“Political parties are at the heart of the British political system”

To understand the importance of political parties in the system, the focus should first fall on how the system works and the role parties are expected to play.
Firstly parties encourage the electorate to vote for their party. Here the electorate refers to the general voting population, so in other words parties try to rally support so that they can get a sufficient number of voters to get seats in the Parliament called by the British as the House of Commons.

The winner is of course party, which has gained the majority of votes in the House, and the next party with the most number of votes is called the main opposition party. Then we have other opposition parties, usually not more than three.

Those parties that do not have enough votes to enter the House of Commons are known as minority groups and their main function is lobbying and protesting to draw light to issues that are important to them and the people that they represent.

The majority party is responsible for electing and running the Government. The Government consists of the Prime Minister, his Cabinet and Ministers. The Prime Minister is of course a senior, active party member but the Cabinet and Ministers can be of any party.

The Governments main function is to serve the people of the country and carry out the plans the party had promoted during the electoral campaign as promised. They come up with policies and present it to the House of Commons which can debate the issue and once all this is settled it is sent to the House of Lords and once passed from that point can be implemented amongst civil servants. They also need to clarify every action they take with the House of Commons.

The above passage states the responsibility of the parties and the magnitude of its role. They devise the government and come up with policies targeted towards solving people’s problems and organizing the country in a more efficient and successful manner. They become responsible for making sure that the views of the people are heard and that action is being taken where appropriate.

This was the state of matters in the late 1990’s and by 1994 to 1997 the people argued that anyone should be allowed to join the Labour party and that the party should be more genuinely open. This increased Labour votes by 40%. This increased Labour votes by 40%. However the idea that the mass party is the main vehicle for organizing politics does not hold strong any more. Where the modern party needs to be professional, media driven, closely controlled and unified thus presenting a consistent voice and a populist stand, a vibrant local political culture requires flexibility and serious decentralization and this conflict brings about great strains. Other forms of political participation are needed to sustain the civic spirit upon which democracy is sustained.

Even though there was a slight change in the party voters by 1997 Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats had less than a million members. Also since party membership can now be registered online, members are becoming more and more detached with their party and its activities. This lead to a change within Labour Party regarding party funding and now it relies on the sources of money i.e. rich individuals. Unlike before though, donations are provided to bribe the party to follow or not follow through certain policies and not for titles.

Due to this control and certain other reasons parties fail to relate to their voters and are getting less support compared to before. Both parties have suffered greatly in this aspect. However Britain’s future as a democracy still lies heavily in their hands and political parties still have great importance in how the country runs. These parties make the difference between peace and war after all, in the decisions they chose to make.