the  answe r [to  the  q ue stio n o f ho w the  p o litical p artycan b e  re ne we d ]  is  unlike ly to  b e  the  cre atio n o f ne w p o liticalp artie s” Cre d it: e sthe rase  (CC-BY-NC-SA) via FlickrSociety is running out of time to renew the political partyJames Lloyd traces the decline of the political party. He warns without a much-neededrevival of party membership, this key aspect of democracy will erode, along with itsnumerous and irreplaceable benefits.As we approach the party conf erence season, the Olympics hangover, the Eurozone debtcrisis and our double-dip economy are likely to divert attention f rom an undeniable f act:the UK’s polit ical parties are in crisis.Thanks to the f antastic work of  Democratic Audit ,we know that less than one per cent of  the Brit ishpopulation are members of  a polit ical party. Despitea population of  60 million, only around 420,000people are members of  one of  the three mainpolit ical parties. For each of  the 620 Conservative,Labour or Lib Dem MPs who sit in the Commons,there are 677 party members. These trends havebeen unf olding f or decades but as a society wecannot ignore them any longer.Party membership would be of  less concern if  voterturnout at elections was not also parlous. However,just over six out of  10 of  those eligible voted in the2010 general election, and barely one in three votedin European and local elections.In many ways, the f orthcoming party conf erences are emblematic of  these trends. Previously, partyconf erences were primarily about party democracy and engagement with members. But some inWestminster now openly acknowledge the party conf erences principally serve as a way of  raisingrevenue f or the parties. Their role in the policymaking process is limited to say the least.So what is undeniable is that there is an important agenda here waiting to happen on how the polit icalparty can be renewed f or the 21st century, and it is one we all have a stake in. The Strategic SocietyCentre will be discussing these issues at a debate with the Brit ish Library on September 17th but beloware some init ial thoughts.First, we still need polit ical parties, despite the all the ways in which social media and the internet arechanging the way in which polit ical and policy ideas are communicated and exchanged. Alternatives suchas direct democracy with non-aligned MPs or regular ref erendums on government policy have intractabledownsides.Second, this is about more than simply party ‘engagement’ with the public. New techniques in voter-recording or distributing mailshots are not going to be enough. The answer is unlikely to be polit icalparties doing what they do now, only better. The three main polit ical parties capture the vast majority ofvotes, so the answer is also unlikely to be the creation of  new polit ical parties. More likely, it will require aroot-and-branch rethink of  how polit ical parties operate, their f unding sources and basis f ormembership.Third, this is not something that polit ical parties themselves are ever likely to take the lead on or drivethrough. All three main parties are f ighting just to survive. Inevitably, dif f erent proposals f or ref orm arelikely to give marginal advantage to one party over others, so cross-party agreement will be dif f icult. Thismeans other stakeholders are going to have to set out a strategy and drive change f orward.If  none of  this seems urgent, f ast f orward ten years and consider where current trends will take us. Lessthan 200,000 party members f or the big three? Less than half  of  eligible voters turning out in generalelections?It’s not just that the health of  polit ical parties is directly linked to the health of  our democracy andpolicymaking. We risk lett ing the invaluable capabilit ies that the parties still have dwindle on the vine – notleast those active party members who are remain willing to treat polit ics as a f ace-to-f ace activity. If  youstep back f rom the Westminster f ray, our polit ical parties look more like ‘national assets’ that need torescued and restored. And with each year that passes, we are running out of  t ime.Note: This article gives the views of the authors, and not the position of the British Politics and Policy blog,nor of the London School of Economics. Please read our comments policy before posting.About the authorJames Lloyd is Director of  the Strategic Society CentreYou may also be interested in the following posts (automatically generated):1. How to lead the Labour party – it ’s not only about winning of f ice, but about def ining the polit icalspectrum and reshaping Brit ish society (29.6)2. Social democracy is the right path f or the Labour Party, although Liberals should see f it to crit iqueit. A return of  ideology to polit ical debates will make Liberal polit ics worth f ighting f or (19.1)3. The coalit ion plans to reinvigorate local polit ical leadership in major cit ies with elected mayors. Willlocal electorates say “Yes” this t ime? (17.6)4. The re-vamped public inquiries currently changing Westminster constituency boundaries in recordtime (across the whole of  the UK) keep power f irmly in the hands of  the biggest polit ical parties,and not the general public. (17.6)

Society is running out of time to renew the political party

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

LSE Research Online