Discuss the View That Political Parties Have Too Much Power in Parliament. (30)

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The Party system in the UK has existed in some form since the 18th century. Political parties are an extremely powerful force in the legislative process, and government in general. Without an efficient party structure, a government would find it incredibly hard to carry out their work and to pass bills through parliament. Around 100 government MPs have some kind of ministerial role whilst being aligned to a political party. The government need to be able to rely on the MPs support for bills in parliament and regardless of the majority, there could more than 200 backbench MPs that need to be organised by a political party. The main sources of power that political parties have are through committees, debates, the voting system, the whipping system, and through scrutiny. Each of these plays a huge role in enabling political parties to exercise their power in parliament. The most evident source of power that political parties have in parliament is through the whipping system. Each party has a chief whip, a deputy chief whip and a number of junior whips. The whips make sure that the Lords and MPs aligned to their parties are fully informed about parliamentary business and ensure that MPs that represent their political party attend votes and follow the party line in divisions. They also send out a weekly circular, which is includes the degree of importance of an event and is indicated by the number of times that the debate has been underlined. The whipping system, especially for the party in government, makes sure that the amount of votes for a bill that the party has is maximised. The three-line whip is especially effective in making sure that MPs follow the party line irrespective of constituent’s view they are supposed to represent. MPs face sanctions if they don't vote accordingly. This gives the party full support from all MPs that are aligned to them. For
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