Political parties in Great Britain.

The modern multi-party system of Great Britain was the result of the industrial revolution, which took place in the 18th - early 19th centuries. and which led to the emergence of new classes and the entry into the political arena of new political forces. However, the main opposing parties in elections to Parliament since 1924 have been the Conservative and Labor, which suggests that at present there is a two-party system in the UK.

The Conservative Party, often referred to as the Tory Party, still has 3 million members. The very word "Tory" means "Irish robber", "thief" - this is how the British colonialists called the Irish partisans who fought against English oppression. Later, the Conservatives themselves began to call themselves Tories. This is the main party of the big bourgeoisie and the landed aristocracy, it does not have a permanent official program. On the eve of the general election, the party issues an election manifesto that outlines the main aspects of the internal and foreign policy, which the conservatives intend to adhere to if they come to power. Well-known leaders of the party were J. Chamberlain, W. Churchill, G. Macmillan, M. Thatcher.

The Conservative Party initially advocated the preservation of a strong royal power: it represents those who are supporters of private capital. The Tories opposed the ideas of the French Revolution, the Parliamentary Reform and the development of the trade union movement: they were supporters of colonial policy and opponents of the Labor Party on the issue of the nationalization of gas, electricity, the coal industry and railways.

The Labor Party, founded in 1900, is predominantly labor in composition, but its leaders were usually right-wing reformists or centrists. It has more than 7 million members, incl. 600 thousand individual, and the rest of the collective members, mainly trade unions, which provide it with significant financial support. Like the Conservatives, the Labor Party does not have a long-term political program that would determine its ultimate goals and the means to achieve them. Instead, the party has occasionally outlined major current political issues that Labor intends to resolve if they win the next general election to Parliament. However, it should be noted that there is always a huge gap between the election promises of political parties and their actual implementation. Famous leaders of the Labor Party C. Attlee, G. Wilson, J. Callaghan, N. Klinnock.

Before the First World War, the Liberal Party (or the Whig Party) was second only to the Conservatives in terms of political and social influence on the British. The Liberal Party is over 300 years old. Whigs were called liberals by conservatives (whig is a Scottish preacher who could read moralized sermons for 4-5 hours). In the middle of the 19th century The Liberal Party represented the interests of merchants and industrialists. The slogan of that time was "For civil and religious freedom". The first administration in 1868-1874 headed by William Gladstone, and for a long time the Liberals had a majority in Parliament. In the second half of the 19th century many workers saw the Liberal Party as an alternative to the Conservative Party and its policies. But, having endured a number of difficult situations in the parliamentary elections in the 20s of our century, the Liberal Party was no longer able to restore its former influence on the masses. The party currently holds, as a rule, few seats in the Parliament.

In recent years, the Scottish National Party, the Welsh Nationalist Party, the Communist Party of Great Britain, the Social Democratic Party (founded in 1981, most of it merged with the Liberal Party, forming a party called the Social Liberal Democrats) also held several seats in the House of Commons of the British Parliament. : the other part of it existed only for a few years.

The Conservatives became a mass party in the 1970s. Comes from appeared in the XVII century. Tory party. The party's traditional platform is "a constant interest in public order and social harmony."

As a party of the City of London (Britain's financial center) and big business, the Conservatives vigorously support the development of private enterprise.

However, during the beginning of the election campaign, the Conservative Party asked journalists not to call it "Tory" anymore - at least at the first mention of the party in the text. Observers state that in conditions when Tony Blair has successfully "appropriated" practically all the former ideas and slogans of the conservatives, the opponents on the right simply have nothing to oppose to their competitors.

A shift even further to the right, so that differences from Labor would be visible to the naked eye, in today's UK would entail the inevitable accusations of fascism. It remains to repair the image.

The Labor Party, by its origin, is a child of the trade union movement and socialist circles and societies of the intelligentsia. She first won a parliamentary majority in 1945. The Labor government of 1945 - 1951 proposed a welfare state program, public ownership of major industrial enterprises and a full employment policy.

Labor called itself the party of the organized working class until the 1990s. Most of the major trade unions are affiliated with the party and their contributions provide its main income. While in government, Labor has always taken a constructive reformist stance; being in opposition, it was torn apart by contradictions between the social democratic right and the socialist left factions.

In 1981, a significant group of prominent parliamentarians and party members left the ranks of the party and formed the short-lived Social Democratic Party, which had Negative consequences for Labor in the elections. After that, the leaders of the party suppressed the left faction.

The Liberal Party was one of the two main parties during the reigns of Queen Victoria and King Edward (second half of the 19th - early 20th), but it split during the First World War.

