Community Politics? Grassroots Liberal Democrats and the 2003 Scottish Parliament Elections

Abstract

The Liberal Democrats have become synonymous with the idea of 'community politics'. This means being active in communities between elections in order to build a profile from which the party benefits at subsequent elections. This article examines the constituency organisation of the Scottish Liberal Democrats in order to ask how deserved the reputation for 'community politics' is in the Scottish context. It assesses how extensive the party organisation is, and how active that organisation is both between and during election campaigns. The first section of the article assesses the importance of local parties. The second section examines the extent of Scottish Liberal Democrat membership and societal penetration. The third and fourth sections address levels of activity between and during elections. The article concludes with a short assessment of the implications for the party.With media-oriented forms of political communication and campaigning perceived to have replaced traditional party activities in communities, some have argued that local parties are now of declining importance (for instance Webb 1995, 312). A 'revisionist school' of researchers has nevertheless restated the importance of local parties and activism to healthy democracies. Hans Geser (1999,(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16) sets out a list of functions which local parties perform that contribute to a healthy representative democracy. In Britain, albeit by utilising different approaches, three groups of researchers have argued that local parties remain important to communicating with and mobilising the electorate (for instance Seyd and Whiteley 1992; Whiteley et al.

The Importance of Local Parties and Incumbency to the Electoral Prospects of the Liberal Democrats

“…This represents a particular problem when studying the Liberal Democrats – fewer than 10 per cent of the party's local associations submitted accounts in 2012. However, this data strengthens the argument that the Liberal Democrats have always had to target their resources effectively for electoral success (Clark, ). For instance, of the 57 Liberal Democrat associations to submit accounts in 2012, 34 of them returned a Liberal Democrat incumbent MP.…”

“…In the North East, Scotland, Wales and the West Midlands, it is difficult to discern any meaningful trends. However, the lack of constituencies submitting accounts year-on-year in these regions should be a concern for the party; particularly, the fall in Scottish associations submitting accounts adds to concerns raised elsewhere about the strength of the Liberal Democrats in Scotland (Clark, 2007). In the East Midlands, East of England, London and Yorkshire and Humber regions, there are large falls in average cumulative income post-2010 compared with post-2005.…”

Mass, Cadre or Franchise Parties? Assessing Scotland’s Local Party Organizations

“…With the exception of the Liberal Democrats, the vast majority of each party's constituency associations fall within the medium effort category. That just under half of Liberal Democrat organizations fall into the low effort category indicate that in terms of campaign effort it has what must be for party officials a worrying number of "paper branches" (Clark, 2007). A similarly low level of activity has also been noted in relation to the party's 2001 general election campaign in Scotland (Denver & MacAllister, 2003: 137-138).…”

Strategic Actors or Muddling Through? Political Parties, Local Campaigning and the Single Transferable Vote1

“…If the number of candidates presented in elections can be taken as a proxy indicator of party organisation, then in certain areas of West and Central Scotland the Liberal Democrats have little organisational capacity (see also Bochel and Denver 2004: 81;Clark 2007). For instance, in 2007 the party had no candidates in East and South Ayrshire council areas and West Dunbartonshire and only one candidate in Falkirk.…”