Party Systems and the Representation of Social Groups

1960 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seymour Martin Lipset
Keyword(s):  
Max Weber ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Democratic Process ◽  
Undue Influence ◽  
Sociological Tradition

Sociologists and laymen have often seemed to differ over the nature of democracy. Public opinion generally gives prominence to the freedom of citizens to elect representatives, and until recently political scientists devoted most of their attention to the instituted rules which safeguard these rights and make them effective. The sociologist's concentration upon elites and social processes must often haye seemed, to both layman and political scientist, to blur the distinctions between democracy and totalitarian or aristocratic forms of government. This difference in emphasis sometimes reflects the gap between wish and reality; sometimes, however, it is due to the sociologist's excessive neglect of formal institutions. In this omission, the sociologist is frequently suffering from the undue influence of certain ideas in the sociological tradition, which, when first stated, were salutary correctives of older misconceptions. Thus Max Weber and Joseph Schumpeter stressed, as the distinctive and most valuable feature of democracy, the formation of the political elite in a competitive struggle for the votes of a mainly passive electorate (I). On account of its heritage of ideas, sociology has yet to create the single theory which will give due weight to the autonomy of legally-constituted elites as well as to the influence of the various other social groups involved in the democratic process.

PaReSoGo: Dataset on party representation of social groups for 25 countries, 2002–2016

2021 ◽  
pp. 135406882110238
Author(s):  
Olga Zelinska ◽  
Joshua K Dubrow
Keyword(s):  
Social Groups ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Dissimilarity Index ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Measure Representation ◽  
Gender And Age ◽  
The Masses

Whereas social scientists have devised various ways to measure representation gaps between the political elite and the masses across nations and time, few datasets can be used to measure this gap for particular social groups. Minding the gap between what parties social groups vote for and what parties actually attain seats in parliament can reveal the position of social groups in the political power structure. We help to fill this gap with a new publicly available dataset, Party Representation of Social Groups (PaReSoGo), consisting of 25 countries and 150 country-years, and a method for its construction. We used the European Social Survey 2002–2016 and ParlGov data for this time span to create a Dissimilarity Index. To demonstrate the utility and flexibility in the combination of cross-national surveys and administrative data, we chose social groups of gender, age, and education, as well as intersectional groups based on gender and age, and attitudinal groups. We conclude this research note with empirical illustrations of PaReSoGo’s use.

International Courts in Latin America and the Caribbean

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Salvatore Caserta
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
International Courts ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Caribbean

This introductory chapter presents the main theoretical and methodological issues of the book. In terms of theory, the chapter explains that the book relies on the concept of de facto authority, according to which international courts become authoritative and powerful when their rulings are endorsed by relevant audiences in their practices. To complement this approach, the chapter explains that the book proposes five original analytical markers, which are central for analysing and explaining the social processes through which international courts, in general, and regional economic courts, in particular, gain or lose de facto authority. These are: (i) the nature of the political environment surrounding them; (ii) the timing of their institutional founding; (iii) the material and/or abstract interests of the agents interacting with them; (iv) the fundamental support of different social groups relating to them; and (v) the societal embeddedness in their operational context.

scholarly journals Why do the Russians succumb to the “strong-hand” government? Historical-cultural legitimacy of the Russian state leadership in the context of Yuri Pivovarov’s theory

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-135
Author(s):  
Justyna Olędzka
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Cultural Legitimacy ◽  
Russian State ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Proper Interpretation

Abstract State leadership in Russia is determined by historical and cultural as well as by legal and institutional premises. The analysis of ways of obtaining legitimacy by state leaders of the Russian Federation is a borderline issue of political science, sociology, and history. The conditions that favor the creation of the archetype on the Russian ground are undoubtedly: extremely centralized political power in Russia (one central decision-making center whose decisions were arbitrarily arbitrary), the problem of the enforcement of the rules of the trilateral division of power (the legislative sphere dominated the legislature), the low level of control Social rulers (lack of effective legal mechanisms to verify the effects of their activities), paternalism of the leadership system and low participation of representative institutions in public life. The aim of the article is to situate in the field of considerations about the archetype of Russian power the concept of Yuri Pivovarov, according to which not only civilization baggage and the immaturity of civil society have decided the legitimacy of the state leadership of the Russian Federation. According to him, the problem of the participation of the political elite in the redistribution of goods (and the low level of participation of citizens in the process of ownership separation) is of significant importance. According to the theory of the Russian political scientist, the basis for understanding the phenomenon of Russian state leadership is the combination of elements of archetypal leadership with a proper interpretation of the relation of freedom – property.

