The Established Parties
Professionalized Campaigning: Established parties utilize significant financial resources to employ data analysts, PR consultants, and professional organizers to maximize their electoral reach.
Legislative Control: Through the use of party whips and parliamentary discipline, they ensure that their members vote as a cohesive bloc, allowing them to effectively implement their legislative agenda.
Patronage and Appointments: When in power, established parties often have the authority to appoint individuals to various public bodies, further embedding their influence within the state apparatus.
Media Dominance: Due to their size and status, these parties receive the lion's share of media coverage, which reinforces their position as the only 'serious' contenders for power.
| Feature | Established Parties | Minor/Niche Parties |
|---|---|---|
| Policy Platform | Comprehensive and broad | Narrow or single-issue |
| Primary Goal | Office-seeking (Governing) | Policy-seeking (Influencing) |
| Structure | Professional and bureaucratic | Often volunteer-led or informal |
| Voter Base | Diverse and cross-sectional | Specific demographic or ideological |
Analyze the 'Decline' Thesis: When discussing established parties, always consider the impact of partisan dealignment, where voters' psychological attachment to major parties weakens over time.
Check for Structural Advantages: Evaluate how electoral systems (like First-Past-The-Post) favor established parties by creating high barriers to entry for new competitors.
Verify the 'Catch-all' Logic: In essays, explain that while moving to the center attracts the 'median voter,' it can also lead to internal party conflict with more ideological 'grassroots' members.
Distinguish between Party and Government: Ensure you do not use the terms interchangeably; a party is the organization that seeks power, while the government is the executive body it may temporarily inhabit.
The Permanence Fallacy: Students often assume established parties are permanent fixtures; however, history shows that major parties can be replaced if they fail to adapt to shifting social cleavages.
Overestimating Unity: It is a mistake to view established parties as monolithic; they are often 'broad churches' containing competing internal factions with differing ideological priorities.
Confusing Size with Establishment: A party might be large in terms of membership but not 'established' if it lacks a history of legislative influence or institutional stability.