Fundamental Issue: Parties have too much power
Parties have too much power. There is a vicious circle that feeds this.
- The Whip system can, for important issues, put the decisions into the hands of two people, the PM and the leader of the opposition.
- There’s no benchmark for ensuring that any given party has a transparent method of ensuring members voices are heard. In fact, for new and small parties they may have no such mechanisms at all.
- To stand for election to parliament costs money, for effective campaigning. So it makes sense to join a party and let the party pay. To do that, as a new canididate, you don’t have much choice but to subscribe to party policies. In other words, the system encourages, conformity to the policies of the powerful people, or person, in the party.