An Examination of the Prevailing Traditional Political Parties in the UK - Coursework Example

(First (First The New Political Parties: Will they Substitute the Traditional Parties INTRODUCTION Political parties are mainly regarded as a group of individuals that are organized for certain purposes. These purposes generally include obtaining greater control over the political domain and exercising the political power in every organizational level. In precise, it can be affirmed that the political parties are such a group wherein the individuals belonging to that specific group tend to share similar ideas regarding how any nation must be governed in an efficient way. After acquiring a brief idea about political parties, it will be vital to mention in this similar concern that dissimilar political parties belonging to any particular nation are deemed to be an indispensable constituent of democracy. This can be accepted with reference to the fact that such political parties deliver the citizens of a nation with several meaningful choices in the context of governance, opportunities for making wider political participation and more vitally avenues to shape the future of the respective countries. There lay certain situations wherein the traditional parties eventually get substituted by the formation of new ones. In this similar concern, one of such situations could be the failure of the traditional parties towards responding efficiently to the concerns of the citizens and shaping country’s future as per the desired levels. These failures eventually make the traditional parties to get distrusted or fewer acceptances by the general public of respective nations, making the overall democratic procedure to get suffered at large (National Democratic Institute, “Political Parties”). In relation to the above context, the essay intends to discuss and analyze the provided topic, which is mainly concerned about determining whether the new political parties will substitute the traditional ones with reference to the case study of a selected nation i.e. the United Kingdom (UK). During the analysis, an attempt would be made in critically assessing the fact that the traditional political parties with respect to the UK such as Christian Democrats, Liberals and Socialists among others are losing the confidence of the public. Also, an assessment would be made regarding the ability of the new political parties such as Green, Anti-Systemic and Pirate in getting connected with an electorate tired of traditional politics. AN EXAMINATION OF THE PREVAILING TRADITIONAL POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UK The political party system of the British is observed to be quite remarkable especially for its stable nature. The traditional political parties in the UK could be ascertained as the Liberals, Socialists, Christian Democrats and Conservatives among others. This can be justified with determining the fact that the initial election, which was held in the year 1900, in the UK, was mainly contested by the political parties of Labor, Conservative and Liberal. On a further note, the last election, which was held in the year 1997, was again contested amid these three parties (Bartle and Bellucci 3). There exist certain potential reasons for which the Christian Democrats are regarded as one of the traditional political parties of the UK. In this similar concern, one of such reasons is that this particular political party has its presence in every region throughout the globe and had been performing several activities from numerous decades. Apart from this, another reason is that Christian Democrats is observed to counterbalance the activities performed by other political parties towards shaping the future of the nation. It is worth mentioning that the thoughts of Christian Democrats get closely related to that of conservatism, but possess certain distinguished facets. For instance, unlike the political part of Conservatism, the Christian Democrats pay utmost attention on making an order not by taking primary state actions, but through prioritizing moral constraints (Spicker, “An Introduction to Social Policy”). Conversely, the Liberals are also reckoned as the other traditional political party existing in the UK since the period of 19th century. It can be apparently observed that traditionally, the central value of this specific political party is freedom, implying that all freedoms do not get treated equally as important. However, with changing times, the central values of Liberals got transformed into freedom of speech, worship and of assembly. Thus, based on this notion, it can be affirmed that the values possessed by the political party of Liberals in the UK got extended in this present day context as compared to the earlier years. In contrast, vast differences could be ascertained between the perceived values of Liberals and Socialists. This can be justified with reference to the fact that socialism in the context of Europe mainly got evolved from several communal, occupational along with religious groups. With this concern, the key values of socialists are identified to be fraternity, equality and liberty (Spicker, “An Introduction to Social Policy”). It is worth mentioning in relation to the above context that the socialist groups in the UK determine their respective roles from the perspective of socialist principles along with values instead of constructing a supreme model of community. Traditionally, in the UK, it has been assumed that the socialist groups act in a collective manner that are understood based on social context, instead of treating as individuals. Specially mentioning, the political party of socialist often gets represented in the UK in the form of solidarity approach, which denotes the generation of mechanisms of mutual support. Apart from the above discussed political parties, Conservatives are also regarded as a traditional political party prevalent in the UK for several years. From traditional times, this particular political group used to believe the significance of social order, which reflects various significant communal aspects. These aspects comprise stressing on the issue of discrimination and paying utmost attention on the essence of religion (Spicker, “An Introduction to