Life of the party – part 1

Political parties are a vital part of the democratic system. In this, the first in a series of blogs about parties, their role and history, and people’s experiences with them, we’re going to examine how parties as we know them in Australia today came about.

What’s the word?

WARNING: Paragraph contains Latin.

The word ‘party’, in this sense, comes from the Middle English partie, which means group or side. That in turn was derived from the Latin partīre, which means part or divide (we get the word partition from the same root). So, a political party is a division within politics - one faction or side of the political argument.

By the 1770s, philosopher and parliamentarian Edmund Burke was able to describe parties as 'a body of men [sic] united for promoting by their joint endeavours the national interest upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed.'

Early days

The party system as we know it still hadn’t fully developed in 1901, when Australia held its first election. In some states parties had different names; there is still dispute over whether or not Edmund Barton’s party was the Protectionists, Liberal Protectionists, Liberals, or something else. Really, parties were describing their general philosophy, with trade policy being the big issue of the time. The affiliation of their members was loose at best, but in general Protectionists supported the Barton government and Free Traders didn’t, with Labor controlling the balance of power.  Only Labor members committed to the idea of a binding, united front, all taking a pledge to abide by the party’s decisions or face expulsion. This was done to give them more voting power, and was seen as a way of punching above their weight.

This worked so well for Labor that over time the other parties began to do something similar. None of the parties had a majority, so there were constant shifts in alliance and negotiation, to the point it made Alfred Deakin irritated. He frustratingly described the three parties as 'three elevens', referring to cricket teams, asking Australians to imagine a cricket game with three teams instead of two.

Parties today

More and more parties are being elected to the Commonwealth Parliament than at any time in history. This is partly due to political factors and partly due to the electoral system – the voting system used for the Senate makes it relatively easy to get elected as a minor party. Recent changes to the rules may mean we see fewer ‘microparties’ elected on a tiny number of votes, but all trends suggest diversity of political thought is increasing.

The changing times

Parties that remain static risk electoral oblivion. Parties across the spectrum have changed, or are changing, the way they operate to remain relevant and attract new members. For instance, since 2013, Labor members have had an official voice in choosing the party's leader. In some ways this resembles the ‘primary elections’ held by parties in the United States, although the rules are quite different. Other parties have experimented with similar arrangements or discussed them at the very least. In the future, what a political party does and how it operates will likely be very different.

In part 2, we explore what parties actually do, and why people become involved with them. How do parties work, and what does it matter to you?