Party Systems 1

Question 1

How does Downs describe what Parties can do to make Voters choices easier?

Answer 1

Provide “information shortcuts”

Question 2

What is the term given to a voter’s attachment to a particular political party?

Answer 2

Party Identification

Question 3

Who recruits and socialises the political elites?

Answer 3

The parties

Role is often more important in parliamentary systems

Question 4

Why can presidents select non-partisan members in relation to the legislature?

Answer 4

President has less need to negotiate with political parties in the legislature over composition of cabinet

Question 5

What effect to the primaries have on the traditional role of parties?

Answer 5

Weakens it as candidates appeal directly to voters rather than using the parties for recruitment and socialising
Outsiders can enter office

Question 6

What role to parties play in mobilising the masses?

Answer 6

They encourage people to vote

Question 7

What happens to cabinet ministers who defy the whip?

Answer 7

Immediately dismissed if not already resigned

Question 8

What are examples of one-party dominant systems in states that are considered democratic?

Answer 8

• ANC in SA since 94
• Democratic Party in Southern US from 1880s to 1960s
• Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Jap from 55-93

Question 9

What describes the number of parties that win votes?

Answer 9

The EFFECTIVE NUMBER OF ELECTORAL PARTIES

Question 10

What are the two views on where parties come from?

Answer 10

• Primordial

- Instrumental

Question 11

What is the primordial view of parties?

Answer 11

• Natural representations of people who share common interests
• takes as a given that there are natural divisions or cleavages in society

Question 12

What is the primordial view also referred as?

Answer 12

The “bottom-up” approach to party formation

Question 13

What does the instrumental view of party formation see the party as?

Answer 13

• Teams of office seekers
• Focuses on the role played by political elites and entrepreneurs
• “Top Down approach”
• May create cleavages through division

Question 14

Who argued that the European party systems became “frozen” with the achievement of universal suffrage during the 20s?

Answer 14

Lipset and Rokken

• Used to explain why the ideological dimensions of most European parties are so similar

Question 15

What parties does Kitschelt suggest challenge the FREEZING HYPOTHESIS?

Answer 15

The new left-libertarian parties in Europe that emerged in the sixties and seventies

Question 16

What does Kitschelt believes contributes to the growth of Left-Libertarian parties like the Greens?

Answer 16

A strong level of development in a country

Question 17

While Left-Libertarian parties are growing on the left, what is occurring on the right?

Answer 17

Populist parties with anti-immigration sentiments

Question 18

Who said that the primary engine behind the formation of political parties can be found in social division?

Answer 18

DUVERGER - The more divisions that there are, the more parties to form.

The electoral institutions then determine the extent to which this demand is translated into seats

Question 19

What is Duverger’s law?

Answer 19

SMDP encourages a two-party system

Question 20

Who has said that parties have become “Cartel Parties” intent on capturing the state and then using the state’s resources to preserve their party’s position of power?

Answer 20

KATZ AND MAIR

Question 21

Who developed the CLEAVAGE MODEL?

Answer 21

LIPSET AND ROKKAN

Question 22

What is the cleavage model?

Answer 22

• Parties form along the deep-rooted DIVISIONS that exist in society
• The objective of these parties will be to introduce policies that benefit their supporters
• Therefore primarily motivated by PURSUIT OF POLICY

Question 23

What countries have only one main cleavage so two main parties?

Answer 23

US, UK, Australia

Question 24

What is Down’s model of politics?

Answer 24

The STRATEGIC ACTOR MODEL

Question 25

What does the strategic actor model assume?

Answer 25

• People seek office to enjoy the benifits
• Suggests parties are office-seeking
• Will ∴ adjust policy to get voters

Question 26

Who does Down’s believe the parties will concentrate on?

Answer 26

The median voter

The parties will converge on centrist policies

Question 27

How does the Down’s model of convergence allow for the greens?

Answer 27

Because the main parties concentrate on the centre they fail to address environmental issue

Question 28

How does Downs compare the government to entrepreneurs?

Answer 28

In that they sell policies for votes much in the way an entrepreneur would sell products for money