Policy Development
Political parties represent a certain ideology – the political beliefs and ideals that make a party what it is. Social democratic parties tend to stress employees’ rights, equal opportunities in education, good health care for everyone, fighting poverty and lessening the gap between rich and poor. Liberals will probably tend to stress the freedom of business, open borders, free markets and tolerance. Conservative parties tend to focus on family values, law and order and public morals.
A party’s ideology informs its political programme and, especially, its election programme. These are usually attempts to describe an ideal situation judged by the party’s beliefs. The programmes are often a long list of everything a party would like to change if it came to power and how the party would try to achieve those changes. There is quite a gap between these ideals and desires, and the policies that will result if the party gets into government. Once a party is in power or represented in parliament, it will start developing actual policies. MPs’ powers to do this are fairly limited, at most they can put forward a bill proposal every now and then (private member’s bill). However, a ruling party will have the power and resources (in the form of civil servants) to actually develop and implement certain policies or policy changes because they will usually occupy the majority of ministries in the cabinet.
Political parties play a major role in policy development. The parties have to formulate their voters’ desires into concrete policy proposals – both before and during a term in government. Developing policies is a good way of involving the people in politics. There are various ways a party can develop policies (van den Boomen 2009: 97).
Programmes and Manifestos
The basic party programme outlines the identity of the party and describes the guiding principles and ideas of a party to the citizens and voters. With its programme, the party describes its vision and explains how it is different to other parties. The party programme describes the political ambition and basic values, demands and suggestions of a party.
The party programme is different from the electoral manifesto (sometimes called an election programme), which contains specific suggestions and demands in view of a particular election and therefore has to be redesigned each time. A party programme has a long-term character. It does not refer to issues of an current political debate. This has to be done by the electoral manifesto, which is written with a short-term perspective for electoral or other purposes of current political debates. Although with smaller or newer parties, there might not (yet) be a difference between the party programme and the electoral manifesto.
The electoral manifesto is designed for a specific election and may contain proposals and demands with regard to the future activities that a party may develop after forming or joining a government. Electoral programmes have to be written before each election. Normally, they are written in close contact with the leading candidates of a party who are then responsible for putting forward their political views to the public
Beside their general programme and electoral manifestos, some parties also have special programmes or position papers that define their political views with regard to certain policies, including, for instance, economic policies, energy policies, policies for women, youths or families, rural policies, and cultural policies. A special aspect of the attractiveness of such programmes or position papers is that they may be developed with the participation of representatives of those sectors that they are addressing. This contributes to a stronger relationship between the party and these sectors. (Hofmeister, and Grabow 2011: 40).
Who Develops Programmes and Manifestos?
The Policy Department
Many parties have their own policy department. The party leadership can ask this department to gather information about a particular issue. The easiest way to gather this information is to question party members, but they can also consult special interest groups or conduct an opinion poll. The information then has to be converted into new policies.
Research Institutes
Many political parties have their own research institute or think tank. These are generally independent organizations related to the party in various ways. In contrast with the party’s own policy division, research institutes or think tanks are usually (semi) autonomous. This gives them the freedom to be critical of the party’s policies, make proposals that advance beyond what the party has currently advocated and involve people outside the party in the development of policy ideas.
The organizational structure of these think tanks and research institutes varies. Sometimes they are foundations that are both organizationally and financially dependent on the party, but they can also be entirely independent organizations with independent means of support. In the Netherlands the parties’ research institutes are funded by the government, and the size of the subsidy depends on the number of seats a party has in parliament. These think tanks often play an important role in the development of new policy proposals by the party. Members of think tanks are often members in the various committees within a party that develop policies in specific areas (health, education, economic policy etc). (van den Boomen 2009: 98).
Permanent Advisory Boards
Many parties have permanent advisory boards with experts from the party (and sometimes also from the outside) to provide advice in specific policy areas. They can advice about political developments concerning a specific issue, or suggestions for new policy.
