(11) What are the features of a political party?

(11) What are the features of a political party?

1. organisation

   • To be successful, parties need to be organised: a large organisation of activists are needed to mobilise public opinion and to fight elections.
   • Even the Green Party which is loosely organised on a largely informal basis, has developed a mechanism for producing election manifestos and selecting candidates.
   • Parties fail because they are unable to create an effective organisation quickly enough e.g. in 1997 the James Goldsmith Referendum party because it could not attract sufficient members.

2. Ideological identity

   • This is important in developing policies and programmes to present to the electorate.

3. Public support

   • Parties must devise policies which gain support.

4. Selecting candidates

   • Procedures need to be set in place for selecting candidates. This is usually a local function as politicians should represent the locality as elections are local affairs.

5. Leadership

   • Leaders give the party direction and are essential for mobilising public support. The Green Party is the exception as it is reluctant to recognise leaders as it is a highly democratic party.

6. Government

   • Large parties aim to secure office. To gain office or to influence policy is their reason for existence. For a new or small party e.g. Greens (2010) the immediate objective may be to gain supporters and to win a few seats.