Why Have Political Parties Lost Members in Recent Years - Essay Example

WHY HAVE POLITICAL PARTIES LOST MEMBERS IN RECENT YEARS WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT The role of political parties in representative democracy has a long history that even predates the advent of universal suffrage. (Bogdanor, 2006) The first half of the 20th century witnessed the upsurge in the membership of political parties. In the UK, the Labour Party which was formed in 1900 could boast of a million members by the early part of the 1950s. (Bogdanor, 2006) The Conservative Party in the UK also had 2,800,000 individual members in the early part of 1950. Membership in political parties have however dwindled steadily over the years. By 1975 for example, membership of the Conservative Party had reduced from 2,800,000 to 1,500,000. (Bogdanor, 2006) Figures have however been more dismal in the past 30 years. In 2005, membership of the Conservative Party had fallen to an abysmal 250,000. Thus from 1975 to 2005, the Conservative Party has lost more than four out of five of its members. (Bogdanor, 2006) Interestingly, within that same period, the Conservative Party has been in power for a total of more than 15 years. Consequently, though it has been in power for more than half the total time between 1975 and 2005, the Conservative Party has lost more than four fifths of individual membership. The situation of the Labour Party is also very dismal. Though membership drive in 1996 had witnessed an increase of individual membership to 400,000, by 2006, membership of the Labour Party had dropped to 200,000, half its number in a space of 10 years and one fifth in the space of about 50 years. (Bogdanor, 2006) Bogdanor (2006) states that: "Fifty years ago, 1 in 11 of the electorate belonged to a political party; today just 1 in 88 do. Moreover, voters feel less attached to parties than they did. In 1966, 42 per cent professed a "very strong" attachment to the party of their choice; today only 13 per cent do. That, no doubt, is one of the reasons for the increasing volatility of voters and low turnout in general elections - 59 per cent in 2001, 62 per cent in 2005." (para. 1) The high level of passivity to political party membership may also account for the volatility in voter turnout during elections. The loss of interest in political parties and its concomitant effect on electoral turnouts can be contrasted with public participation in other political issues. According to the Electoral Commission and the Hansard Society (2004), whereas the 2001 general elections witnessed a significant decline in voter turnouts, there was a greater willingness by the public to participate in demonstrations in 2003 on issues like the Iraq war, the funding of higher education, and the visit of President Bush. Many reasons can be given for the steady loss of interest in political parties over the years in the UK and other EU countries. The locus of political engagement has been diversified in the UK and EU over the years and this has had a great influence on the dwindling membership of political parties. The Electoral Commission and the Hansard Society (2004) have argued that: "Recent years have seen an increase in pressure group and 'protest' politics, indicating a more complex picture of political engagement than voting figures alone might suggest." (p. 5) The diversification of political engagement thus connotes a movement from the political party as the central organisation for effecting change in society. Traditionally, political parties, especially in the first half of the 20th century were seen as the means of achieving social change. Issues of social concern like social justice, the environment, democracy, and equality were advanced at the political party front. (Wainwright, 2008) The formation of the Labour Party in the UK in 1900 epitomises the role of agents of change that political parties enjoyed. The coming together of trade unions, workers and socialists, with the aim of changing the way the interests of the public were represented in Parliament became the bedrock for the founding of the Labour Party. (The Labour Party, n.d.) Thus the social issues Wainwright (2008) relates above - i.e. social justice, democracy, and equality - were foundational issues that the Labour Party advanced. From its humble beginnings as a parliamentary pressure group in 1900, the Labour Party had experienced a meteoric rise in popularity and was able to form a government for the first time in 1924, when the Conservative Party failed to win a majority of seats in Parliament. (The Labour Party, n.d.) The social change and equality agenda of Labour resulted in the passing of legislation on housing, education, unemployment, and social insurance. Thus, the high public interest in political parties within the first half of the 20th century was in keeping with the ethos of social change which the public wanted, and which became the foundational principles of parties like the Labour Party in Britain. Wainwright (2008) posits however that the rise of social movements organised outside the umbrella of political parties have contributed the abysmal individual membership statistics of political parties. Wainwright (2008) is however of the opinion that: "At their most effective, progressive social movements radicalise public consciousness. Generally, however, they are unable to give these shifts in consciousness a wider political