HC 2 Party families +liberalism Flashcards
How will we examine parties and the party system?
→ Supply and demand side
Supply: ideologies, organization, party families
Demand: cleavages, economy are factors.
Supply side
party system
Supply: ideologies, organization, party families
Internal supply
How political parties organize/ funciton.
The party itself, the political ideology
Internal supply is made up of how parties compete
External supply
The party system itself
How parties compete
The context within which parties are competing
Why does Robert Dahl think that parties are important?
(his ideal: Greek polis)
True democracy is about direct representation.
But with rise of nation state, representation is only possible via a representative.
Parties are needed for linkage between government and society.
Polyarchy (existing democracy) is about representative democracy
Demand side
Society in a larger sense.
How society is structured.
Important for society are cleavages, which lead to attitudes, and the economy.
How and why individuals are embedded in society
Demand: cleavages, economy are factors.
What is a party family? (summary)
Group of parties collected together by different aspects: organization, ideology, supporters and alliances. They are often divided by their sociological background, transnational federation, policies/ ideology and names. The division of policy and ideology is often the best due to the fact it goes to the crux of the party and its ideas.
Political party
- A political party has an organizing role and is the link between parliament, government, policy and citizens.
There are slightly different definitions to explain political parties:
1. An institution seeking influence by attempting governmental positions. Political party aggregates interests and has a mobilization function. (kaltz.)
2. A political group identified by official label that presents at elections, and is capable of placing through elections, candidates for public office (sartori)
3. Autonomous group of citizens with the purpose to gain control of government power by capturing public offices and the organization of the government. - Caramani ,2017
Why does Nadia Urbinatie think that parties are important?
Party democracy is about mediation between citzens and representators.
There is contestation between parties over ideas, the common good etc
This enhances discussions about what actually are common goods, etc. but also enhances pluralism
Why does Anthony Downs think that parties are important?
Social and political issues are complex.
Most citizens do not have time or knowledge to be fully informed.
Parties are information reducers.
They reduce information into digestible pieces.
Parties allow the people to embed their choices in bigger story. Ideologies can make choices earier for people.
People choose a certain ideology and do not have to think about every single problem.
They just have to say that they want something done in the way of a certain ideology
parties make politics less complex.
Why does not David van Reybrouck think that parties are important
Critical of elections.
The answer is sortition: individuals must be randomly chosen to represent the country.
Policy is not ideology, there is an objective truth and anyone can find that objective truth.
Anyone can make a policy
How can parties be grouped?
- By how they organize
2.. By their ideas - by their supporters
- by their alliances
How to decide who belongs to party family?
look at:
1. sociological origins
2. transnational federations
3. policy and ideology
4. the name
Sociological origins: look at the historical background of a party and the type of voters a party gets (cleavages).
Problem:
What is the difference between communist and social democratic parties? Both have the same historical context.
Transnational federations: parties often join together into international organizations
Problem: parties can be in the same organization with different ideologies
Policy+ ideology: this is in many ways the best ways: it gets to the ‘‘crux of the ideas’’ of the party.
it looks at parties idenity and policies
name: often works. Look at social democratic and christian democratic parties for example.
But names do not always tell you where they want to belong
conclusion: best ways are sociologicl origins + policy and ideology
Features of ideology
An ideology is a more or less coherent set of ideas that provides the basis for organized political action,whether this is intended to preserve, modify or overthrow the existing system of power. All ideologies therefore have the following features:
a) advance an account of the existing order, ususally in the form of a world view (worldview)
b) outline a model of the desired future, a viision of ‘‘good’’ society (vision good society)
c) explain how political change can and should be brought about (how to get from a to B: political change)
–> how to get from a to b
Thick ideology
full worldview on a full range of policy fields
Thin ideology
Thin ideologies do not have a full worldview: in need of another idoelogy to give it content.
Example: populism or nationalism. They do not have a specific opinion on education for example.
Why are ideas important for party families
- ideas are important for mobilization of voters.
- They serve as a simplication process
- they serve as identity creating role
- They are important for alliances and coalitions
- important for policies
Mainstream party families/ ideologies
- liberals
- conservatives
- social democrats
- christian democrats
New party families/ ideologies
- Populists,
- radical right
- new left-greens
The ideology of classical liberalsim (j.s. Mill)
John Stuart Mill focus:
1. individual
2. freedom
3. reason
4. Justice
5. Toleration
- the individual is an agent, and a rational autonomous being
- they have to have the freedom to choose, to be mobile etc.
- Individuals have the capacity to reason
- there is a notion of a just society, which is based on a set of rules, consititutions etc.
- toleration for minorities
Characteristics Classical Liberalism
Classical liberalsim was embedded in an elite/ cadre party.
It has a loose organistion, with not much link to cival society.
No intention to mobilize masses, but small middle-class part of society
This changed in late 19th and early 20th century
What happened to liberals in the late 19th century?
They disappeared or became smaller parties:
Due to growing in suffrage (kiesrecht) and of working class.
New voters turned to socialist parties
Challenges to this type of party and liberalism → mass party
Led to:
liberal parties began to disappearor became smaller parties
Classical liberals → individual, freedom, reason, justice, toleration
Post WWII liberals → Classical, social and conservative liberals
(Core principles of liberal parties remain, but:It becomes a matter of how to achieve these liberal principles
It becomes a matter of emphasis and application (how much state influence/ how much should individuals rely on their own talents?)
Post WWII Challenges
Party systems really started to form.
There was a rise of the catchall party which challenged the elitist nature of liberal parties.
The rise of welfare state changes nature of state and the class nature of society
What became of liberal parties after WWII
They became minor players.
They were often important for coalitions because liberalism is in balance between left and right: focus on individual rights, and more culturally open and more market oriented.
Catch-all parties rose up around this time and challenged elitist nature of liberal parties.
Also: welfare state rose up which underlines the changing nature of state and changing class nature of society
