scholarly journals Federal and Political Party Reforms in Asia: Is There a New Model of Federal Democracy Emerging in Ethnically Diverse Countries in Asia?

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Michael G. Breen
Keyword(s):  
Political Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
Ethnically Diverse ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
The West ◽  
New Model ◽  
Coalition Governments ◽  
Ethnic Parties ◽  
Democratic Stability ◽  
High Diversity

Abstract How do ethnically divided countries create inclusive and stable democratic institutions? Why do some kinds of federalism fail while others evolve? Scholars looking for answers to these kinds of questions have tended to focus on the West. Yet there are important lessons arising from the substantial democratic and federal reforms that have taken place in Asia over the last few decades. These reforms signal a new model of federal democracy in Asia, comprising multilevel ethnoterritorial federalism, mixed-majoritarianism and a party system that includes both ethnic and multi-ethnic parties. This model has emerged as a response to ethnic conflict and secession risks and reflects the high diversity of clustered communities and cross-cutting cleavages. Despite its overarching majoritarianism, the federal model has led to highly fragmented party systems and coalition governments, with positive implications for democratic stability. Together, these features go some way towards blending otherwise conflicting consociational and centripetal paradigms.

Segmental Volatility in Ethnically Divided Societies: (Re)assessing Party System Stability in Southeast Europe

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Damir Kapidžić ◽  
Olivera Komar
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Party System ◽  
Ethnically Diverse ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
System Stability ◽  
Southeast Europe ◽  
East European ◽  
Ethnic Parties ◽  
Stabilizing Factors

Abstract This article examines the role of ethnicity and ethnic parties as stabilizing factors in Southeast European party systems. It compares two ethnically divided countries in Southeast Europe: Bosnia and Herzegovina, where ethnic identities that form the political cleavage are firm, and Montenegro, where they are malleable. Theoretically, it addresses the debate between scholars who either find stability or instability in East European post-communist party systems. The article traces the role of ethnicity in the formation and development of electoral contests and compares the two cases by utilizing measures of block volatility, based on analysis of official electoral data. We argue that party systems in ethnically diverse countries are stable at the subsystems level, but unstable within them. In BiH, firm ethnic identity stabilizes the party system by limiting competition between blocks, leading to closure. Malleable ethnic identity in Montenegro opens competition to non-ethnic parties seeking to bridge ethnic divisions, leading to more instability. We find that party system dynamics in ethnically divided new democracies depend on identity rigidity and cleavage salience, in addition to levels of heterogeneity.

The German Greens in the 1980s: Short-term Cyclical Protest or Indicator of Transformation?

1989 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ferdinand Müller-Rommel
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Popular Vote ◽  
Short Term ◽  
The West ◽  
Green Party ◽  
Social Bases ◽  
New Type ◽  
First Time ◽  
Political Scene

In the West German general election of 1983 the newly formed Green Party received 5.6 per cent of the popular vote and was (at only its second attempt) able to send 27 delegates to the federal Parliament (Bundestag). It was the first time since the 1950s that a new party had joined the three major parties (SPD, CDU-CSU, FDP) in the federal Parliament. In the 1987 federal election the Green Party achieved an even better result: it received 8.3 per cent of the popular vote and 42 seats in the federal Parliament. Because of this remarkable success the analysis of the Green Party in Germany has become a major research object in political science. Several studies have described the development of the Green Party, its social bases, its organizational structure and its ideology.1 However, these findings have not been related to the role as well as the function of the Green Party in the West German party system. This research note represents such an attempt. The debate on ‘realignment’ and ‘dealignment’ of West European party systems is the most useful in this respect.2 Is the Green Party vulnerable and consequently likely to disappear from the political scene or will it become a stable component of the party system? It is hypothesized that the Green Party will consolidate its position as the fourth party in the German party system because it is a ‘new type of party’ that differs significantly from the established parties and hence can mobilize its own voter clientele.

