Political Parties Flashcards
What are political parties?
- Organised groups that make nominations and contest elections in the hope of gaining control of the government
- Particular case of collective action and leadership
What are the roles of political parties?
- Electoral Success
- Set the agenda
- Enact preferred proposals
- Link society & state
- Transmission belt
- Assumes “mass” membership?
- Organise political competition
- Structure government / Provide personnel
What are the core definition of political parties?
- Burke: Principled groups
- Body of men united, for promoting by their joint endeavours the national interest, upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed
- Downs: governing coalitions
- A coalition of men seeking to control the governing apparatus by legal means
- Schlesinger
- A group organised to gain control of government in the name of the group by winning election to public office
What are the different phases of political parties?
- Tripod Model
* Party-in-Campaigns (PIC)
What is the Tripod Model of political parties?
- PIE
- Party in the electorate
- As a collection of supporters
- PO
- Party as Organization
- As a collection of members
- PIG
- Party in Government
- As a body of elites
What is the origin of political parties?
- Modern parties have emerged and evolved to address three “coordination problems”
- Internal Coordination - “Cadre parties” (PIG)
- External Coordination - “Mass Parties” (PIE)
- Networking - “Catch-all parties” (PO)
How is the internal coordination problem addressed by political parties?
- Cadre Parties (PIG)
- Organising elites within assemblies
- impetus: establishment of representative assemblies (19C)
- dilemma: how to control ‘loose fish’
- Coordinate local notables
- result: parlimentary coalisitons (PIG)
- held together through patronage
- goal: to control government
How is the external coordination problem addressed by political parties?
- Mass parties (PIE)
- Organising the mass electorate
- impetus: extension of the franchise (early 20thC)
- dilemma: how to harness the electorate
- develop a mass following
- result: parties in the electorate (PIE)
- goal: to integrate citizens and the state
How are Networking coordination problems addressed by political parties?
- Catch-all parties (PO)
- Connecting the party masses to the party elite
- impetus: the success of the mass party
- dilemma: how to link PIG & PIE
- result 1: extraparlimentary organisations (PO)
- ground campaign
- held together by solitary benefits
- “club” benefits
- Sense of belonging
- Support of a common cause
- result 2: electoral-professional parties (PIC)
- held together by the pursuit of power
- leader focuses
- goal: to win elections
- held together by the pursuit of power
What two facts are fundamental to real world political parties?
- These “party types” may coexist
- “the party” has evolved, with the fittest forms surviving
- These are “ideal types”
- in reality, parties contain elements of all three forms
What are pragmatic parties?
- Those political parties concerned primarily with winning elections
- Winning vs doctrine
- A cynical desire for power?
- Differences between parties small/overlap
- US: Republicans and Democrats
What are ideological parties?
- Those parties that emphasise ideological purity over the attainment
of power- Doctrine more important than electoral success
- Doctrine before voters
- Inflexibility
- Aus: Democrats? Greens?
What are the two types of political parties in regards to their approaches?
- Pragmatic Parties
- Ideological Parties
What is the relationship between political parties and issues?
- Political parties are based on the politicisation of issues by proposing new policy alternatives
- The number of issue dimensions (I) plus one quals the number of parties (P): I + 1 = P
What types of political party systems are there?
- One-Party System
- Two-Party System
- Two-Party Plus
- Multi-Party System (realistic chances)