coherence." (para. 5) The demise of the political party is not only a phenomenon in the UK. It appears to be the trend in most advanced democracies in the world. Bogdanor (2006), reports that a recent Eurobarometer survey shows that political parties are one of the least trusted social and political institutions within the EU. Only 17 per cent of respondents to the said survey trusted political parties whereas 65 per cent indicated trust in the police, with 49 per cent indicating trust in the church. (Bogdanor, 2006) Consequently, the issue of lack of trust in political parties and in politicians in general is an evident cause of the decline in the popularity of political parties. The public do not see the political party as the forum for advancing issues of importance to them hence the general state of ambivalence in political engagement at the party level and at the electoral level. The lack of trust in political parties is also buttressed by the fact that politics has become a form of career or profession. The advent of the professional politician has thus changed the public perception of politics as a form of representative democracy where the interests of the populace are advanced through party politics. The politician is there to advance his or her career ambitions and not the interest of the people he/she professes to represent. It is thus not surprising that the Electoral Commission and the Hansard Society (2004) report that "'politics' is perceived as that activity pursued by and identified with 'politicians' whom more than two-thirds trust 'not very much' or 'not at all'". (p. 46) An offshoot of this lack of trust in the political party as the forum for advancing social transformation is the current state of affairs where there has been a demise of collective notions of social transformation and an increase in individualism. As witnessed in the downfall of the socialist/communist economies in the 1990s, the demise of collectivism has signalled the rise of individualism and this trend has had catastrophic effects on loyalty to political parties. According to Bogdanor (2006), in 1979, 13 million people were members of trade unions in the UK, but in present times less than eight million are members of trade unions. Thus the political leverage that trade unions had, especially in the Labour Party has waned considerably. The working class pursue a more individualistic trend towards bettering their lives instead of the collective means that have epitomised the golden era of political party membership. In the words of Bogdanor (2006), "the working class sought individual advancement for themselves and their families rather than emancipation as a class". (para. 6) In spite of what post World War II Labour leader, Tony Benn, has termed as "the individual escape from class into prosperity, which is the cancer eating into the Western European Social Democratic parties" (quoted by Bogdanor 2006, para. 6), the trend towards individualism has triumphed, at least for now, and its ramifications for the political party has not been a pleasant one. In Germany for instance, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) has given up the notion of social transformation all together. It seems evident that the era of mass party membership ended with the closing of the age of collectivism. (Bogdanor, 2006) Another cause of the demise of the political party is the shift from 'position' politics to 'valence' issues. (Bogdanor, 2006) What political parties offer to electorates are not fundamentally very different from one another in terms of paradigms. Paradigmatic positions like nationalisation of industries, higher or lower taxes, and nuclear weapons are no longer pivotal positions of political parties. Such positions were however the defining issues that distinguished political parties in the past. The current emphasis on valence issues means that political parties adopt similar positions on issues but present different aims of advancing those positions. In the UK for example, the issue of health delivery is not one of whether the National Health Service will be privatised, or whether a health insurance scheme will be introduced to replace the NHS. The debate among the political parties borders more on effective management of the NHS and as such the political parties present different aims of achieving this though their position on maintaining a National Health Service is the same. The positions adopted by the Labour Party and the Tories on the issue of inheritance tax is another case in point. The issue of inheritance tax is one of the threshold for applying tax and not whether inheritance tax should be abolished all together. Voters thus do not have much distinguishing positions to choose between political parties and as such have become very ambivalent to parties and elections. Though the decline of political parties and its resultant effect on voter turnouts is a worrying phenomenon, it appears the interest in important social issues have not waned. It is estimated that 40 per cent of the British population belong to voluntary organisations while three million 18 to 24 year olds volunteer on various social programmes yearly. It is interesting to note that the generation (i.e. 18-24) who are the most ambivalent to elections (Bogdanor 2006) and to political party membership, are very active in other social forms of engagement like volunteering. Also, the National Trust in Britain