Are Political Parties in Decline Essay Example For Students

Are Political Parties in Decline? Essay Sean Stafford 1340392Are Political Parties in Decline?No: Ronald Landes In Defence of Canadian Political PartiesStrong point-Ronald Landed mentions that the several functions of a political partyfocus on the responsibilities of it. His strongest point too lies within theresponsibilities of political governing. Walt Bagehot explains that apolitical partys chief role is to join the governments executive portion tothat of the legislative portion. In short, Bagelot believes that parties forcethe government to run smoother, and encourage them to solve more problems. Weak point-Landes weakest point is in regards to the function of party financing. More spefically the electroal functions of the parties financing. He feelsthat because a party can raise money year in and year out (in fact the money isflowing more than ever), that the organization is successful. A simpleexplantion exists explaining why more money is coming into the politicalparties. First of all government legislation has changed regarding the amountsof donations which can be made, i.e. parties can now take more, and largerdonations. Secondly, politicians are more bussiness oriented and influenced bylarge corporations and recieve large donations for corporate involvements. Parties are not more influencial due to more money, nor are they betterorganized. Yes: John Meisel Decline of Party in CanadaStrong point-John Meisel states that the primary factor leading to the dircetdeclination of political parties in Canada is the rise of the bureaucraticstate. Modern Politics have eclipsed the past when political parties did notneed to gain specific knowledge as the focused on a few key points rather thanlarge amounts of responsibility. Today too many complex issues are dumped uponour elected representatives, and they have no hope in being able to deal withall the issues or give the proper amount of time and care. The development ofappointed civil severents has greatly aided in the solution of this problem, butunfortunatley the elected representitives have lost control over the matters. Meisel stated that politicians now can only sit back and observe the results ofthe civil servants and accept these results. The officials now can no longeract for the good of the people but rather must obey the control of the civilservants. Weak point-Meisels weakest point is the decline of the parties due to the media. Hestates in his article that television, the largest form of media, hastransformed poltics into a show in which the politians play for the camarasand try to entertain the public. However, it doesnt seem fair to blame thepolitians for playing up their roles in society without condeming the veryactions of society which causes the problems of the media in the first place. Is the problem the politians effect on the media, or the media effects on thepoliticans?Category: Social Issues