Party Systems and Government Stability in the Indian States

1977 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 1384-1405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul R. Brass
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Indian States ◽  
Leadership Skill ◽  
Dominant Party ◽  
Coalition Governments ◽  
Indian State ◽  
Degree Of Fragmentation

This paper contributes to the substantive and methodological discussion of the issues concerning the causes of cabinet instability through analysis of data from Indian state politics. The focus of the analysis is on explaining the duration of Indian state governments in days with variables measuring the degree of fragmentation and cohesion in the party system, the composition of the cabinet, the characteristics of the opposition, and the role of ideological differences. A substantial amount of the variation in the durability of coalition governments is explained with variables that measure the degree of party system institutionalization and the extent of political opportunism, but ideological factors do not explain much of the differences in durability of governments. It is also found that none of the measures used can explain much of the variation in one-party majority governments for which, it is argued, explanations must be sought that focus on leadership skill and on relationships between leaders and factions in a dominant party.

Size Does Matter

2021 ◽  
pp. 169-189
Author(s):  
Fernando Casal Bértoa ◽  
Zsolt Enyedi
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Party System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Effective Number ◽  
The West ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Party System Institutionalization ◽  
Concentrated Systems

The eighth chapter looks into inter-temporal and cross-sectional differences in the effective number of parliamentary parties, and analyses the covariation between closure and fragmentation. The chapter allows us to revisit classical debates in comparative politics about the merits and vices of two- and multi-party systems. After showing how the inter-war and post-Cold War years were more fragmented than other periods, we find that concentrated systems tend to breed stability, and if they do not, then they often do not survive. And yet, there is only a moderate, far from deterministic, relationship between closure and fragmentation. In particular, we found that the recent proliferation of parties in the West poses a challenge to party system institutionalization.

Institutionalization and De-institutionalization in Post-communist Party Systems

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 422-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zsolt Enyedi ◽  
Fernando Casal Bértoa
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
The West ◽  
Electoral Volatility ◽  
Lively Debate ◽  
East West

This article is part of the special cluster titled Parties and Democratic Linkage in Post-Communist Europe, guest edited by Lori Thorlakson, and will be published in the August 2018 issue of EEPS In an article written in 1995 titled “What Is Different about Postcommunist Party Systems?” Peter Mair applied the method that he called “ ex adverso extrapolation.” He matched his knowledge of the process of consolidation of party systems in the West with what was known at that time about Eastern European history, society, and the emerging post-communist party politics. Considering factors such as the existence of fluid social structures, the weakness of civil society, or the destabilizing impact of the so-called triple transition, his article predicted long-term instability for the region. In the present article, we evaluate the validity of Mair’s predictions, thereby also contributing to a lively debate in the current literature about the scale and nature of East–West differences and about the trajectories of the two regions. Going beyond the identification of cross-regional similarities and differences, we also differentiate between individual party systems, establish subgroups, and describe changes across time. Using four major dimensions (i.e., party system closure, party-level stability, electoral volatility, and fragmentation), the article finds that Mair’s predictions were largely, though not in every detail, right. Ironically, however, we also find that changes in the West tend to match over time the trajectory of the East.

scholarly journals The current state of the nationalization of the party systems in the Slovak Republic and Ukraine

2021 ◽  
Vol 188 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 47-57
Author(s):  
Mykhailo Shelemba ◽  
◽  
Marta Shelemba ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
Slovak Republic ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Entry Barrier ◽  
Political Force ◽  
Current State ◽  
Political Forces

The paper assesses the current state of the nationalization of the party systems in the Slovak Republic and Ukraine based on the results of the latest parliamentary elections. By using formalized methods, the authors of the paper analyzed the composition of the party systems at the empirical level. The results of the conducted research show that the party landscape of the Ukrainian Parliament has changed in the direction of electoral preferences in favour of new participants of the political process. The analysis with the use of the Nagayama triangle showed that the electoral advantage of one political party was provided in most of the regions of Ukraine (the political party «Servant of the People»). Under the M. Jones’ and S. Mainwaring’s technique, a high level of the party system nationalization (0.70) was established while conducting the research. According to the methodology by G. Golosov, a Russian scientist, the nationalization index in 2019 was equal to 0.56. It was proved that the factors of presidentialism, socio-political delimitations of the political regime, forms of government, the entry barrier, and regionalization have impacted nationalization of the party system. Six political parties entered the Slovak Parliament. With the opposition center-right conservative political force «Ordinary People and Independent Individuals» being the leader of this election campaign. Parliament’s The assessment of the Slovak Parliament with the use of the Nagayama triangle shows that in most parts of Slovakia, no political force has been formed as a result of the elections, which would dominate the level of voters support and that competition provides a minimum gap between the two political forces. The analysis indicated that the nationalization of the party system of the Slovak Republic is 0.89 (the high value) according to the Jones and Mainwaring method and 0.67 (the above-average value) with regard to the Golosov method, being a higher value compared to a relatively similar indicator for Ukraine. It should be emphasized that the main factors impacting the actual state of the studied indicator were the entry barrier and the political regime in the country. The predominance in the level of nationalization of the party system of Slovakia, if compared with the relevant indicator in Ukraine is due to the fact that all political forces that entered the National Council of the Slovak Republic are stable and participate in electoral cycles.

