Proposing a Framework: Political Parties and Co-operation in British Politics.

The aftermath of the 2010 general election culminated in the first peacetime coalition government since the 1930s. This was not a one-off accident, but instead the consequence of a sustained period of change in party support that has made it increasingly difficult for any party to win an overall parliamentary majority. The increasing likelihood of hung parliaments in Westminster suggests a need for an updated understanding of how parties interact. However, this particular area remains under-researched. Whilst, as Webb (2000, p. 1-4) argues, a party system is ‘a particular pattern of competitive and co-operative interactions displayed by a given set of political parties’, academic research has largely focused solely on the competitive interactions of parties. To address this, this paper proposes a framework of party co-operation in order to understand its breadth and depth within British politics. It will outline the different forms of co-operation between political parties, and the various incentives and obstacles that promote and inhibit this particular form of interaction.

References

Webb, Paul D. (2000) The Modern British Party System, (London: Sage Publications).