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The termsparty conference (UK English),political convention (US andCanadian English), andparty congress usually refer to a general meeting of apolitical party. The conference is attended by certaindelegates who represent the party membership. In most political parties, the party conference is the highest decision-making body of the organization, tasked with electing or nominating theparty's leaders or leadership bodies, deciding party policy, and setting theparty's platform and agendas.
The definitions of all of these terms vary greatly, depending on the country and situation in which they are used. The termconference orcaucus may also refer to the organization of all party members as a whole. The termpolitical convention may also refer to international bilateral or multilateral meetings on state-level, like the convention of theAnglo-Russian Entente (1907).
Within party conferences, there might be different offices or bodies fulfilling certain tasks, usually including:
In Canada, besides annual or biennial conventions, parties often hold special conventions to elect new leaders; often known as aleadership convention. The new leader of a party is often seen as that party's de facto candidate for Prime Minister (as the party leader almost always goes on to serve as Prime Minister should their party get elected to amajority government).[1]
Party conferences in Germany (both on state and federal level), calledParteitag ("partydiet"), will meet not only to nominate candidates for public elections, but also regularly (at least once a year) to adopt political resolutions, select party officials or to amend their statutes. Generally, the party organizations themselves and also their representatives (such as the chairperson, calledparty leader, and other board members) play a much more prominent role in German politics than they do for example in the US or UK, where the parties are mainly represented by their members and leaders in parliament or (if applicable) government.
All Irish parties have annual party conferences, calledArdfheis, at which party policy is decided by the membership and the party chairperson and executive board are elected.
In the United Kingdom the political conferences (usually calledparty congress, orparty conference) generally take place in three weeks of September and October of each year, whilst theHouse of Commons is in recess.[2] The conferences of the three largest UK-wide parties, theConservative Party Conference, theLabour Party Conference and theLiberal Democrat Conference, are held during this time.
In the United States, apolitical convention usually refers to apresidential nominating convention,[3] but it can also refer to state, county, or congressional district nominating conventions in which candidates are nominated (or, if being held before a primary, endorsed), delegates to larger regional or national conventions are elected and theparty platform is adopted. Since the mid 19th century, the two major conventions on national level are theDemocratic National Convention and theRepublican National Convention, usually held every four years to select their candidates for the offices ofpresident andvice president. They are attended bydelegates, who are mostly elected inprimaries.
Between the national conventions, thenational committee of each party (seeDNC andRNC) leads the party administratively, while they are politically represented by theirleaders in Senate andin the House, or (if applicable) by the president. However, some party charters also provide forparty conferences to be held between two national conventions to deal with various matters.[4] In fact, those and the national committees can be compared to regular party conventions in other countries.
The first political convention held in America took place inHartford, Connecticut in March 1766. The meeting was organized by theSons of Liberty, who, in challenging incumbent governorThomas Fitch, nominatedWilliam Pitkin forgovernor andJonathan Trumbull for deputy governor.
Within theRepublican Party, the termparty conference is used to refer to the equivalent of caucuses orparliamentary groups in other countries (see alsocongressional caucus).
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