Thus, the Dutch PvdA has two advisory boards concerning international affairs, the European Policy Advisory Board and the ‘North South Committee’ that focuses on policies related to development aid. The members of this latter committee are also active in NGOs, have an academic background and bear political responsibility in these areas. In addition, the PvdA has a women’s network, a lawyers’ network, a gay network, a network for the aged, a health-care work group and an environment work group. All these networks aim to influence the policies of the party and effectively consolidate all the available knowledge within the party.
Temporary Advisory Boards
The party conference or the executive committee can also decide to instate a temporary advisory board concerning a specific issue. These boards are usually set a clearly defined task and are expected to produce a result (a policy document) within a set period of time. They may, for instance, be asked for advice about, the future of labour migration or about the participation of women in politics and society, etc. The chairman chosen for this type of board is usually a politician with considerable experience (such as a former minister). It has to be someone who has sufficient authority to successfully defend the committee’s findings, since the recommendations of such temporary committees usually receive a lot of attention, both inside and outside the party, especially if they concern a sensitive issue or policy area. (van den Boomen 2009: 98).
The Election Programme/Manifesto Committee
One well-known and important example of a temporary advisory board is the committee writing the election programme. Party statutes usually stipulate how the eventual election programme is to be determined. Local party branches and sometimes individual party members can offer amendments to be discussed at a party conference, where the final text is eventually decided upon. What is usually not stipulated is who should come up with the first draft of the programme. Sometimes this is written single-handedly by the leader of the MPs, or by a number of well-known political scientists. The most usual method, however, is to instate a special committee to do this. Such committees are hand-picked by the party leadership. They tend to be cross sections of the party’s administrative elite (prominent politicians on the local and national level), with the addition of experts, scholars and representatives from NGOs, trade unions or businesses. The election programme is of course very important for the party, as it announces the party’s ambitions for the coming term. In addition, it plays a crucial role in the election campaign, which is why campaign managers and strategists keep close watch on the development of the programme. The campaign team, the party leadership, the MPs and the government all want to exert influence on the committee. There are many vested interests at stake: politicians in office are not usually in favor of radical policy changes, since this could be seen as criticism of their policies. (van den Boomen 2009: 99).
Gathering Support and Collecting Input for the Programme in the Party and in Society
The more widely a policy is supported in the party and in society, the greater the chance that it will actually be implemented. This is because it will receive more support (votes) in parliament and so will have a greater chance of being passed. To gain support the parties have to start a public debate with their own supporters and other people. The decision-making process consists of three stages: information, debate (opinion-forming) and decision-making.
It is very important that the party keeps this process as fair and transparent as possible. Dialogue with the outside world belongs in the information and debate stages. The decision-making process usually is an internal party affair. During the information stage a party committee has to gather as much information as possible. This can be done by visits to regions, companies and organizations, hearings, interviews with experts, or by studying the relevant literature. This information will be the basis for the eventual policy proposal. The debate stage is meant to elicit as many opinions as possible from party members, voters, special interest groups, NGOs, academics, etc. The debate can be orchestrated in various ways, but the main thing is that as many people that were present as possible feel they have been able to contribute to the debate and their voices have been heard. During this stage the debate can focus on a number of proposals, documents for discussion or even a first draft of the final report.
Some ways in which you can organize a debate:
• On the internet: people can express their opinions or enter into debate via open or closed forums on the internet.
• Town hall meetings organized at the request of the committee, where as many people as possible (members and non-members alike) can give their opinion. This is a place where one would expect many different views to be expressed.
• Written contributions: the committee can ask certain people and organizations for a written contribution to be discussed in the committee.
• Interviews and consultations: interviews with experts whose input is highly valued by the committee.
To gain sufficient support it is essential that the committee explains how the final report has come about and acknowledges the contributions from the various people and organizations in the information and debate stages. If all goes well, this method eventually results in a new policy, a change of existing policies, or an election programme (van den Boomen 2009: 100).