Locating the Political in Political Ecology: An Introduction

2003 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Paulson ◽  
Lisa L. Gezon ◽  
Michael Watts
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Social Relation ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Distribution Of Resources ◽  
Knowledge And Practice

Recent debates within political ecology have motivated new field. In the introduction to this special issue, we vital challenges faced today, and present a new set of studies that respond to these concerns. We conceptualize power as a social relation built on the asymmetrical distribution of resources and risks and locate power in the interactions among, and the processes that constitute, people, places, and resources. Politics, then, are found in the practices and mechanisms through which such power is circulated. The focus here is on politics related to the environment, understood as biophysical phenomena, together with human knowledge and practice. To apply these concepts, we promote multiscale research models that articulate selected ecological phenomena and local social processes, together with regional and global forces and ideas. We also advocate methods for research and practice that are sensitive to relations of difference and power among and within social groups. Rather than dilute ecological dimensions of study, this approach aims to strengthen our ability to account for the dialectical processes through which humans appropriate, contest, and manipulate the world around them.

Leo Strauss's Conception of Political Philosophy: A Critique

1967 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 492-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hwa Yol Jung
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Leo Strauss ◽  
Natural Right

The political thought of Leo Strauss commands the respect and admiration of even his critics. His critical intellectual carpentry is sharp, cutting, and often rebuking. His criticism of modernity, whether it be that of Machiavelli, Max Weber, an existentialist, or a scientific political scientist, is inspired by and deeply rooted in the Greek intellectualistic essentialism, particularly that of Aristotle, and the age-old tradition of nature and natural right as is shown in his work, Natural Right and History

LAND REGIMES AND THE STRUCTURE OF POLITICS: PATTERNS OF LAND-RELATED CONFLICT

Africa ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 188-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Boone
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Land Rights ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
The Political ◽  
Analytic Framework ◽  
Land Access ◽  
Land Politics ◽  
Over Time

ABSTRACTThis article proposes an analytic framework to describe variation in forms of land-related conflict that emerge in widely varying circumstances and settings. Focusing on conflict among smallholders, the article suggests that these social processes can often be thought of as redistributive conflicts that are shaped by the land tenure regimes that govern land access and allocation. Land tenure regimes can be conceptualized schematically as constituted by rules about property, authority, jurisdiction and citizenship, and as differentiated along these dimensions. They define a locus of political authority over land rights at the local level, a territorial arena, social groups with different land rights and interests, and the distribution of political and economic powers and rights among them. These arrangements vary across space and over time, shaping the political arenas in which land rights are contested and producing different forms of land-related conflict. In many situations, these dimensions of land regimes are blurred, layered and changing, adding additional dimensions of complexity to land politics that the analysis proposed here may help to illuminate.

A General Theory of Party, Opposition and Government, 1688–1832

1980 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. D. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
General Theory ◽  
Party System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Early Eighteenth Century

England has not known a simple two-party system, oraparty system of any sort. The lineage of English parties is fragmented and discontinuous. Most of the apparent continuities, like the myth of a long-standing two-party system, have been invented in retrospect by politicians and publicists seeking the justification of a pedigree. Party itself has not been a constant phenomenon, which could be defined by the political scientist and then searched for by the historian. The English experience, rather, is of a succession of discontinuous two-, three-, even four-party systems whose components both develop and relate to each other through changing conventions. Often the fiction of the ‘two-party system’ has disguised the reality of three or more parties; parties which, themselves, can be the vehicles for a wide range of issues. It is a commonplace, which was evident to Hume and Bolingbroke, that whigs and tories exchanged many of their policy commitments in the early eighteenth century; but the same suggestion has been made of the Conservative and Labour parties today. The content of a party's programme has always been almost infinitely flexible;exceptin respect of the questions raised by a small number of threats, challenges or problems. The existence and endurance of party systems has usually articulated the ideological polarity which such challenges induce.

