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Functionalism

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How effectively do the UK's main political parties fuffil their key roles and functions?

Introduction: In the UK we currently have a two party system the Labour party and the Conservative party, each party has main roles that they need to perform in order to provide an active government system. These key roles come in five different forms known as the following; * participation, this is where the parties allow members within the party as well as citizens to participate in the political process at all levels. * the political recruitment process, parties play a vital role in giving the future leaders their apprenticeship. The candidate selection processes cast aside the unsuitable. e * the policy formulation process,this is where parties hold debates and formulate policy before presenting the policies on a manifesto. * providing a stable government, without parties it is agrued that the House of Commons would simply be a gathering of over 600 individuals. Therefore, this essay will evaluate how effectively the UK's main political parties fulfill their core roles and functions. Participation
Parties first role is through participation, encouraging not only citizens but members within their party.
The quality of participation afforded to members is shaped largely by the extent to which political parties themselves are internally democratic. The Labour party in paticular has displayed many signs of internal party democracy, this was demonstrated through, Tony Blair's communications idea the 'Big conversation' in 2003 which aimed to 'keep in touch with the people' and engage members and outsiders of the party in to the political process. Also, the OMOV (one member one vote) voting system introduced by John Smith, enabled labour members more say in voting, so the trade unions would not always outvote them in government. Labour also encourages members to volunteer helping the labour party and pledge support for it and their policies. The Labour fulfilled their role of facilitating political participation through the reform of voting systems and certain policies. The Conservative Party have also displayed signs of democracy when the leader William Hague (1997-2001) recognized the need for greater membership involvement within the party. This was demonstrated through the change to not only the leadership election process, which was broadened to the members from the confines of the MP's in isolation, but also policy making process with the development of national policy forums, where the grassroots can propose policies to the leadership of the party. The Conservative party have effectively fulfilled their role of political participation within the party through the changing of the leadership election process, enabling party members the final say in the party leader, along with the opportunity to form policies.

Political Recruitment
The political recruitment process is another role that the party needs to perform. By doing this they must asses the qualities of those seeking election to public office, casting aside those who are considered unsuitable. Those who wish to become a parliamentary candidate in the Labour party must first be on the National Executive Committee's approved list, this list is forwarded to consistency Labour parties, which draw up shortlists from those approved candidates who have applied before selecting their preferred candidate under OMOV. The Labour party
Policy Formulation
Parties must discuss and develop policies before they present through their manifestos. The Labour party's policy formulation process goes through a strategic 2 year policy making cycle.

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[ 27855 ]. AS UK Government and Politics/Phillip Lynch, Paul Fairclough/Political parties: structure/ page 76
[ 4990 ]. polcats.blogspot.co.uk/2005/10/parties-encourage-participation
[ 31576 ]. leftfutures.org/2013/labours-internal-democracy
[ 8342 ]. www.tutor2u.net/blog/index.php/politics
[ 6634 ]. www.tutor2u.net/index.php/poltics
[ 6972 ]. AS UK Government & Politics, Phillip Lynch and Paul Fairclough/ page 78
[ 31072 ]. AQA Government and Politics/AS Unit 1/Paul Fairclough/page 38
[ 7379 ]. AS UK Government and Politics/Phillip Lynch, Paul Fairclough/pages 76,77
[ 31118 ]. ibid (8)
[ 16500 ]. AS UK Government and Politics/ Paul Fairclough, Phillip Lynch/ Pages 76,77/ Political party structure
[ 23879 ]. ibid (10)

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