Social Policy”). AN ASSESSMENT OF THE NEW POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UK The new political parties in the UK could be ascertained as the Green party, Anti-Systemic party and Pirate. Though the above discussed traditional parties including the Liberals and the Socialists among others have contributed much in shaping the future of the UK, the efforts of the stated new political parties could not also be ignored in continuing the trend of shaping the country’s future. It is worth mentioning that similar to the other political parties of Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives, Green Party also demonstrated equal weighting towards supporting the middle-class occupation. This particular attribute of the Green political party could mark historical importance in determining whether the newly formed or introduced political parties would substitute the existing traditional parties. Apart from this, the above stated characteristic or the target of Green Party may also reveal their wide connection in gaining the assurance of the people towards an electorate tired of traditional politics. It is worth mentioning that there lay certain key values of Green Party through which its possibility of substituting the aforementioned traditional parties could be ensured. In this regard, such values are ascertained to be grassroots democracy, non-violence, respect towards diversity, future focus along with sustainability and ecological wisdom. Apart from these, the other values of the stated political party within the UK are mainly observed to be social justice along with equal opportunity, decentralization, economic justice as well as community-based economics, gender equity and feminism and global responsibility (House of Commons, “Membership of UK Political Parties”). In relation to the above context, the political party of anti-systemic generally evolved in the UK with the conception of ‘anti-system.’ This concept mainly focused on conducting a comparative analysis specifically of different prevailing democratic regimes and party systems. In the present day context, it can be claimed that with greater level of political evolution relating to Western democracies and the spread of distinct democratic regimes in the non-western world, a proliferation in the conceptual reconstruction of the above stated concern is witnessed. While determining the fact that the new political parties are able to connect with an electorate tired of traditional politics, it could be affirmed that the political party of anti-systemic made deliberate efforts in distinguishing those particular political parties that possess the intent of destroying the democracy aspect by themselves. It is worth mentioning in this context that in the modern world, still democracy is being recognized amid the Islamic fundamentalist based parties that may promote shaping the future of the nation in an efficient way. With this concern, it is projected that the new political system of the UK i.e. anti-systemic would become incompatible with the different ideological determinants that impose significant impact on shaping a country’s future (Capoccia 9-35). Apart from the above discussed new political parties prevalent within the UK, the Pirate Party is also witnessed towards adopting as well as implementing effective strategies in shaping the prospect of the nation i.e. the UK. It will be vital to mention in this similar context that this particular new political party of the UK is growing its respective position in the political domain of the nation by obtaining the support of various big parties. It is projected that the Pirate Party may aid in substituting the above identified traditional political parties in the form of adopting and executing varied effective reforms relating to significant aspects. These important aspects could be ascertained as transport, raising parental leaves and change in election regulations among others. It is strongly believed that the inability of introducing the above stated reforms by the traditional political parties may get resulted in them getting substituted by the new ones in the political spectrum of the UK (Neal, “People make politics: The Pirate Party on why its crowdsourcing its manifesto”). CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE NOTION WHETHER NEW POLITICAL PARTIES SUBSTITUTES TRADITIONAL PARTIES Changing View about Politics. The scenario of political domain has changed and the plethora for developing a better insight towards the norms of politics is highly influenced by the changing views of people. Political domain has changed from being an area of interest of conservative sections of the society to a common discussion that occurs among all class of people. With the increase in the level of education of the people, there are huge number of deviations in the anticipations and needs of the people (Diamond and Gunther 9-13). The needs are observed to be far more modified and filtered than the ones which were prominent in the previous eras. Hence, the traditional parties, which operate since the initial days of the British Parliament may face a certain extent of challenge while operating within the changed mindset of people. Correspondingly, the level of education has influenced the views of the common public towards electing a particular party (Mack 11-15). In the present scenario of the political underpinnings, the need for maintaining a transparent rule and view before the people is needed to increase the acceptance of the people. With the change in the understanding of the people, it is evident that the development of the overall principles is missing within the traditional set of politics. With the changing level of consciousness amid people, there is a huge deviation in the value creation of individuals (Debrah 195-196). The raised level of interest and accredited level of consensus have augmented the consciousness among people, hence parties, which are operating on values set traditionally, may not meet with the needs of people who are operating in the present arena. Furthermore, the age-old pragmatic views of the people have changed largely and the increased level of societal consciousness has given way to the need of development within the set