Labor gradually replaced the Liberals as a second party in the 1920s and 1930s, but the Liberals began to return to the political scene in the 1960s. Allied with the Social Democrats in the 1980s, they twice received about a quarter of the popular vote, but failed to win any significant number of seats in the House of Commons (23 in 1983, and 22 in 1987).

The two parties merged in 1988 to form the Liberal Democratic Party.

There are other parties.

The Scottish National Party and the Welsh National Party have played a major role in political life Scotland and Wales.

The political life of Northern Ireland is dominated by two main Protestant parties - the Ulster Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party. Northern Irish Catholic votes are divided between the Liberal Democrats, Labor and the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein.

The course of the political process in modern Great Britain is an interesting object for study.

In the last third of the 20th century, the attitude of the leading political forces of the country to the search for ways out of the economic and socio-cultural crisis in the context of globalization and world integration processes turned out to be at the center of the political struggle in Great Britain. Keynesianism revealed its weaknesses, the process of interaction between the state and civil society got out of control. Against this background, within the framework of the neoliberal wave, various interpretations of the methods of developing a free market and revising the functions of the state are emerging. The New Right and New Labor movements have been influenced by liberal thought and are interesting subjects for study.

Right-wing forces began to vigorously propagate the revival of "liberal England", calling for the creation of conditions for the "spontaneous development" of society. Representatives of the right wing of the Conservative Party return to many classical liberal postulates. It is important to analyze the factors explaining why this party began to actively preach the ideas of the free market and retained this role for a relatively long time.

The growing influence of the concepts of neoliberalism in its own way affected the positions of the Labor Party of Great Britain (LPV). Its program, over time, became more and more saturated with modern liberal ideas, compatible with social democratic views. There are ideas about "market", "liberal" socialism. As the party abandoned a number of obsolete elements of its ideology, it adopted progressive elements from the baggage of liberal thought. The LPV was getting rid of the reputation of being a party of corporate interests and super-high taxes. At the same time, new trends in its policy were strongly influenced by the concepts of social justice, equality of opportunity, and mutual responsibility. By 1997, in the conditions of heated political confrontation with the conservatives, the myths about “free-market capitalism” were debunked.

In this regard, questions arise in a new way about the relationship between modern conservative, liberal and social democratic thought. It is also important to look at the processes that made Labor's rise to power possible in the 1997 general election and what lessons can be learned from this for centre-left parties in various countries.

Significant attention has been paid to the phenomenon of the rise of the neoliberal wave in Western and partly Russian political science literature. However, questions of how and why in the 1970s and 80s require further study. the neoconservative movement in the UK was widely developed, what were its forms and ideological base. In this context, it is important to analyze the trends that have emerged in British society as a whole. “Thatcherism” as neo-conservatism in power, having opened since the late 1970s. new stage in the socio-political life of the country, has been developing for almost two decades; The defeat of the Conservatives in the general elections in 1997 allows us to consider the Thatcher-Major period in its entirety, highlight the main content features, moments of continuity and differences in their policies.

Influenced by events both national and global, profound changes are taking place in the Labor Party. Having experienced the influence of "Thatcherism" that had become stronger in power, having modernized its political program, it became an important source for the development of new social reformist ideas. There is a movement of "new laborism", whose leaders criticize the variant of the market model imposed on the country by the "Thatcherists", and claim to perceive the best of the ideological baggage of social democratic and liberal thought. It is important to study the stages of formation and priority problems of "new laborism", to study the path of its ideological searches, the relationship with other socio-political currents. It is necessary to conduct a comparative analysis of the content and nature of modern political processes in Great Britain, which were centered on the political struggle between the Conservative and Labor parties.

The contradictions in the policy of modern Great Britain, the change in its world positions are developing under the decisive influence of global changes. These changes are common to the developed capitalist countries. At the same time, they are of a specific nature, due to the entire modern and recent history of Great Britain.

In short, speaking of the United Kingdom, we reveal a vast topic for study, which requires a comprehensive, thorough approach, as if it had not yet been studied.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced on April 6 that the next general parliamentary elections in the country will be held on May 6 this year.

Traditionally, representatives of several dozen parties are allowed to participate in elections (there were about 60 in the last elections in 2005), but only ten parties are currently represented in the House of Commons, which now consists of 646 deputies.

This is due to the single-member election system, when the candidate who receives a simple majority of votes is recognized as the winner in a particular constituency. It is more difficult for small parties to claim victory in individual constituencies, despite the fact that they sometimes gain a significant share of the popular vote.

Three main forces

The Labor Party is the ruling party of the United Kingdom and has been in power since 1997. The leader (since 2007) is British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (Gordon Brown, 59).

