Commentary
I£ the Party Over?
Panyics are in trouble. Member£hip i£ on
the £lide, activi£m dimini£hing and the
inkog of money drying up. Labour’£ ri£e
in member£hip in the heady day£ of the
1990£ nog look£ like a blip in the long-
term dogngard trend. The Con£ervative
bid to emulate thi£ ri£e under the Hague
leader£hip ga£ doomed even before it
£tarted. The engine£ of civic activi£m
have become the £ymptom£ of civic
malai£e.
A£ i£ nog often pointed out, the floyal
Society for the Protection of Bird£ ha£
more member£ than all the political par-
tie£ put together. The fact that people
prefer bird£ to politician£ i£ not by it£elf
a cau£e for concern. The rever£e gould be
much more alarming. Yet it doe£ rai£e a
very £eriou£ i££ue. Put £imply, it i£ thi£. If
98.5 per cent of people do not belong to a
political party, on ghat ba£i£ do the polit-
ical partie£ dominate all a£pect£ of the
political £y£tem? To a£k thi£ que£tion i£
not to £eek to devalue the fundamental
role that political partie£ play. They are
the indi£pen£able organi£er£ of political
choice. The pre-party ‘golden age’ ga£ a
£hamble£. Partie£ give direction and co-
herence to political life. On all thi£, the
textbook£ of political £cience are right.
The trouble i£ that merely reciting the£e
trui£m£ doe£ not re£olve the contem-
porary dilemma.
Yet there i£ a lazy reluctance even to
acknogledge the problem. Thi£ ha£ £ur-
faced in the debate£ about hog to reform
the Hou£e of Lord£. All good democrat£
promptly announced that direct election
ga£ the only ba£i£ upon ghich a re-
formed £econd chamber could be con-
£tructed. Thi£ ga£ £o obviou£ that there
ga£ nothing more to be £aid about the
g The Political Quarterly Publi£hing Co. Ltd. 2002
Publi£hed by Blackgell Publi£her£, 108 Cogley fload, Oxford OX4 1JL, UK and S50 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
matter. Yet thi£ ignored the fact that party
li£t election£ gere in practice the £ame a£
appointment, and that a revi£ing £econd
chamber dominated by party control in
the image of the Common£ ri£ked dimin-
i£hing real £crutiny and accountability
rather than enhancing it. The que£tion
ga£ hog to avert thi£ ri£k ghile achiev-
ing the legitimacy that a reformed £econd
chamber gould need in order to be e"ect-
ive. Thinking about ghat a ‘civic’ cham-
ber might look like, in£tead of merely
a££uming that the only mean£ of civic
expre££ion ga£ through a party £y£tem,
gould at lea£t acknogledge that there
ga£ a problem.
The problem i£ £een in it£ mo£t acute
form in the Hou£e of Common£. Here the
party ritual£ are enacted a£ though the
old party £y£tem gere £till in robu£t
health. It i£ thi£ that give£ the air of
unreality to it£ proceeding£, the impre£-
£ion that it ha£ become £tuck in the age of
the mu£ic hall ghile the re£t of the gorld
ha£ moved on. Yet £ince the 1970£ the old
party £y£tem ha£ been £aved only by the
electoral £y£tem. The electoral ba£i£ of the
tgo-party £y£tem ha£ been eroded, but in
the Common£ the pretence continue£ that
it i£ alive and gell. Land£lide victorie£ are
gon on vote£ that gould have brought
defeat a generation earlier. Cu£tard-pie
adver£ariali£m i£ hog political life con-
tinue£ to be conducted, de£pite the fact
that it bear£ ever le££ connection to the
gay in ghich partie£ (and i££ue£) are
vieged by the electorate. If thi£ mi£match
i£ not attended to £oon, then matter£ gill
become even gor£e.
Thi£ i£ al£o ghy the climate i£ £o un-
propitiou£ for a ma££ive exten£ion of
£tate funding for political partie£. Such
12S
expanded funding may provide an an-
£ger to the over-reliance on gealthy
private donor£ that cau£e£ £o much
recurrent trouble, but it i£ unlikely to
commend it£elf to an electorate that
£eem£ to gant to give le££ £upport to
partie£ rather than more. It gill be
nece££ary to proceed gith caution on
thi£ front. Some public funding for de-
fined activitie£ i£ £en£ible, building on
exi£ting arrangement£ (certainly if a cap
on individual donation£ i£ introduced, a£
it £hould be); but ghole£ale £tate funding
may gell do more harm than good. If
partie£ are declining, it i£ not im-
mediately obviou£ that it i£ the ta£k of
the £tate to prop them up—unle££ ge
have decided that the partie£ are nog to
be regarded a£ £tate in£titution£ and that
nationali£ation i£ therefore the only gay
to £ave them from the knacker’£ yard.
We have already moved a £ignificant
di£tance in thi£ direction. Lormerly un-
mentioned in polite con£titutional circle£,
the partie£ have nog become legitimate
object£ for legi£lation. They have their
funding arrangement£ tightly controlled,
backed by a pogerful regulatory commi£-
£ion. There are lag£ about party regi£tra-
tion, and party li£t election£ have been
variou£ly legi£lated for. On all of thi£, ge
have come a long gay in a £hort time.
The£e development£ could be £een a£ an
ungarranted interference by the £tate
gith hog voluntary a££ociation£ operate;
or a£ a recognition of the need to en£ure
that organi£ation£ that control the polit-
ical proce££ are regulated in the public
intere£t. If there i£ more £tate funding,
there i£ no doubt that thi£ gill be accom-
panied by demand£ for further control£
on hog the partie£ conduct their bu£i-
124 Commcnyany
ne££. Such demand£ gill be diEcult to
re£i£t.
The ta£k i£ to recogni£e ghere partie£
are e££ential, and en£ure that the£e role£
can be properly reformed, ghile acknog-
ledging that they can claim too much for
them£elve£ in a context ghere their ba£e
ha£ become £eriou£ly eroded. They need
to occupy enough political territory to do
their job, but not £o much that they crogd
out other form£ of civic expre££ion. Thi£
i£ not an ea£y balance to define, or £trike.
At the moment the problem i£ £carcely
identified, let alone tackled. It i£ no longer
£en£ible for the partie£ to be regarded a£
the £ole legitimate gatekeeper£ to public
life in all it£ form£; on thi£ ba£i£, mo£t of
the population gill be di£enfranchi£ed.
The £ilencing of argument£ gith appeal£
to doctrine£ about mandate£ and mani-
fe£to£ doe£ not begin to do ju£tice to the
real gay in ghich political choice nog
operate£.
In thi£ £en£e the decline of party i£ both
a problem and an opportunity. It i£ a
problem in £o far a£ partie£ perform polit-
ical function£ that have to be performed
by £omebody. It i£ an opportunity if it
allog£ u£ to break the £u"ocating mono-
poly of party in area£ ghere it i£ no longer
appropriate. Ma££ partie£ gere the prod-
uct of an age of ma££ ideologie£. A£ that
age pa££e£, it i£ right that partie£ £hould
change too. To allog them to retain their
exclu£ive hold on the political proce££, a£
a factory for political career£, ghen £o
much el£e in political life ha£ begun to
alter, i£ to allog them too much. The
party may not be over, but there are
nog other £hog£ in togn.
TW
AG
g The Political Quarterly Publi£hing Co. Ltd. 2002