values of the traditional parties (Keen 2-8). With the changed concepts of societies based on the developed needs and specifications the parties’ even need to enhance their prominence so that they can align their goals with the needs of the individuals. For instance, the progression of the society has in turn influenced the needs for integrating far more developed programs such as development of women and other progressive measures. This change in the value system is going to decide the fate of the people and influence the inclination of the same towards developing the political factor within the society (Keen 3-10). The political system across the globe has faced severe amount of turmoil based on the changed needs of the society. Correspondingly, the changing system of progression and enhancement is observed to be swaying the value creation among people and again affecting the fate of the political parties. The political parties that are operating within the present domain are majorly focused on repeating the age-old dogmatic approaches and setting values that are pointing towards their traditional roots (Debrah 197-198). The parties must take up these changes within the social constraints so that they can maintain a sustainable domain and ensure strategic progression. The traditional parties often face the emerging challenge of setting up values and goals that are ancient and fail to cater to the needs of the present day. This opens up opportunities for new political parties with views aligned with the needs of the present day society along with maintaining a strategic edge (Mack 20-36). However, based on the views of the political parties, it is evident that the new parties do come up with new sets of voices and open up new channels of enterprise planning within the system of political domain but often fail to hold onto their position. Conversely, if the emerging parties meeting the basic needs of the people could develop their prominence within the society, they are going to sustain and can even replace the traditional parties in the long run (Michels 26-35). Value System and Fates of Political Parties. Value system of the parties acts as a huge amount of influence on the development of strategies for managing the changes within the political scenario. The political parties act on a certain number of values and set goals, which provide huge influence on developing their image amid people along with catalysing their need for development. The value system helps the parties to develop the effectiveness of their set goals and align the same with the diverse needs of the people belonging from the society. These changes in value system of the society and ever-changing needs of the society open up scopes for the new parties to come up with their views and brewing ideas for development of societies (Bartle and Bellucci 36-50). Correspondingly, the progression of the set goals is noted to be affecting the diverse lifestyles of people and creating adversity within the societal developments. Notably, the different new parties often come up with new ideas, provide new dimensions to the value system prevailing within the societal settings, and create a changed system within the political development (Debrah 195-200). The diverse system of political oligarchy has often been an outcome of the influence of the new parties on the overall system of politics and existing system of social development. Furthermore, the influence of the bourgeoisie section of the society is often noted to be persuading the different developments and changes that are brought forward within the system of political development (Diamond and Gunther, 55-60). Additionally, the development of the diverse system of governance is noted to be creating a huge amount of influence on the different social norms and affecting the overall system of parties and political progression. Political system of any nations is like rivers, which keep on changing their flow at every bank and corner. Thus, to maintain the dominance over its competitors, the only mode is to ensure the right flow and right move at a particular point of time. This would even ensure the strategic development of the parties and open up new ventures for new parties to find a scope to penetrate within the complex political arena (Michels 15-20). The changing values of the society are further creating influence on the changing needs of progression that are evident. These diversities could only be ensured through the effective management of the set goals. However, the changing needs of the society are creating an influence on the value creation of the people that further hinder the political position of the parties. For instance, in the UK political system, the parties such as ‘Conservative’. ‘Labour’, ‘Liberal Democrat Party’ are losing their hold from the parliament and new parties such as ‘Green’ and ‘Pirate’ are gaining popularity (Bartle and Bellucci 36-50). This phenomenon reflects the above stated notions that the changing needs of the society give way for developing the different aspects and ensure that the effective needs of the people could be only met with the implementation of new dimensions that are provided by the new political parties. The new political parties are often brewing with the new ideas and social dogmas that are faced by people living within the present social dimension and the issues that affect the life of the people (Diamond and Gunther 55-60). Correspondingly, with the changing needs of the society the traditional issues such as labour recognition and unemployment have been submerged with the impeding issues such as feminism, maternity, women empowerment, technological advancement and social media among others. The digitalisation of the different attributes has caused an impact that is as intriguing as that of the other social dogmas. These issues are often surfaced through movements that are caused by new and emerging parties (Diamond and Gunther 55-60). Parallel to this, the traditional parties often remain attached to their age-old traditional values, which engulf their scope of progression. Hence, it takes a lot more time to bring in reformative measures that affects the overall social movements and causes a huge amount of disintegration