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The Effects of Political Parties on a Democracy Essay examples

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The Effects of Political Parties on a Democracy

There are indeed several aspects in the composition of political parties that threaten democracy in the UK, whilst other aspects may promote democracy. Careful analysis must be done in order to establish to what extent either is true.

On the one hand, it may be argued that parties in fact promote democracy for a variety of reasons. Firstly, they assist the electorate by offering them a coherent choice, allowing people to vote democratically. Rather than the electorate having to choose between several members of each party, and having to place votes for central government subsequent to placing local constituency votes, voting is made simple and …show more content…

In 1997, New Labour capitalised on the number of women who were elected, establishing the impression that the party is ‘female friendly’. The Conservative party is also aiming to recruit more women and ethnic minority candidates in time for the upcoming general election in May 2005. It has also given higher platforms to those women already elected: Several years ago, Theresa May was appointed as party chairman. Not only by modernising themselves to represent current populations in Britain, parties also modernise themselves by generating new ideas for changing times. The labour party is the most famous for adapting its policies and ideology. Labour changed its name to ‘New Labour’ under the leadership of Tony Blair in 1997, to reflect these radical changes. At this time Labour chose to adapt its policies, and lose a lot of its socialist values. Under ‘Old Labour’ state ownership was held under high regard. But after Thatcher’s privatisation of state businesses, Labour acknowledged that it would be dangerous to radically reform businesses and bring them back under state ownership, thus they modernised their policies adapting them to the New Britain, by sticking to privatisation which had been warmly received. This promotes democracy, as policies are adapted to suit the electorate, rather than parties imposing unwanted, outdated ideologies upon its

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