Political parties and party systems Flashcards
what is a political party - Burke
“a body of men united for promoting by their joint endeavours the national interest, upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed”
what do political parties do
- mobilise the masses
- create links between rulers and the ruled
- structure political world interest
- provide recruitment and socialisation of political elites
- organise democracy
until the 20th century, why were parties bad for democracy
- try to promote only one part of a general will
- advance the private interests of parties’ supporters rather than the common public interest
- prevent politicians from representing their constituents’ interests
- lead to polarisation and political instability
how can parties be seen to be good for democracy
- selecting candidates that are qualified and credible
- aggregating preferences to create policy choice and competition
- mobilise citizens by enhancing participation
what are the two theories of parties
- the cleavage model
- the strategic actor model
what is the cleavage model of parties argued by Lipset and Rokkan
- formed and sustained by social cleavages
- mass-based organisations
- appeal to and represent particular social groups
- primarily policy seeking and will not compromise policy promises to win/remain in office
what did Lipset and Rokkan argue about party competition
long standing social conflicts predating the emergence of the mass franchise helped to structure political competition
what were the four major cleavages identified by Lipset and Rokkan
- center periphery (territorial)
- religious secular (church versus state)
- urban rural
- labour capital
what is the strategic actor model of parties argued by Downs
- formed by like-minded politicians
- elite organisations
- appeal to “pivotal voters”
- primarily office seeking and will compromise policy promises to win/remain in office
what are the main changes in party competition since 1970
- issue competition
- the changing western European electorate
what is issue competition argued by Carmines and Stimson
party competition on which issues should dominate the party political agenda. Implies that where party competition used to be almost entirely about positional competition in relation to socio-economic issues, it is today characterised by a combination of positional and issue competition
what can be said about the change in western European electorate behaviour
- decline of social-structural voting, especially class voting and religion based voting (Dalton)
- increase in electoral volatility, voters are increasingly incline to change their voter (Mair)
what is a potential process that has replaced social-structural voting
the increased importance of issue voting
what does Inglehart argue about postmaterialism and party competition
- “hierarchy of needs” organises human goals by urgency
- socialisation, voters values and political priorities are formed early in adulthood and remain relatively fixed thereafter
What do Kriesi et al argye about globalisation and party competition
the critical process driving the emergence of a new cleavage, generating a conflict between globalisation winners and losers - says that this is shaped by the existing party system and political nature of each national context
what do Kriesi et al argue about parties positions on the new dimension
have failed to take clear positions as it divides them internally, therefore the mobilisation occurs via the emergence of new parties, in particular radical right partiers