The Labor Party was formed at the beginning of the 20th century with the active participation of representatives of the left-wing labor movement ("labour" in English means "labor", "labour force"). For years, Labor has occupied the left side of the UK political spectrum. Trade unions continue to play a prominent role in the party.

Against the background of a sharp decline in popularity among voters, the younger generation of Labor, led by Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson and Gordon Brown, developed the ideology of "new labor" in the mid-1990s. The party abandoned socialist ideas and became center-left, starting the struggle for the voters of the English middle class. This was not long in affecting the growth of the party's ratings, and in 1997 the Labor Party received a record number of mandates (418) and an absolute majority (179 seats) in the House of Commons.

Labor advocates maintaining the necessary role of the state in the economy, eliminating social inequality and supporting social programs in the field of education, health care and combating unemployment, immigration limited by economic needs, protecting the rights of minorities and active European integration.

In the 2005 general parliamentary elections, Labor won a 35.3% share of the vote and 356 seats (an absolute majority) in Parliament. Tony Blair became the first Labor leader to lead the party to victory in elections three times in a row. However, in 2005 Labor won by a markedly smaller margin than in 1997 or 2001. The reason for this was electoral fatigue from being in power of one party, the negative attitude of society towards the British participation in the war in Iraq, the disappointment of voters in the politics of the Labor Party and problems within the party itself.

Laborites are traditionally popular with voters in the industrial regions of northern and northwestern England, in London, as well as in Scotland and Wales.

Currently in the polls public opinion Laborites are gaining 27-33% of the vote.

The main slogan of the party in the upcoming elections is the phrase "Future fair for all" ("Future fair for all").

The Conservative Party, also known politically and colloquially as the "Tory" (after the old party from which modern conservatives have grown). Since 1997 - the largest opposition party in the United Kingdom. The leader (since 2005) is the head of the "shadow" cabinet of ministers, David Cameron (David Cameron, 43 years old).

After the most charismatic Conservative leader of the 20th century, the "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher, left big politics, the Conservatives experienced a difficult period in their history: low ratings, frequent leadership changes in search of a bright personality and attempts to reform the party program.

In the 2005 elections, the Conservatives won 32.3% of the popular vote and won 192 seats in the House of Commons, once again becoming Her Majesty's official opposition. Under the leadership of David Cameron, the party rebranded itself with a green tree as its symbol, as a symbol of the party's commitment to environmental issues, previously the prerogative of left-wing parties. Cameron rejuvenated the Conservatives' "shadow cabinet" by moving the party to the center of the political spectrum and starting to fight for new constituencies.

Conservatives in the formation of the lists of candidates for the 2010 elections, following other parties, relied on equality and diversity, primarily on increasing the proportion of women, representatives of ethnic and other minorities.

The main points of the Conservatives' program are the reduction of excessive funding for social programs and the role of the state in the economy, more responsible spending of public funds, encouragement of private entrepreneurial initiative, protection of traditional family values, adoption of a law on mandatory referendum of any decision on the transfer of power from the UK to the European Union.

The Conservatives are traditionally popular with voters in wealthy rural areas in central, southern and south-eastern England, as well as in affluent areas of London.

Currently, in opinion polls, conservatives are gaining 35-41% of the vote.

The main slogan of the party in the upcoming elections is the phrase "Time for change" ("Time For Change").

The Liberal Democrats is the third largest and most influential political party in the UK. The name is often shortened to Lib Dems. Leader (since 2007) - Nick Clegg (Nick Clegg, 43 years old).

The Liberal Democratic Party was formed in 1988 as a result of the merger of the Liberal and Social Democratic parties. On the British political spectrum, "libdems" occupy the most centrist position with a slight bias to the left. Party leader Nick Clegg is more center-right than most of his associates in the party leadership.

The Liberal Democrats suffer the most from the absence of a proportional electoral system in the UK. Thus, in the 2005 parliamentary elections, they received 22.1% of the vote, but only 62 seats in the House of Commons (less than 10% of the total number of mandates). That is why the "libdems" are actively promoting the idea of ​​a transition to a proportional electoral system instead of the current majoritarian one.

In addition, the program of the party has a strong environmental and pro-European component, they are in favor of the election of the House of Lords; in the economy - for less government intervention. The Libdems won respect for the fact that, unlike the Laborites and the Conservatives, they did not support Britain's participation in the Iraq campaign at the time.

Currently, the Liberal Democrats are gaining 18-21% of the vote in opinion polls. They are most actively supported by residents of southwestern England, Cornwall, rural areas of Scotland and Wales, as well as the university cities of Oxford and Cambridge.

