What is a Party System?

The Party System in the United Kingdom

In this course, Professor Paul Webb (University of Sussex) explores the operation and dynamics of the party system – or should that be party systems? – in British politics. In the first module, we introduce the idea of a party system, exploring what the term means and the different levels at which parties operate in the UK. After that, in the second module, we think about the positioning of parties of the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In the third module, we think about the party system in Westminster and how it has evolved in the post-war period, before turning in the fourth module to the question of how we might measure the extent to which a political system is truly ‘multi-party’. In the fifth module, we think about whether the General Election of 2017 should be seen as a return to two-party politics, before turning in the sixth module to consider how the issue of Brexit has had an impact on both inter- and intra-party politics.

What is a Party System?

In this module, we introduce the idea of party systems in UK politics, focusing in particular on: (i) the idea of a party system as a pattern of interactions between political parties that can be competitive or collaborative; (ii) the different ‘arenas’ in which interactions between parties can take place: the electoral, the legislative and the executive; (iii) some examples cooperation within each of these ‘arenas’, including the SDP-Liberal Alliance (1983-87, electoral), the Lib-Lab Pact (1977, legislative), and the coalition between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats (2010-15, executive); and (iv) the different ‘levels’ at which interactions between parties can take place: the national, within the devolved administrations, and at the local government level.