Paper 1 · 2022 · 30 marks
Using the source, evaluate the view that "pick-and-mix" politics is replacing "Left-Right" politics and political parties are becoming more internally divided than ever.
Political Parties
Source
Source 1(a) is adapted from an article by Allister Heath in the Daily Telegraph, 25 January 2017. It discusses whether parties have abandoned traditional Left-Right ideology in response to changing voter demands -- and whether this is leading to greater internal division.
The case for 'pick-and-mix' replacing Left-Right politics
Voters feel empowered as consumers demanding a pick-and-mix approach to politics that they are used to as purchasers. Voters want to simultaneously back rail nationalisation and cut the top rate of income tax -- or perhaps slash welfare but spend more on the NHS. The old, Left-Right Westminster world is dead. As Mayor of Tees Valley Ben Houchen says, 'Left and right have no meaning in politics any more, it is simply a matter of getting things done.' This policy fragmentation makes the established parties unstable and internally split: Labour is split between hard-left and liberal-left, having lost some working-class support while new parties try to replace it.
The case for Left-Right ideology remaining relevant
The choice facing the electorate remains simple: you support the 'Left' or the 'Right': each offering a distinct, consistent view of society with debates surrounding equality remaining central. On many issues there is a 'Left-Right' divide, although a few like the EU and the environment cloud the issue. Many feel that Left-Right ideology is still relevant, with most policy fitting the 'Left-Right' model. The established parties remain united in opposing each other and still dominate Westminster. Although internal party factions quarrel, they still play by the 'Left-Right' rules.
Mark scheme: agreement
AO1: There is now a break down in supporting the package of a political party and voters want bespoke choices.
AO2: Taken to their extreme these ‘bespoke choices’ have no consistency and are riddled with inherent divisions making the terms left and right a problem
AO3: The impact of fluid voter choice means that the parameters of left and right politics breaks down and has no meaning. It emerges that political parties are abandoning their traditional core values and pursuing policies which attract voters at all costs. Survival is about being popular.
AO1: The Labour Party is divided on policy and the views of its supporters are contradictory and inconsistent with some core Labour policies
AO2: In recent years the Labour Party has lost its traditional demographic support and is divided across a range of issues and cohorts of the public
AO3: We can reach a verdict that success for an established political party requires a bedrock of core support and once this evaporates success can become illusive
AO1: Politics is no longer about dogma and a left right view of issues but a more pragmatic approach and this is based on delivery – making things happen.
AO2: Ideological matters do not matter, policy is being produced which satisfies the public in a popular approach
AO3: We can conclude that if the goal of ‘delivery’ is all important politicians and political parties abandon set ideas to simply get the task done
AO1: All this policy variance leads to the breakdown of the traditional party structure in Westminster
AO2: Factions become more important than the political party itself. Parties which used to be ‘broad churches’ become fixated on certain issues and in the process lose their wider appeal. Labour was divided over the course and policies of Jeremy Corbyn and the Conservatives became fixated with the EU
AO3: Policy and preferences no longer resembles a battle between parties but instead within them and in the process the dichotomy between left and right is abandoned. political parties are becoming more internally divided than ever.
Mark scheme: disagreement
AO1: Parties can still be gauged by the traditional left right spectrum in their policies and stances on most issues
AO2: The Labour Party still stands for a vas range of left wing issues and drive for equality. The Conservatives remain pro- business and support private enterprise, hesitating about providing equality believing that is down to individual endeavour.
AO3: We can reach the verdict that the left/right axis is just as important as it ever has been. Political parties still stand for core central values which are ultimately defined in a left/right basis, and no other process of categorisation is possible.
AO1: There always has been and always will be topics which do not fit neatly into a left right spectrum
AO2: Life is complex and there have always been topics which defy a left right division. These cover moral issues such as abortion, euthanasia and the environment. The EU is an excellent example.
AO3: We can conclude that political parties will alienate sections of society if they adopt stances on moral issues on which there is no clear consensus and agreement in society and thus they remain neutral and avoid adapting a particular stance and framing it in a left/right package. Or they will be pragmatic and follow and adopt which is popular and secures them office.
AO1: Factions have always existed in political parties and this is nothing new
AO2: Political parties have always been comprised of factions and groupings however these factions still adhere to an appreciation of policy in terms of left and right. In this sense we had Thatcherism in the Conservatives an the dominance of the Blairites for a period in Labour
AO3: Different factions of each political party come to the fore and for a time dominate. However we can conclude that the rise of any faction is driven by forces on a left/right axis. We class Thatcherism as ‘right wing’ and the policies of Blair were defined in terms of left and right
AO1: Westminster remains dominated by the Conservatives and Labour
AO2: The phenomenal success of the Labour and Conservative Parties is a testament to the continued appeal of ideas which are pitched in terms of left and right.
AO3: Other parties may have success in lower tier elections but in the Westminster elections the continued loyalty and adherence to the left/right in policies ensures that policy is still broken down into left/right terms