For example, in the United Kingdom a third party is a national political party other than the Conservative Party and Labour Party. While the term should be used only when discussing the third largest party, it is often used to describe any smaller party. In the first section, we outline our definitions of. In any two-party system of politics, a third party is a party other than the two main ones. However, others argue that as long as FPTP is the electoral system, there will always be more or less a two-party system. We argue in this paper that the role of political parties is a crucial component in this process of. It can be argued that today we have a multi-party system in the UK, as we have recently had the Liberal Democrats in a coalition government, the SNP have 56 seats, and UKIP received four million votes. The party system in the UK has varied from two-party systems – where government swings back and forth between two parties such as Labour and Conservative with very little contribution from other parties (1945 – 1974), to a ‘dominant’ party system, featuring long reigns in government by one party followed by the other (1979 – 2010). It also refers to the typical party make-up of governments – for example, single-party government, coalitions and so on. Thus we may speak of dominant, two-, three- or multi-party systems.
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Party discipline means upholding the entrenched principles, rules and regulations guiding the behavior of members of political party. The enforcement of party discipline is one of the whips duties. It describes the normal number of parties that compete effectively. The control exercised by a party over the positions held by its members and over the way in which they vote. This definition of party system refers to the typical structure of parties within a political system.