week 8 - political parties + party systems

Question 1

political party

Answer 1

a group of people that includes those who hold office and those who help get and keep them there.

Question 2

common objective of parties

Answer 2

to gain power by holding public office (office seeking) and to advance their policy goals once in office (policy-seeking).

Question 3

explanations of where parties come from

Answer 3

• demand-side (bottom-up explanation)
• supply-side (top-down explanation)

Question 4

demand-side explanation

Answer 4

there are natural cleavages in society and individuals on different sides of these cleavages form parties (also called interest articulation).

Question 5

supply-side explanation

Answer 5

entrepreneurial actors create parties to represent previously unrepresented interests (which may relate to societal cleavages) - also called interest aggregation.

Question 6

urban-rural cleavage

Answer 6

• City vs. Country dwellers.
• The main point of conflict was the price of food.
• rural individuals tended to value tradition, while urbanites favored progressive change.
• receives less attention now.

Question 7

religious cleavage

Answer 7

• Different religions against one another.
• The main point of conflict is religious belief and custom.
• Very powerful for developing a political party.

Question 8

secular-clerical cleavage

Answer 8

• Church vs. State
• The main point of conflict is whether society should be run by a religious institution or the secular state.
• formed in part on the basis of the French revolution which largely established the authority of the state.

Question 9

class cleavage

Answer 9

• Workers vs. Owners
• The main point of conflict is free market vs. state intervention.
• This gained prominence around the time of the industrial revolution.

Question 10

ethnic cleavage

Answer 10

• Different ethnic (or linguistic) groups against one another.
• The main point of conflict centers upon which ethnic group should be dominant in society.

Question 11

post-material cleavage

Answer 11

• Progressive Values vs. Tradition
• The main points of conflict are issues of multiculturalism, gender, race, sexual orientation and reproductive choice.
• It is more prominent in post-industrial societies.

Question 12

national-globalist cleavage

Answer 12

• The key concern is whether the country should be closed and autarkic or open and internationalist.
• became more salient since the rise of globalization in the 1990s and the Great Recession of 2007-2009

Question 13

purposes of parties

Answer 13

Coordination
Selection and Recruitment
Mobilization
Representation

Question 14

coordination

Answer 14

• parties operate as stable groups in the legislature.
• parties can coordinate across levels and branches of government.
• Elected officials and society organize around the same party labels.

Question 15

selection and recruitment

Answer 15

• Parties actively find people to run for office.
• People may be inspired by parties and become politically active and may run for office.

Question 16

mobilization

Answer 16

• Parties provide candidates and link these candidates to a recognizable “symbol” or idea, inducing team-like behavior.
• Parties spend money to activate members and voters; which increases voter turnout.

Question 17

representation

Answer 17

• Parties speak and act for their supporters.
• Since direct democracy is difficult, parties can help with that by representing people.

Question 18

partisanship

Answer 18

• a psychological attachment to a political party.
• a powerful predictor of attitudes and vote choice in most of the world’s democracies.
• partisanship also acts as a filter.

Question 19

single-party systems

Answer 19

• one in which only one party has a realistic chance of gaining power (of being in power).
• can be a system in which other parties are disallowed from power.
• can be in democratic countries as well.
• multiple parties may legally operate but have little chance of unseating the dominant party.

Question 20

two-party systems

Answer 20

• one in which only two major parties have a realistic chance of gaining power.
• pure two-party systems (can be rare), two parties have a duopoly on governing.
• some countries have 2+ party systems in which there are two main parties and several smaller ones.

Question 21

multiparty system

Answer 21

• one in which more than two parties have a realistic chance of gaining power.
• has more than 2 major parties with opportunities to govern (these are the most common).

Question 22

what can multiparty systems be

Answer 22

• Relatively fragmented (many small parties)
• Relatively concentrated (few large parties)

Question 23

reasons for differences in the number of parties across countries

Answer 23

- the electoral system
- political social cleavages

Question 24

the electoral system as a reason for the differences in the number of parties across countries

Answer 24

• In PR systems, even small parties get seats
• people aren’t afraid of ‘wasting their vote.’

Question 25

political social cleavages

Answer 25

Parties often form to represent politicized cleavages.

Question 26

where do we see lots of political parties

Answer 26

in high socioethnic fractionalization and high Proportionality

Question 27

left-leaning party families

Answer 27

• Communist (C): Seek wealth redistribution and public ownership of means of production; often skeptical of the democratic system.
• Socialist/Social Democrat/Labor (SD): Represent the working class, do not advocate an overthrow of the capitalist economy; work within the democratic system; tend to support “modern” (progressive) values.
• Liberal (L) : Support the free market; tend to support “modern” values.
• Greens (G): Relatively new parties that combine environmentalism, feminism and social libertarianism.

Question 28

right-leaning parties

Answer 28

• Christian Democratic/Conservative (CD): Support the free market; sometimes favor support of Christian institutions and morality; tend to support “traditional” values.
• Radical Right-Wing Populists (RRP): Nationalist; skeptical of immigration and support the dominant ethnicity; support order and rule of law; “traditional” values.

Question 29

how does the electoral system affect party polarization

Answer 29

• Proportional electoral systems allow parties to gravitate toward the extremes, where they can try to win votes from fringe groups
• In a non-PR system, this would be a losing strategy.

Question 30

what does the spread of parties affects

Answer 30

• the quality of representation
• the ability of government to get things done
• media coverage of “small-party issues”
• satisfaction with democracy and voter turnout

Question 31

quality of representation

Answer 31

where there are more parties, people feel more represented.

Question 32

the ability of government to get things done.

Answer 32

• More parties could mean less likely to get a majority.
• there is a lot more gridlock in fractionalized party systems.

Question 33

Media coverage of “small-party issues”

Answer 33

the media tends to cover things that matter to smaller parties.

Question 34

satisfaction with democracy and voter turnout

Answer 34

Turnout and satisfaction tends to be higher with more parties

Question 35

theories on polarization in the U.S.

Answer 35

• Gerrymandering
• Geographic sorting: likeminded people have moved to similar areas.
• Primary elections: Only the most involved and most ideological turn out to vote.
• Increased income inequality