Partisans without Parties: Party Systems as Partisan Inhibitors?

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-39
Author(s):  
Jason Roy ◽  
Anna Lennox Esselment
Keyword(s):  
Political Party ◽  
Preliminary Analysis ◽  
Party System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Canadian Context ◽  
Limited Support ◽  
Political Party System ◽  
Canadian Provinces ◽  
The Impact

AbstractIn this work we offer results drawn from a dataset of a post-provincial election survey in eight Canadian provinces to assess the impact of party system congruency on partisanship. We postulate that partisanship will be more likely and stronger in provinces that share a similar political party system to the federal level. We extend this preliminary analysis to test the underlying mechanism by examining the impact holding partisan ties at the provincial level has on the likelihood and strength of federal identification, according to party system similarity. Our results show very limited support for the party system congruency factor, raising further questions of its applicability in the Canadian context.

Party Systems and Government Stability

1971 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Taylor ◽  
V. M. Herman
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Parliamentary Democracies ◽  
Coalition Governments ◽  
Government Stability ◽  
Strong Relation ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Opposition Parties

Arguments are presented for and against a series of hypotheses about the influence of the parliamentary party system on the stability of governments, and the hypotheses are tested against data on 196 governments in parliamentary democracies since 1945. A strong relation is found between the duration of governments and the fragmentation of the parliamentary party system and of the government parties, but the fragmentation of the opposition parties seems not to affect stability. One-party governments are more stable than coalition governments, and majority governments more than minority governments. The ideological dispersion of the parties—in the whole parliament, in the government, or in the opposition—does not explain stability any better than fragmentation, which is based upon only the number and sizes of parties; but the proportion of seats held by ‘anti-system’ parties (communists and neo-fascists, mainly) is a good indicator of stability. The best explanation of government stability found here is the combined linear influence of the size of the anti-system parties and the fragmentation of the pro-system parties.

13. Party systems

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Caramani
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Competitive Interactions ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Multiparty Systems

This chapter examines how competition between political parties gives rise to different party systems. In liberal democracies, competition for power is based on popular votes. The shape and dynamics of party systems are determined by the electoral game, with parties as main actors. A party system is thus essentially the result of competitive interactions between parties. A party system has three main elements: which parties exist, how many parties exist and how big they are, and how parties behave. An obvious but important point is that party systems must be composed of more than one political party. The chapter begins with a discussion of the origins of party systems, followed by an analysis of the format of party systems, such as two-party systems and multiparty systems. It then considers the influence of the electoral system on party systems before concluding with an assessment of the dynamics of party systems.

scholarly journals Party Systems and Factionalism in Timor-Leste

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-186
Author(s):  
Dennis Shoesmith
Keyword(s):  
Political Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
East Timor ◽  
National Parliament ◽  
Minor Parties ◽  
Contemporary Politics ◽  
Timor Leste ◽  
Political Party System ◽  
Organizational Character

This study identifies and explains the factors that have shaped the evolution of the competitive political party system in East Timor from its beginnings in the 1970s to the difficult and sometimes violent transition since independence in 2002 towards a semi-developed competitive party system. It reviews the organizational character of the two major Parties: FRETILIN and the CNRT and the minor parties in the national parliament and the nature of intra-party factionalism in contemporary politics in what is an under-institutionalized and a predominantly personalistic system.

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