Parties and the Party System Flashcards
With the extension of suffrage, political parties structured themselves to fulfill what three main issues?
- Political campaigns’ requirements
- Professionalization of political representatives
- Ideological identification
What were the first contemporary parties?
UK: Labor Party, Liberal Party, Conservative Party
France: French Section of the Workers’ International, Radical Party, Democratic Republican Alliance
Germany: Social Democratic Party, National Liberty Party, Zentrum, Christian Social Party
What are cleavages and who use them to describe political party differences?
Define a society by its instrumental and functional characteristics that separate and cause conflict among them. Rokkan and Lipset.
What 4 cleavages do Rokkan and Lipset focus on?
- centre-periphery: national vs supranational religion for example
- state-church: secular versus religious authority over policy
- land-industry: balance between agriculture and industry regarding taxes, quotas, and tariffs
- owner-worker: labor exploitation and control over the means of production
What do Rokkan and Lipset argue about cleavage?
Cleavages are frozen, no new parties but adjustment to the past.
Assumptions of Neo-cleavage theory
- party systems arise form exogenous social change
- new political parties rise on new cleavages
- new cleavages become solidified among voters while old divides lose power
What is the most important cleavage in a European context?
Transnationalism
What is a good indicator to use for comparing democratic competition?
Party System
Duverger’s Law
Number of parties can be explained by the electoral system.
- simple majority single ballot system favors two party
- simple majority two round system favors multipartism
- proportional representation favors multipartism
How did Maurive Duverger describe ideological parties?
“mass parties”
What notion did Otto Kirchheimer develop regarding ideology?
“Catch all party” to explain the process of de-ideologization.
Richard Katz and Peter Mair ‘s arguement?
ideological parties formed then cartel parties to
maintain political elites in power.
What are families?
Political ideologies sharing characteristics. Strong Homogeneity
How is there an ideological convergence between families?
Because of Europe and European Integration.
