Paper one politics edexcel essay plans GRADED A+

Using the source, evaluate the view that the major parties still remain the dominant force in UK politics. - ANS AGREE the source leads to the view that it would be difficult to operate our current system of representative democracy without the major political parties, they dominate both the process and ideas of mainstream politics • other parties have always existed but the sheer dominance of the major parties ensures their continued supremacy. AO1 major parties operate all the main functions of government at local and national level, they are established and experienced with the infrastructure to dominate the political process (AO2), their capacity to develop new ideas and cover new ground means that they are always evolving to capture the majority of public opinion (AO3) • the hard facts of the first past the post electoral system is that smaller parties stand no real chance of getting enough seats to make a difference, for example when the Conservative opposition had their vote radically reduced (1997) they still easily formed the official opposition. A minor party has to get 30% of the vote nationally or have a strong concentration of votes in certain regions (heartlands) to make any impact and this is a formidable task. • FPTP system means that major parties have numerous safe seats and heartlands, where other parties cannot have an impact. Minor parties will never dominate Westminster (AO2), therefore the pattern of two-party domination will be likely to continue unless the FPTP voting system is reformed, but there seems little appetite for this (AO3) • • the source draws out that the major parties capture and have polices on all the main issues of the day - from the economy to the environment. This means that minor parties have few unique selling points or different policies for them to stand out. minor parties, such as UKIP will fade away, largely because they are constructed on a single issue and once t