Party line (politics)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Party line" politics – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Part of the Politics series
Party politics
Political spectrum Left-wing Far-left Centre-left Centre Centre-left Radical centre Centre-right Right-wing Centre-right Far-right
Major ideologies Agrarianism Anarchism Christian democracy Communism Conservatism Environmentalism Fascism Feminism Green politics Hindutva Islamism Liberalism Libertarianism Monarchism Nationalism Populism Progressivism Classical radicalism Republicanism Social democracy Socialism Syncretism Third Way
Types Bloc party Elite party Cartel party Competitive Catch-all party Entrepreneurial party Ethnic party Major party / Minor party Mass party Ruling party Opposition party Parliamentary opposition Party of power Official party status Single-issue party Transnational / International
Leaders and organization Backbencher Caucus Caucus chair Frontbencher Lead candidate Leader of the Opposition Majority leader Minority leader Political faction Parliamentary leader Party chair Party leader Party spokesperson Secretary Shadow cabinet Whip
Internal elections Primary election Leadership election Open list Party convention/conference Leadership convention
Party discipline Conscience vote Crossing the floor Party discipline Party line Party-line vote Party switching Whip
Party systems One-party Dominant-party Two-party Multi-party Non-partisan
Coalitions between parties Parliamentary group Divided government Coalition government Confidence and supply Consensus government Grand coalition Hung parliament Majority government Minority government National unity government Rotation government
Lists of political parties Ruling parties by country Political parties by region Banned political parties
Politics portal
v t e

In politics, "the line", "the party line", or "the lines to take" is an idiom for a political party or social movement's canon agenda, as well as ideological elements specific to the organization's partisanship. The common phrase "toeing the party line" describes a person who speaks in a manner that conforms to their political party's position, with the position frequently defined by the party leadership.^[1] The party structure pushing its representatives in parliament to vote along the line is referred to as party discipline, and efforts to enforce it are referred to as "whipping".

Likewise, a party-line vote is one in which most or all of the legislators from each political party voted in accordance with that party's policies. In several countries, a whip attempts to ensure this. The Marxist–Leninist concept of democratic centralism involves strict adherence to, and defence of, a communist party's positions in public known as the general line of the party or political line.

According to the American educator Herbert Kohl, writing about debates in New York in the late 1940s and early 1950s, "[t]he term 'politically correct' was used disparagingly to refer to someone whose loyalty to the CP line overrode compassion and led to bad politics. It was used by Socialists against Communists, and was meant to separate out Socialists who believed in equalitarian moral ideas from dogmatic Communists who would advocate and defend party positions regardless of their moral substance."^[2]

Used loosely, the phrase "the party line" may also refer to the non-party organizations such as religious groups, business offices, or a social network that may have a semi-official organizational policy or position that is unrelated to any political party. In this sense it is used to describe following a certain plan of actions defined by the organization.^[3]