Reinvigorating Political Parties

This new report  – backed by a major new Ipsos/MORI poll - warns against ‘insider’s stitch up on party funding’; calls for reversal of 20 year trend towards ‘centralisation, marketing and dependence on dubious donors’’ which has left parties hollowed out and less trusted by the public;  and makes recommendations for rebuilding political parties as civic institutions. 

To reconnect parties and the public the report sets out a new deal that could help the parties grow once again – including changes to their legal status and their funding, as well as recommendations on how parties could rebuild themselves as strong civic institutions, rooted in local communities.  The new Ipsos MORI poll provides strong support for these recommendations. It shows that the public recognizes the vital role parties have to play in the democratic system.  49% believed that political parties enabled people to have a voice and 45% that political parties are good for the democratic system.   They come well ahead of businesses, councils or voluntary organizations in meeting peoples’ long term needs.

However, a quarter think we’d be better off without parties and 62% see parties as neither open or transparent. Only one in ten can even contemplate joining a party.  
The poll shows that the public to have a very clear prescription for how to improve parties.  Their top priority is for parties to involve people much more in local decisions (54%).  They want parties to listen to the public (48%), and to put more effort into explaining their values (26%).  The message is clear: the long trend towards nationalization and top down control needs to be reversed.

For more information please contact Ben Sanders.