Hoorcollege 2: party families and liberalism

Question 1

Supply side

Answer 1

Party system

Question 2

Internal supply

Answer 2

How political parties organize/function. The political ideology, the party itself. Internal supply is made up of how parties compete.

Question 3

External supply

Answer 3

The party system itself, how parties compete, the context within which parties are competing.

Question 4

Demand side

Answer 4

Society in a larger sense. How society is structured. Important for society are cleavages, which lead to attitudes, and the economy.
How and why individuals are embedded in society.

Question 5

Political party

Answer 5

A political party has an organizing role and is the link between parliament, government, policy and citizens. It aggregates interests and has a mobilization function.

Question 6

Why does Robert Dahl think that parties are important?

Answer 6

True democracy is about direct representation. But with the rise of the nation state, representation is only possible via a representative. Parties are needed for the linkage between government and society. Polyarchy (existing democracy) is about representative democracy.

Question 7

Why does Nadia Urbinati think that parties are important?

Answer 7

Party democracy is about mediation between citizen and representators. There is contestation between parties over ideas, the common good, etc. This enhances discussions about what actually are common goods, etc, but also enhances pluralism.

Question 8

Why does Anthony Downs think that parties are important?

Answer 8

Social and political issues are complex, but most citizens don’t have the time or knowledge to be fully informed. Parties are information reducers. They reduce information to digestible pieces. Parties allow the people to embed their choices in the bigger story. Ideologies can make choices easier for people, they can choose a certain ideology and then don’t have to think about every single problem, but only have to say that they want something done in the way of a certain ideology.
Parties make politics less complex.

Question 9

Why doesn’t David van Reybrouck think that parties are important?

Answer 9

Critical of elections. The answer is sortition, individuals must be randomly chosen to represent the country. Policy is not ideology, there’s an objective truth and anyone can find that objective truth. Anyone can make a policy.

Question 10

How can parties be grouped?

Answer 10

1. By how they organise
2. By their ideas
3. By their supportters
4. By their alliances

Question 11

How to decide who belongs to a party family?

Answer 11

Look at
1. sociological origins
2. transnational federations,
3. policy and ideology
4. the name.
Sociological origins: look at the historical background of a party and at the type of voters a party gets (cleavages!). Problem: what’s the difference between communist and social democratic party? Both come out of same historical context.
Transnational federations: parties often join together into international organizations. This can be problematic, because sometimes parties are in the same organization, but have different ideologies.
Policy and ideology: This is in many ways one of the best ways, because it goes to the crux of the ideas of the party.
It looks at parties’ identity and policies.
Name: often works, look at social democratic and christian democratic parties for example. But names don’t always tell you where they want to belong.

Conclusion: best ways are sociological origins and policy and ideology.

Question 12

Features of an ideology

Answer 12

(a) advance an account of the existing order, usually in the form of a ‘world view’ (b) outline a model of the desired future, a vision of the ‘good society’ (c) explain how political change can and should be brought about – how to get from (a) to (b).

Question 13

Thick ideology

Answer 13

Full worldview on a full range of policy fields.

Question 14

Thin ideology

Answer 14

Thin ideologies don’t have a full worldview. It needs another ideology to give it content. Examples of this are populism or nationalism. They don’t really have a specific opinion on education for example.

Question 15

Why are ideas important for party families?

Answer 15

Ideas are important for mobilizing voters. They serve as a simplification process and as an identity creating role. They are important for alliances and coalitions, and for policies.

Question 16

Mainstream party families/ideologies

Answer 16

1. Liberals
2. Conservatives
3. Social democrats
4. Christian democrats.

Question 17

New party families/ideologies

Answer 17

Populists, radical right and the new left-greens

Question 18

The ideology of classical liberalism (J.S. Mill)

Answer 18

1. The individual is an agent and a rational, autonomous being.
2. They have to have the freedom to choose, to be mobile, etc.
3. Individuals have the capacity to reason.
4. There is a notion of a just society, which is based on a set of rules, constitutions, etc.
5. There is toleration for minorities.

Question 19

Characteristics of classical liberalism

Answer 19

Classical liberalism was embedded in an elite/cadre party. It has a loose organisation and not much link with civil society because it didn’t have the intent to mobilise the masses but a small middle class part of society. This changed in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Question 20

What did the liberals do in the early 19th century?

Answer 20

Rising bourgeoisie and middle class who challenge traditional hierarchies. Opposed traditional classes: landowners, monarchs, the church, etc. and fought for constitutional reforms and personal liberties.

Question 21

What happened to the liberals in the late 19th century?

Answer 21

They disappeared or became smaller parties, because of the growing in suffrage and of the working class, because new voters turned to socialist parties and because of a new challenge to liberalism and liberal parties: mass parties.

Question 22

Post WWII challenges

Answer 22

Party systems really started to form. There was a rise of the catchall party which challenges the elitist nature of the liberal parties. The rise of the welfare state changes the nature of the state and the class nature of society.

Question 23

What became of liberal parties after WW2?

Answer 23

They became minor players, but were often important for coalitions because liberalism is in general balance between left and right: focus on individual rights, is more culturally open and more market oriented. Catch-all parties rose up around this time and they challenged the elitist nature of the liberal parties. Also: the welfare state rose up which underlines the changing nature of the state and the changing class nature of society.

Question 24

Classical liberals

Answer 24

Are center-right on economics and blurry on culture.

Question 25

Social liberals

Answer 25

Are more left-wing regarding culture and social issues.

Question 26

Conservative liberals

Answer 26

Are more center-right in terms of culture and in terms of economics.

Question 27

How has the support for liberal parties in general changed from the 19th century to the post-WW2 era?

Answer 27

In the 19th century the support mainly came from the middle class, the educated, and from new businesses. In the post-WW2 era the support came from the educated, the professionals (lawyers, teachers), and from businesses.

Question 28

What does support for the classical liberals look like?

Answer 28

Support comes from broader segments of the middle class, higher educated people, professionals and people who support liberal social values.

Question 29

What does support for the social liberals look?

Answer 29

Support comes from the middle class, the educated people and professionals. There is also more support for new cultural issues, the climate is more important and social liberals are more left-wing in terms of economic issues.

Question 30

What does support for the conservative liberals look like?

Answer 30

Support comes from the broader segments of the middle class, the educated people and professionals. But also lower educated people support conservative liberals, so education doesn’t play as big of a role. Economic issues are more important and new issues such as the climate are less important.

Question 31

The focus on economic or cultural issues for a liberal party depends on…

Answer 31

Party competition, the role that the party is trying to play in the bigger context, and differs across different parties.