Key features of political parties

A party has to be organised.
1. Members and activists to campaign.
2. Party finances, the party needs funding by donations.
3. A disorganised group will find it hard to create a coherent policy programme.
A party will have a shared ideology.
1. This is converted into policies and programmes to secure support.
2. When a GE is looming this is often converted into a slogan which summarizes their ideological position.
3. There will be internal disagreements, but politicians of each party have more in common with each other than those in a different party.
A party wants to secure power to govern by winning elections.
1. Smaller parties might not see this as an immediate goal but they might wish to share government with a larger party.
2. The smaller parties have governing as a long term objective, despite how unrealistic this might seem.
3. They must gain popular support for their policies.
  1. Must attract the attention of the media so that they can present their policies to the population, use opinion polls to evaluate the popularity of proposals, produce literature which can be used by activists at elections.
A party must select a leader and candidates for elections
1. Local party groups will select candidates for local and general elections. A variety of people will want to stand, some endorsed by the national party leaders. The local party selects who they want.
2. Leaders give the party direction and make key decisions on the organisation. They are the face of the party.

Resource summary

	Created by brabbitt about 11 years ago