Political parties

Do they promote political participation?

Despite their shortcomings Paul Webb argues that political parties still play an important part in political participation and agrees with the view that ‘it is simply unrealistic to think that democracy could function without groupings resembling political parties’

Paul Webb

The Liberal Democrats’ 2010 general election battle bus on a campaign visit to Newport, South Wales

Jeff Morgan 16/Alamy

Few, if any, would deny that political parties are integral to representative democracy as we know it. But it has become increasingly commonplace to encounter references in both academic literature and journalism to the ‘decline of party’, a contention usually based on the view that parties are ‘failing’ in a variety of respects.

Such criticisms are generally alleged to relate to the weak performance of one or more of the well-known functions or tasks that political parties are said to fulfil on behalf of democratic political systems. These functions include, among others: