Political Parties and Elections

Like them or loathe them, political parties and elections are important. Elections constitute an essential element of modern democracy and defining moments for the distribution of political power. For their part, political parties help link politics and society, compete in elections and structure political processes within and between key political institutions. As Schattschneider famously observed in 1942, ‘Modern democracy is unthinkable save in terms of … parties’.

Yet political parties vary enormously in respect of their social rootedness, policies, size, organisation, internal distribution of power and candidate recruitment, but also, for example, in how they operate within and between legislatures and executives. Similarly there is a myriad of ways in which electoral systems can be structured, and considerable diversity in, for example, the frequency, nature, financing, style and competitiveness of elections. Moreover, both parties and elections have in recent years undergone significant change, not least as a result of technological innovation, and both remain major topics of at times heated public debate.

In short, political parties and elections significantly shape the nature, quality and legitimacy of contemporary politics. This Masters is concerned above all with investigating the rich diversity of political parties and elections in the contemporary world. Keele was the first UK university to offer a taught Maters in political parties and elections and this course benefits from Keele’s unusually high concentration of international research and teaching expertise in this area, much of it organised in the Keele European Parties Research Unit.
The course is taught over a 12 month period (September-September; January-January). It is available as a full-time and/or part-time mode of study. Students completing the course have gone on to a variety of careers in the public, private and voluntary sectors.