scholarly journals The Evolution of New Party Systems: Voter Learning and Electoral Systems

2021 ◽  
pp. 147892992110143
Author(s):  
Nasos Roussias
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
The Political ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
System Evolution ◽  
Over Time

How do new party systems evolve over time? This article argues that party system evolution requires the solution of coordination problems that voters face in early elections; this happens through a learning mechanism. Elections reveal information to voters, who update their beliefs about party viability and the distribution of voters’ preferences and adjust their behaviour. The institutional setting, however, strongly conditions the pace of learning. Restrictive electoral systems (single-member district) accelerate learning through the harsh penalties they impose on miscoordination, while permissive ones (proportional representation) prolong it. Testing the argument on a district-level dataset in new democracies provides ample support; voters learn to cast fewer wasted votes over time and this happens faster in single-member district systems. The findings point to a trade-off between consolidation and representation; while party system evolution is facilitated by restrictive electoral systems, the presence of distinct social groups in the political arena is better served by permissive ones.

Political parties of the “new” subjects of the Far Eastern Federal District on the eve of the start of a new electoral cycle

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-96
Author(s):  
B. Budaev ◽  
◽  
T. Badmatsyrenov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Federal District ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Financial Flows ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Far Eastern

The article examines the main features of the development of regional party systems in the Republic of Buryatia and the Transbaikal Territory. The authors’ attention is drawn to the conditions for the development of the political system of these regions on the eve of their entry into the Far Eastern Federal District. From the point of view of the authors, the process of transition of the Republic of Buryatia and the Transbaikal Territory was determined not only by the desire to increase the number of residents of the Far Eastern Federal District, but also by the desire to reverse the deteriorating political situation in the regions of Eastern Siberia. The drop in the ratings of regional heads, the weakening of the positions of the regional branches of the parties in power, against the background of the crisis in the economy, all this as a whole reduced the possibilities of managing the region from the federal center. The transition of the regions to the Far Eastern Federal District was to be supported by new financial injections, which was supposed to stabilize the regional party systems. In this situation, it becomes interesting how close the regional party systems of the Republic of Buryatia and the Transbaikal Territory are, how close they are to the electoral indicators of the Far Eastern Federal District. The solution of what internal problems are typical for them will contribute to the effective development of regional party systems on the ground. The authors note that in the Republic of Buryatia and the Transbaikal Territory, regional branches of the parties in power on the eve of the “transition” experienced a serious political crisis. This circumstance was actively used by the opposition, which managed to increase its influence in regional parliaments. At the same time, the leaders of the opposition put at the forefront not party interests, but personal ones. Partized in the early 2000 the regional political system, again began to return to the system of patronage-client relations, built on mutual benefit. The party system of the regions began to slowly degrade. The transfer of subjects to the Far Eastern Federal District should help to stabilize the local party system. The new heads of regions, who managed to straddle financial flows, managed to consolidate the political elite around themselves and build relatively stable, even relations with the opposition

scholarly journals Professional elevators to the Russian political elite

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 25-35
Author(s):  
N. A. Yushkina
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Power System ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Legislative Power

The article identifies and analyses the main professions-suppliers of personnel to the authorities, reveals their role in the formation of the Russian managerial political elite, and also considers professional spheres and social groups from which incorporation into the political class occurs. The paper takes as a basis the biographies of 800 representatives of all levels of executive and legislative power holding senior positions. According to the results the author creates a rating of professions that cater to the power system, determines the professional lifts and levels at which they are able to lead as well as dedicates and differentiates by the branches of the professional sphere – ramps leading to municipal, regional and Federal authorities. The study notes the special role of engineering-technical and economic professional blocks in the ability to enter the authorities. And also the article identifies and defines a significant group in terms of number with high passability at all levels of government and an instant career type that leads to power immediately after receiving higher education. The paper considers social and educational features of this group, reveals universities-suppliers, tendencies of recruitment of this category in the system of power. The author notes the role of the digital sphere in the formation of the political elite.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document