Transferring Policy to the Parliament: The Roles of Elected Representatives

Abstract

The previous four chapters set out the various ways in which ‘official’ policy is developed within the eight case-study parties and the possible avenues for membership participation in these processes. However, party policy once developed is not intended to lie dormant. Parties, through their representation in parliaments, seek to apply policies to legislative debates at hand. For governing parties, this may be to introduce bills that give effect to an area of party policy or a manifesto commitment, whereas for opposition parties this would usually involve taking a position on legislation consistent with party policy, either opposing the bill or attempting to negotiate concessions and amendments to better reflect the opposition party’s own policy commitments. This section of the book, Chapters 8 and 9, analyses just how party policy is applied to legislative debate and the factors that impact upon this process.