Introduction

Individuals hold a range of views on most issues, including those relating to the role of the state and laws about individual behaviour.  If everyone held the same views on all issues there would be no need for elections because any one person would know what everyone thinks. 

In an election voters do not express their political views on key issues but instead choose between the parties that are contesting the election.  Each political party will campaign on its issue package or manifesto.  The combination of views held by each party is likely to be coherent in terms of the political spectrum, ideology or the interest that they seek to represent. 

Most discussion of political views is based on abstract or philosophical views on the big questions in politics, such as the role of the state in relation to the economy and individual behaviour.  Three core concepts assist us to consider this range of political views:

• the political spectrum illustrates the range of views on such issues
• within this space are particular combinations of views that are more common and have been identified as ideologies
• many political parties represent a particular ideological stance (and the main cleavages that divide a society are a prompt for the creation of political parties).

People with similar views on a specific issue may come together as an advocacy group to campaign on that issue.  Civil and political rights ensure that all are free to express their political views and to promote them to others in a wide range of ways.  Political parties are a specialist form of advocacy group in that they tend to have views on a wider range of issues and also contest elections as a means of achieving their desired policy outcomes. 

Parties are an important part of the democratic process.  Choice between parties is most crucial at election time when it is parties that nominate candidates. 

Voters need information on the options in order to decide how to vote, including what the existing MPs have done and each party’s stance on a range of issues.  Alongside campaigning by parties and candidates, the news media plays a vital role by providing much of the information that voters use when deciding how to vote.  The information that the news media chooses to present and the way in which it is presented also plays a large role in the way that democracy is perceived.