Paper 2 · 2022 · 30 marks
Using the source, evaluate the view that Parliament is largely ineffective in shaping government legislation.
Parliament
Source
Source 1 examines the legislative process for government bills in Parliament. It is adapted from a Lords Select Committee on the Constitution report (2019).
The case that Parliament does shape legislation
If the government cannot maintain the support of their own backbenchers, their bills will be defeated in the Commons; so the government shape their proposed legislation accordingly and make concessions to win support. In public bill committees, evidence from outside experts and proposals from non-government parliamentarians can alert ministers to where changes to the legislation are needed.
In the House of Lords, there is more time for detailed scrutiny, and many experts, whose contributions often worry government. Crossbenchers are particularly feared since they can put forward proposals that sometimes gain widespread support across both Houses. However, most amendments to legislation are made by Ministers, which can be interpreted as a sign of government reflection, a response to detailed parliamentary debate and the calculation of what proposals are most likely to attract majority support.
The case that Parliament is largely ineffective
Government bills are rarely defeated and generally only government-proposed amendments succeed in the Commons, where the government majority prevails. There is also a lack of time for scrutiny and a lack of specialism within the party-whipped public bill committees.
The House of Lords has limited powers due to its unelected nature but since there is no government majority, it does sometimes make passing legislation difficult for government.
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.
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 vast 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 and 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.