has more than a million members, more than the total membership of the two most populous political parties in the UK (the Labour Party and the Conservative) combined. (Bogdanor, 2006) A reported 81 per cent of the adults in Britain gave to the tsunami appeal and participation of the public in interest groups like tenants' association, school governing bodies, and community organisations is on the increase. The interest in social transformation is thus very vibrant among the populace, but the medium of achieving that transformation has shifted from political parties to other institutions that offer the public a direct involvement in making change happen. As presented earlier, the rise of the political party is linked to representative democracy. Interest in the political party was thus closely associated with electing representatives who will become the agents of change. The current interest in organisations that offer the populace the opportunity of effecting change directly shows that the public are more interested in direct participation in the political process and this cannot be achieved through the forum of the political party as the party stands as an intermediary for change and not a direct access to effecting the change. According to a MORI survey reported by the Electoral Commission and the Hansard Society (2004), only 36 per cent of people think that getting involved in politics at the national level can change the way the UK is run. Interestingly, though political participation beyond voting is a minority interest undertaken by British adults, three quarters of people in the UK would want a say in how their country is run. (Electoral Commission and Hansard Society, 2004) To some extent it can be argued that the glory days of the political party are over and parties may not be able to garner the same level of interest as they did in the first half of the 20th century. As discussed above, the sway of collectivism has waned over the years in favour of individualism. It appears then that just as the political parties took advantage of collective interests to garner support in time past, they would need to customise their activities to reach individual interests in any bid to revive public membership. The public should be convinced about what they stand to gain as individuals if they choose to become members of political parties. The political process should also make room for some level of direct participation by the public. As with voluntary organisations where individuals participate directly in effecting social change, political parties need a rethink of their paternalistic positions where they see themselves as the only conduit for effecting social change. One of the leaders of the Labour Party, Hugh Gaitskell, is reported to have said in 1959 that: "We, as middle-class socialists, have got to have a profound humility. Though it's a funny way of putting it, we've got to know that we lead them because they can't do it without us, with our abilities, and yet we must feel humble to working people." (quoted by Bogdanor, 2006, para. 3) Such paternalism where the working class are seen as impotent to effect any change on their own must give way to a more inclusive view of the public in the decision making process at the national level. Also, as evidenced by the founding membership and leadership of mass political parties like the Labour Party, the roles played by the people the party seeks to represent, within the party set up at the local and national levels is crucial in endearing the party to the public. Apart from the importance of leading personalities with some affinity to the people that the parties represent, political parties must make room for the championing of a diversity of socio-political issues under its umbrella. Thus, people with interest in sustainable environment and development should be able to express those interests within the political party set up, and must be seen to be effecting policy changes in their area of interest. The upsurge in social movements has been due to disillusionment with the political party in addressing issues of varied interest to an increasingly heterogeneous populace. If pressure groups can work within the political party set up and directly influence policies, it may be possible for political parties to revive public interest in its activities. In conclusion it can be said that the state of the political party in the UK and other parts of the EU is symptomatic of the general trend towards individualism as opposed to collectivism. A move by the political parties to reflect individual needs and direct participation while still conceding that the era of mass mobilisation for social change has passed may improve the fortunes of political party membership. References Bogdanor, V. (2006), 'The Rise and Fall of the Political Party', Newstatesman, http://www.newstatesman.com/200610230057 (Accessed February 4 2008) The Electoral Commission and The Hansard Society (2004), 'An Audit of Political Engagement' http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/files/dms/Auditofengag_12016-9273__E__N__S__W__.pdf (Accessed February 4 2008) The Labour Party (n.d.) 'History of the Labour Party', http://www.labour.org.uk/history_of_the_labour_party (Accessed on February 5 2008) Wainwright, H. (2008), 'Rethinking Political Parties', http://www.ukwatch.net/article/rethinking_political_parties (Accessed on February 5 2008) Read More