The Liberal Democrats have consistently improved their electoral results since 1997, and many commentators see them as key if neither of the two leading parties wins an absolute majority and a "hung parliament" situation emerges.

In their election slogan, the Liberal Democrats combined the main messages of the Labor and Conservative parties - "Change that works for you: building a fairer Britain" ("Change that works for you: building a fairer Britain").

National parties

In Scotland and Wales, the positions of local national parties are traditionally strong - the Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Welsh Plaid Cymru.

The SNP is the first largest faction in the Scottish Parliament and forms a minority government. Plaid Cymry is the second largest faction in the Welsh Assembly and forms a coalition government with Labor.

The main points of the programs of both parties is the achievement of the independence of Scotland and Wales, and as we move towards this goal, the achievement of maximum autonomy within the United Kingdom and the European Union.

In the national parliament, the positions of the SNP and Plaid Camry are much weaker. Scottish nationalists in the elections in 2005 received 1.5% of the vote and 6 seats in the House of Commons, the Welsh gained 0.6%, winning in 3 deputy districts.

A separate party system exists in Northern Ireland, where there are currently four main parties. Two of them - the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) - advocate the preservation of Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom and protect the interests of the Protestant majority of Ulster. The other two - the Social Democratic and Labor Party (SDLP) and Sinn Fein - protect the interests of the Republicans and advocate for the unification of Ireland.

The two extremes of the Northern Irish political spectrum, the DUP and Sinn Féin, are currently forming a coalition administration for Ulster.

According to the results of the elections in 2005, DUP received 0.9% of the total vote in the United Kingdom and 9 seats, UUP - 0.5% and 1 seat (currently UUP has a cooperation pact with the British Conservative Party), SDLP - 0.5% and 3 seats, Sinn Fein - 0.6% and 5 mandates.

Sinn Fein MPs have been boycotting their parliamentary duties in London for years because their work in Parliament requires an oath of allegiance to the British monarch, which is contrary to their political beliefs.

The votes of small parliamentary factions become important in a free vote, when the ruling party cannot force its members to vote with a united front and there may not be enough votes to pass a government bill.

Political outcasts

The Respect and Health Concern micro-parties each have one seat in parliament. The Respect Party was formed in 2004, and its only representative in Parliament is George Galloway, an ultra-left MP expelled from the Labor Party. He became famous for his indefatigable criticism of the British campaign in Iraq, participation in the reality show "Big Brother", litigation with the British media, defense of socialist ideals and support for extremist movements. The Health Concern, based in Kidderminster, originally campaigned for the rebuilding of a defunct ER at the local hospital, but has since expanded its agenda.

Three influential political forces of Great Britain, which already have mandates in local authorities and in the European Parliament (elections to it are held according to the proportional system), are still not represented in Parliament.

This is the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), which sets the country's exit from the European Union as its main task. In 2005, the party won 2.2% of the national vote, but did not win in any constituency.

This is the Green Party, which promotes defense issues environment, stands for the localization of the economy and the legalization of soft drugs, while taking a moderately Eurosceptic position. In the 2005 elections, the party won 1.0% of the British vote, but did not receive seats in Parliament.

This is the far-right British National Party (BNP), which advocates a ban on immigration to the UK, the restoration of corporal punishment and partial restoration death penalty for particularly serious crimes - pedophilia, terrorism and murder. Only in 2010, the party allowed to accept into its ranks representatives of other races and ethnic groups, in addition to white British. The BNP currently has one member in the London Assembly and two in the European Parliament, but it does not yet have members in the British Parliament. In the last parliamentary elections, she won 0.7% of the vote.

In 2005, a total of about 60 parties participated in the elections, the deputies from which gained more than 500 votes. Among them there were very exotic ones, for example, the Alliance for the Legalization of Cannabis, Let's Make Politicians History, and the Scottish Pensioners' Party. In addition, well-known political and social movements were represented in various districts, which are not very popular in Britain - socialists, communists, Christian democrats and others.

According to public opinion polls, small parties in the upcoming elections can count on a total of 9-17% of the vote.

Many of us are accustomed to thinking that political parties in England are limited to Conservatives and Labor. But it is not so. In fact, modern Britain has a multi-party system - it appeared as a result of the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries, along with the formation of new classes and, accordingly, new political forces. Today, several dozen parties are allowed to participate in parliamentary elections, but representatives of at least ten different political associations get to the House of Commons.

Main political parties in England

The main parties in the United Kingdom are the Labor, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties.

