party systems Flashcards
one party system
Only one party allowed to operate - authoritarian regime and not democratic - examples: Cuba, North Korea and China - Communist parties
dominant party system
Only one party really having a chance of taking governmental power - but other parties are still allowed to operate freely. They are stable but there’s not much accountability or competition.
Example: Scotland with the SNP
two party system
Only 2 parties out of all have a high chance of forming a government - win the vast majority of votes in an election and most of the seats in representative assemblies of state.
Example: USA
Two-and-a-half party system
There are 2 main parties in elections, but a sizeable third party too - that holds the balance of power between the 2 main parties. Rare that the third party forms part of the government.
Example: Canada, UKish
Multi-party system
Several parties competing for votes and power. No ‘set number’ of parties but more than 2 parties are realistically able to make it into government. These systems may look more fragile, they are less volatile and there are parties that are still regularly in government.
Example: Italy and Germany
all pms since 1945
labour or conservative - shows there IS a 2 party system
elections since 2010
2-4 have resulted in hung parliaments = 2010 coalition with lib dems and 2017 confidence and supply agreement between DUP and tories - NOT ONLY 2 PARTY SYSTEM
influence of smaller parties - negative
minimal influence. in the cases where smaller parties have been part of government, they haven’t had power particularly - lib dems could not uphold their manifesto in coalition, DUP did not gain power from their agreement, only funds - 2 PARTY SYSTEM
influence of smaller parties - positive
UKIP and Brexit party pushed for brexit and put pressure on Conservative party as they were taking votes away from them - NOT 2 PARTY SYSTEM
voting system in UK
FPTP greatly disadvantages smaller parties - proportional representation better, that’s why parties like UKIP did better in EU parliament - 2 PARTY SYSTEM
voting system in devolved regions
Holyrood (Scotland), Senedd
(Wales), and Stormont (NI) all don’t use FPTP within them - they use more proportional systems so smaller parties do better. In all devolved assemblies but Wales, non English parties dominate. NOT 2 PARTY SYSTEM