in developing a proper reformative action. This strategic progression within the field politics is noted to be giving way to new political parties to replace the traditional ones. Rather, it could also be viewed as the new hopes of development that the people have on these political parties, often paves their ways and scope for increasing the chances of replacements (Bartle and Bellucci 36-50). New Political Parties Substituting the Traditional Political Parties. Democracy further bestows the right of selection for the right person and provides the valuable support to the elective members who are contesting within the social dimension. This even provides scopes for new parties to develop their values and set goals that will be aligned with the needs of public. The developmental needs of the public are observed to be having a severe amount of impact on the overall development of the society (Bartle and Bellucci 36-50). The new parties having new ideas and new views towards development are noted to be creating an effect on the lifestyle of people. It is even obvious that since they are putting up new foundations the value and other goals are observed to be more realistic and closely knitted with the needs of the society and the present day diverse as well as complex scenarios. Several nations have faced positive revolutionary changes based on the views as well as values that are taken up by the new parties (Michels 15-20). The instances of such betterment are visible from the review of the different issues that were visible at the different regions of the globe. Correspondingly, the situations experienced in Ghana during 1990s can be highlighted where democratisation came with the renaissance of the overall lifestyle of the people and moved towards progression. Similar instances are even visible in the present era where the pragmatic approaches of the ‘Green’ party are taking over the traditional views of the parties that were operating within the domain since the primitive era (Michels 15-20). Notably, the changes that are being incorporated in solving the political problems are aligned with finding new dimensions based on the innovative views of the cultivated by the emerging parties. Furthermore, by developing an agenda that is generalised with the needs of the people at large, new parties are even going to uncover favourable opportunities to find a palace within the social dimensions (Michels 15-20). Additionally, by promoting the political socialisation, the new parties can develop a better link between public and government. The progression of the events is noted to be creating a huge amount of development within the previously stated political environment. With strategic integration, the political parties can create a proper position within the social domain and find a place in the hearts of the people (Debrah 200-208). Rather with the effective implication of agendas that are likely to meet with the changed need of the people, the new political parties can effectively develop their position even within the strong influence of the traditional parties in the political arena of a nation. The similar instances are visible within the political scenario of the UK where the new political parties are developing their strong hold within the traditional parties that were present in the UK Parliament since its initial years of inception (Keen 2-8). CONCLUSION Political scenarios within a nation have always been a complex area and have faced huge turmoil in order to meet with the ever-changing needs of the society and its people. The development of the traditional parties is often backed by the progression of the different underpinnings associated with the value system attained by the same. This is often filled with societal cleavages, which are impossible to fulfil, as human needs are highly diverse that is further noted to be affecting the development of the society. Identifiably, these social cleavages act as credible opportunities for upcoming parties to exploit and develop their foundation and maintain a long and sustainable political career. The new parties that strategically exploits this opportunities often develops a hold on the political environment of a nation. The changing needs of the society have been evident to develop the diverse views associated with the political underpinnings and create an adverse impact on the overall social development. Chances of a lack of integrity within the social and political domain is even going to affect the fate of the traditional parties making scope for the new parties to evolve with the new set of ideas. This change in the values system aligned with the needs of the people within this diverse social environment is further paving the building steps for the new parties to substitute the traditional parties. Similar evidences are available from one of the oldest parliamentary set ups the UK. The new and evolved values that are adopted by the new political parties are slowly but steadily gaining consensus among the public and the new party is heading towards substituting the traditional ones. Works Cited Bartle, John and Paolo Bellucci. Political Parties and Partisanship: Social Identity and Individual Attitudes. US: Routledge, 2014. Print. Capoccia, Giovanni. “Anti-System Parties.” Journal of Theoretical Politics 14.1 (2002): 9-35. Print. Diamond, Larry and Richard Gunther. Political Parties and Democracy. USA: JHU Press, 2001. Print. Debrah, Emmanuel. “Civil Society Organizations and Political Party Electoral Engagements: Lessons from the 2008 and 2012 General Elections in Ghana.” The Journal of Pan African Studies 7.3 (2014): 195-209. Print. Keen, Richard. “Membership of UK Political Parties.” House of Commons (2015): 2-20. Print. Mack, Charles S. When Political Parties Die: A Cross-national Analysis of Disalignment and Realignment. USA: ABC-CLIO, 2010. Print. Michels, Robert. Political Parties. Glasgow: Simon and Schuster, 1968. Print. “Political Parties.” National Democratic Institute. n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2015. Neal, Dave. People Make Politics: The Pirate Party On Why Its Crowdsourcing Its Manifesto. 2015. Web. 18 Apr. 2015. Spicker, Paul. An Introduction to Social Policy. 2015. Web. 18 Apr. 2015 Read More