In modern Britain, Labor is ruling party. It was created by representatives of the working class, therefore the leading role in this association is assigned to the trade unions. In the 90s of the last century, the Laborites had to slightly change their strategy due to a sharp decline in the party's popularity among the British. Labor leaders, led by Tony Blair, developed a new ideology, focusing more on middle-class Britons. Such a move very soon allowed the party to achieve high popularity among voters, because since 1997 its representatives have held a record number of seats in the English House of Commons. The main goals of the party are social equality and the availability of education for everyone, the participation of the state in national economy, all kinds of protection of human rights and freedoms, as well as active European integration.

The Conservative Party in the people has its own special name - "Tory". The word has historical significance and appeared during the struggle of the Irish partisans against the English colonialists. The party is a representative of the interests of the big bourgeoisie, as well as wealthy aristocrats. The Conservatives do not have a permanent clear program - it changes before each election. Conservatives are absolute supporters of Queen Elizabeth and the power of monarchs, and also support the interests of private capital. The Tories are now the nation's biggest political pariah, with three million members in their ranks. Its most famous leaders are Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher.

The Liberal Democrats came to England in 1988. Today they occupy just over 60 seats in the House of Commons and, unlike their opponents, advocate minimizing the participation of the state in economic processes within the country. The Liberal Democrats earned special respect from the British by refusing to participate in the Iraq campaign, which was supported by the other two major parties.

Other associations

On the territory of the United Kingdom, there are also national parties that represent the interests of different parts of the population of Britain. For example, the Scottish National Party, which has over 20,000 members, promotes Scotland's freedom from the English government. The Welsh party, Plaid Camry, is also in favor of allowing self-government for Wales. The largest national party located in Northern Ireland is the Ulster Party, whose main idea is to support the North of Ireland as part of the UK.

Among others, in Britain there are also parties of communists and socialists, but they have never enjoyed the special love of the population.

Constitutional law of foreign countries. Crib Belousov Mikhail Sergeevich

38. Political parties and party system in Great Britain

In Britain, a two-party political system has been established, based on competition and interaction between the bourgeois Conservative and the center-left Labor parties. At the national level, there are also about ten parties.

occupies an important place in social and political life Labor Party. It is a centre-left, social democratic organization with a rich history. One of the tasks set during its creation is the representation and protection of employees in parliament and other government bodies. Since that time, Labor has repeatedly won elections and formed a government. Now the Laborites are defending the interests of not only workers, but also small entrepreneurs and employees, that is, they are gradually turning into a people's political organization, pushing social barriers and stereotypes. The ideological and theoretical basis of the party is the ideology of democratic socialism.

In the party leadership, strong positions still belong to the largest trade union center - the British Congress of Trade Unions.

In organizational terms, the Labor Party is a kind of federation, consisting of both collective members and individuals who are members of this organization on the basis of individual membership. The latter represent a minority in the overall composition of the party.

The decisive role in the formation and implementation of party policy belongs to Labor faction in the British House of Commons. The working body of the party is the national executive committee, elected at the annual autumn party conference. However, the real power is concentrated in the hands of the party leader, who, if he wins the election, becomes the head of government.

Labor's main rivals are conservatives. They took organizational shape in 1867, although some elements of the party structure and ideology had existed since the end of the 18th century. This respectable and influential party has been in power more often and for a longer period than any other in the past century. Initially, the conservative party expressed the interests of large landowners and the clergy, and later - the bourgeoisie. She preaches traditional right-wing conservative ideals and values, but at the same time taking into account the “British specificity”. The conservatives have strong positions in parliament, regional authorities and municipalities, and enjoy the support of big business. There are several political currents within the party, but in general the party is in favor of limiting state regulation, the development of private initiative, the reorganization of the economy by reducing inefficient industries, reducing government subsidies, denationalization of some industries, in parallel with public alternative private facilities in order to increase the efficiency of the former.

Social Democratic Party established in 1981 and radically reorganized in 1988. In 1988, the Party of Social Liberal Democrats was established. In terms of their economic demands, both of them, contrary to their names, are centrist, closer to the conservatives, in politics they demand a strengthening of the role of the Parliament. The national parties are small associations of two communist parties, the Social Democratic Labor Party, the Green Party, not represented in Parliament.

Several parties have a local character. In Scotland, there is the Scottish National Party (80 thousand members), in Wales - the Welsh Rational Party (Plyde Camry). The Ulster Unionist Party, the Ulster People's Unionist Party, and others operate in Northern Ireland.

30. Political parties and the party system of France In the period from 1958 to 1981. France had a dominant party system. It was based on the privileged position of the very influential Rally for the Republic (OPR) party. Despite the ideology