Parliament held a heated debate on the succession of Duke James (later James II) to the throne. Members who opposed Duke James' succession to the throne were denounced by political opponents as Whigs (Scottish bandits), while those who supported Duke James' succession to the throne were denounced as Tories (Irish Catholic gangs). Later, the two factions gradually claimed to form two political factions. The Whig Party represents the interests of the emerging bourgeoisie and new noble, and advocates limiting the royal power and improving the parliamentary power; The Tories represent the interests of landlords and nobles and safeguard the privileges of the monarch.
1688
The two parties moved towards cooperation because of their unanimous opposition to James II, and launched a "glorious revolution" through a coup. Whigs played a major role in the coup and became the ruling party after the coup. With the development of British capitalism, the composition of the Tories has gradually changed. Some land aristocrats, bankers, arms dealers and bureaucratic politicians in the Whig Party joined the Tory Party, which strengthened its strength, while the Whig Party gradually lost its dominant position in the national political life because of its division.
1783 ~ 1830 years
The Conservative Party is in power. When Whigs and Tories take turns to form a cabinet, the activities of political parties are limited to the interior of parliament. From 65438 to 1930s, the British industrial revolution was basically completed, and the British social class structure changed greatly, forming two opposing classes ── the industrial bourgeoisie and the industrial proletariat. At the same time, changes have taken place within the British ruling class, forming conservative forces representing the interests of land nobles, financial nobles and big businessmen and reform forces representing the interests of the industrial bourgeoisie. The former took the land aristocracy as the core and formed the Conservative Party on the basis of the original Tories. The latter centered on the factory owners who were keen on free trade and formed the Liberal Party on the basis of the original Whig Party.
1832
After the electoral reform, universal suffrage was expanded. In order to compete for voters and gain parliamentary majority, the two parties compete to develop their own extra-parliamentary organizations and establish constituency associations as electoral institutions. With the establishment and development of the parliament and the two-party system, both parties became national political parties with strict central and local organization in the middle of the 9th century. 19 At the end of the 20th century, after liberal capitalism was replaced by monopoly capitalism, the Conservative Party gradually changed from a land aristocratic party to a monopoly bourgeois party. At the same time, the liberal party gradually declined, and the free trade policy advocated by the party made Britain lose its monopoly position as the "world factory", and a large number of industrial capitalists turned to the Conservative Party.
Early 20th century
With the development of the industrial revolution and the continuous growth of the labor force, the Labor Party rose. Starting from 1924, the Labour Party replaced the Liberal Party and took turns to govern with the Conservative Party. By the end of 1980s, apart from the Conservative Party and the Labour Party, there were Social Liberal Democrats, Social Democrats, British Producers' Party, Cooperative Party, Welsh National Party, Scottish National Party, National Front and British Revolutionary Producers' Union. The formation and development of the British two-party system has generally gone through three stages:
The first stage-Whigs and Tories came to power one after another.
17 14 After George I ascended the throne, Britain gradually formed a constitutional convention that the king did not attend the cabinet meeting and the leader of the parliamentary majority presided over the cabinet, thus making the cabinet controlled by the parliamentary majority. Whigs and Tories took turns to form a cabinet according to the number of parliamentary seats, which laid the foundation for the formation of the two-party system.
The second stage-the period when the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party take turns to govern.
At this stage, the two parties have developed from parliamentary parties to national and mass parties, which is the basic condition and important symbol of the formation of the two-party system. After many parliamentary reforms, the power contrast between the lower house, the upper house and the royal family was completely changed, and the king became a virtual monarch, weakening the power of the upper house and improving the status of the lower house. On this basis, a two-party system was established.
The third stage-the two-party system is gradually complete.
In the third stage, from the end of 19 to the beginning of the 20th century, the two-party system was gradually improved. The Conservative Party launched the Shadow Cabinet in 1907. Since then, any political party that won the second largest number of seats in the lower house of parliament has become a legitimate opposition party. It is possible for the opposition party to replace the ruling party in parliament by a vote of no confidence.