Grassroots support and votes of confidence

A government’s grassroots support during its term of office may become apparent during a by-election. Grassroots support is the support of ordinary voters/ A by-election is held in a constituency when the person representing it resigns or dies.

In a first-past-the-post system a marginal constituency, or marginal, is one where the incumbent member’s majority was so low in the previous election that it may easily be won by another party in the next election. A governing party may lose its majority by losing by-elections in marginals.

If a government wants to establish that it has a majority, or if it loses its majority, or if confidence in the government is low for other reasons, it may ask for a vote of confidence in parliament. If it loses this vote, the government may call (fresh) elections, or, in British English only, go to the country.

An opposition party may call for a vote of no confidence in the government, perhaps with the intention of bringing about new elections.

There may be a period before elections when an interim or caretaker government takes care of the everyday running of the country, but makes no important decisions.

The results are also a major blow to the prime minister’s hopes of using these elections to demonstrate the grassroots popularity of his economic reforms.

Gladstone emerged from retirement to fight a by-election in the marginal Conservative seat of Midlothian in 1878, winning it and retaining the seat at the general election.

Charan Singh was eventually asked to form a government, but had to ask for Congress party support to do so. This support was withdrawn even before that government could face a vote of confidence, and the president then decided to call fresh elections in which Mrs. Gandhi was able to gain a majority.

The government overwhelmingly rejected a call by radical deputies to hold a vote of no confidence on the proposals.

If you were the Chancellor knowing that in the next year or 18 months you have to go to the country on your economic record this news would scare the life out of you.

They have repeatedly called on him to resign and say a caretaker government should take over to supervise elections with the help of international observers.

No date has been set for multi-party elections in Nepal, but the interim government has said it will hold them within a year of taking power, this is before next April. Politically, the coalition interim government is holding together.

Task 7. Grassroots partners

Make combinations from the table and use them to fill the gaps in the extracts below.

level opinion support followers grassroots feeling revolt campaign

1. Mr. Heseltine has travelled the country, addressing hundreds of local party groups in an effort to build up grassroots __________.

2. Mr. Ruhe sees himself as a future chancellor who has a good feel for grassroots _________.

3. Mrs. Thatcher fell when her cabinets minister and influential groups of MPs decided they had had enough of her: the strong support of her grassroots _________ did not count at all.

4. The ANC will not want to underestimate grassroots _______ that too may radical political principles are being compromised.

5. Throughout its history, The Soviet Communist Party worked at grassroots _________ through its network of cells in factories, offices and army units.

6. Webb, the underdog in this race, launched an aggressive grassroots ___________, walking more than 300 miles in Denver neighborhoods and sleeping overnight in the homes of residents.

7. Without economic improvements, his country could face a grassroots _________.