Political Parties

[poliphilo]

The existing political parties (in Britain anyway) are a hangover from an earlier stage of democracy. No-one likes or respects or wants to belong to them anymore. 

We don't like to give them our money, so they have to source funds in questionable ways.

What if all those questionable ways of raising funds were legislated out of existence? Elections would be quieter for a start; would that be so bad?

Some people think political parties should be funded out of taxes? Really? I can see that causing huge resentment. 

What if the existing parties went bust? Would we miss them? Would new ones take their place?

Is democracy conceivable without political parties?

Comments

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Our government was apparently designed to discourage political parties, yet the most they could do, in practical terms, was boil them down to two -- Jefferson's Aristocrats and Democrats. He felt there would always be folks that believe power should be concentrated in the right sort of hands and an opposing faction that thinks the common clay offer a safer, if not wiser, alternative.

Over here, parties have risen, had their day, and passed into obscurity, invariably with new ones taking their place. The GOP appears to be in its death-throws, right now, and the complete and utter dysfunction that reigns in the House is a taste of the legislative anarchy we might have without political parties, I suspect.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Democracy seems like such a good idea, but in practice? Meh!

[raakone.livejournal.com]

It's like no matter what you chose, there's problems.

One thing to remember, between ths US and UK, parties are different...in the UK, parties have absolute power over their MPs. Vote against the party line, you may be kicked out, or at least, they'll replace you in the next election. In the US, the main political parties are more umbrella organizations of convenience, and while they often portray the Republicans as Conservative and the Democrats as either Lib-Dem or Labour....in practice, there are many factions of them (e.g. Log Cabin Republicans, Teaparty Republicans), and they vary between jurisdictions (the New York State Republicans may disagree with the National Repupblicans on something, for example)

But the funny thing is...when the US was formed, they wanted it free of political parties (as everytime the British parties quarreled, those in the colonies paid the price), but only George Washington was able to get elected without a party backing him. And originally the runner up in a presidential election became vice president....but due to a crisis involving people of different parties, they had to change the rules!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

People make alliances to gain political advantage, those alliances harden and become formalised and- bingo- you have political parties. I don't suppose there's any way you can stop this happening.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, the alternatives are most unappealing, except when viewed from the very top.

I think the problem most of us have is a tendency to idealize the political process, only to come face-to-face with the appalling reality. In anything but an absolute dictatorship there are always compromises and those compromises are often too ugly for words. Legislation will always be an uneasy and potentially unhealthy balance between structural stability and evolutionary change, between law and order and individual freedom, the haves and have nots, and so on. Such questions can never be resolved except crudely, locally and on an ad-hoc basis.