That's how it's supposed to work, but it doesn't bear much relationship to how it really works in practice.Ketraar wrote:At least at local level people also need to be close to political parties, go to their meetings where candidates are "shaped" and try to influence that, this has the biggest impact in the long run...
In practice your chosen local candidate has two choices: stick to a set of principles and get votes from those who agree with those principles (and not get voted in unless those principles happen to appeal to the largest number of people in your area) or say what people want to hear (and get voted in if they are the best at selling themselves). If you, as a local activist, choose to try and persuade them to do the former, you are often actually reducing their chances of getting elected!
Then of course if they do get elected, they have the option of continuing to stick to their set of principles (in which case they probably won't get far up the party hierarchy and make it into a position of responsibility, even if their party gets into power) or toeing the party line, even if the party line drifts away from those principles in order to chase votes (a better chance of getting into some position with influence, but they just become another one of those lying politicians that changes their tune as soon as they get elected).
Great, isn't it?