comp5 Flashcards
Democracies are at times categorized according to their
party systems
Social Cleavages, Party Systems, and Party Competition
- Political Scientists focus on the size and number of parties in a country
- They make a distinction between countries with two parties like the United States, and countries with multiparty systems like the Netherlands
- A country’s party system results from the complex interplay of both social and institutional forces
Political party
a group of officials or would be officials linked
with a sizeable group of citizens into an organization; a key objective of the organization is to make sure that officials attain power or are maintained in power”
In simple terms, a political party is
a group of people including
office holders and those who get and keep them there
Primary goal of a political party is to
get power
The distinction between parties and interest groups ( such as the National Rifle Association), is that -
the latter seeks to influence policy without taking power
Five types of party systems
nonpartisan, single-party, one-party dominant, two-party, and multiparty
Single-party systems are -, nonpartisan and single- party are rare in -. Democracies are therefore categorized as -
dictatorships, democracies, two-party systems ( USA) or multiparty systems (Netherlands)
One-party dominant system
multiple parties are allowed to exist but only one has the realistic chance of winning
Two-party system
only two major political parties have a realistic chance of holding power
Multi-party
more than two parties have the realistic chance of holding power
Effective number of parties
a measure used to count political parties
* This measure counts every party in a system but first weighs them by their size:-
Vote share - measuring the effective number of electoral parties
Seat share – measuring the effective number of legislative parties
-This lets us know how many parties won seats in the
legislature and how these seats are distributed across the different parties
Where Do Parties Come From?
Two views by political scientists:-
1. Primordial
2. Instrumental
Primordial party formation view
parties are the natural
representatives of people with shared common interests. There are “natural” divisions, or cleavages in society which groups of individuals form around, leading to the emergence
of political parties that represent these interests. Bottoms-up approach to party formation
Instrumental view of party formation
sees parties as teams
of office seekers, focuses on political elites and entrepreneur’s role. Top-down approach to party formation
Political Parties and Social Cleavages
The key function of a political party in a democracy is to
represent, articulate, and champion its members interests. This implies that the types of political parties in a country are related
to the country’s social cleavages or divisions
Types of Political Parties and Social Cleavages
- Urban-Rural Cleavage
- Confessional Cleavage
- Secular-Clerical Cleavage
- Class Cleavage
- Post-Material Cleavage
- Ethnic and Linguistic Cleavages
Number of Parties: Duverger’s Theory
- According to Duverger, the primary engine behind party
formation is in social divisions. The more divisions there are, the greater the demand for party formation - The way the membership is distributed across the divisions is a determinant of the pressures for distinctive representation
- What is key in a country’s social culture influencing parties
demand is not necessarily the total number of cleavages, but
rather the total number of cross-cutting cleavages - The logic here is that the social pressure for distinctive
representation and a large party system is dependent on the number of cleavages in a country, and increases with the degree to which these cleavages are cross cutting than reinforcing
Why does an increase in the number of cleavages have a
different effect on the size of party systems in different countries?
- Shift to post-materialist values was greater in some countries than in others
- Duverger argues that it is likely because of the electoral
institutions (electoral rules) in different countries. He asserts that disproportional electoral systems such as the SMDP
system act as a “brake” on the likelihood for social cleavages to turn into new parties
Duverger’s theory – increasing the number of cleavages in a country has -
less of an effect on the size of the party system if the
electoral system is disproportional than if it is proportional. The two reasons for why disproportional electoral systems have this moderating effect are referred to as “mechanical” and “strategic” effects of electoral laws
the mechanical effect of electoral laws
- Refers to the way votes are translated into seats
- Punishes small parties and rewards large ones
- The reward and punishment extent is dependent on how
proportional the system is . The higher the disproportionality (SMDP), the more likely the large parties will be rewarded and the small parties punished (hard to win seats)
The Strategic Effects of Electoral Laws
- Is how the way in which votes are translated to seats influences the strategic behavior of voters and elites
- Because of how the mechanical effect of disproportional electoral systems punishes small parties and rewards large
ones, voters are incentivized to engage in strategic voting while the political elites have an incentive to strategically gain entry - Disproportional electoral systems create incentives for
the political elite to engage in strategic entry. This refers to the decision by political elites on whether to enter the political scene under the label of their most preferred party or under the label
of their most preferred party with a realistic chance of wining
Summarizing Duverger’s Theory
- The size of a country’s system depends on the complex interplay of both social and institutional forces.
- A country’s social structure characteristics provide the driving force behind the formation of parties
- The more cross-cutting cleavages, the more distinct positions that need to be represented
- Whether these distinct positions are ultimately translated into distinct parties, depends on the proportionality of the system
Duverger’s law
Single –member district plurality systems encourage two-party systems
