Political Parties and Electoral Competition

2021 ◽  
pp. 106-132
Author(s):  
Carew Boulding ◽  
Claudio A. Holzner
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Electoral Competition ◽  
Organizational Capacity ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Electoral Incentives ◽  
Dominant Parties ◽  
Leftist Parties ◽  
Politically Active

Chapter 5 considers the effect of political mobilization efforts by political parties on the political activity of Latin America’s poorest citizens. Political parties play critical roles in mobilizing citizens in democracies, but we do not understand very well the conditions under which parties will focus their efforts on low-income individuals. This book’s framework emphasizes the organizational capacity and the electoral incentives parties have for mobilizing the poor to better understand who participates and in what kinds of activities. This chapter shows that where parties have greater organizational capacity and stronger linkages to groups in society, and where they face stiff electoral competition, poor people are more politically active, and we see more equal levels of political participation overall. The chapter also shows that dominant parties that win elections by wide margins tend to ignore the poorest citizens, even if they are leftist parties with strong rhetoric around poverty and inclusion.

What Shapes Political Participation of the Poorest Citizens?

2021 ◽  
pp. 23-43
Author(s):  
Carew Boulding ◽  
Claudio A. Holzner
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Theoretical Explanation ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Poor People ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Democratic Rights

This chapter presents the theoretical explanation that links core institutional features of democracy (political parties, competitive elections, civil society, and protection of democratic rights) to the political behavior of the poorest citizens. The focus is not only on those factors that boost the political activity of the poor, but those that have a disproportionately strong positive impact on poor people’s activism. The chapter argues that where civil society is strong, where political parties have the capacity and incentives to focus mobilization efforts on the poor, and where democratic institutions are strong, poor people will be able to participate at high levels.

How Political Parties Use Group-Based Appeals: Evidence from Britain 1964–2015

2017 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mads Thau
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Distinctive Feature ◽  
Electoral Competition ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Specific Group ◽  
Electoral Incentives ◽  
Election Manifestos ◽  
Strategy I

Political parties often appeal to groups. Yet, existing work does not consider how such group-based appeals are used, presumably because they are thought to have grown ineffective. Contrary to this, I argue that group-based appeals are central to party electoral strategy, and that time has only strengthened the incentive to use them. Using original data on 10,000 group-based appeals found in sentence-by-sentence coding of British election manifestos, I demonstrate an increasing use of group-based appeals from 1964 to 2015. Furthermore, I show that the range of groups emphasized, the concentration of group emphasis, and the specific group categories targeted also follow the electoral incentives prevalent over this 50-year period. These findings shed new light on how political parties appeal for votes and suggest that we view group-based appeals as a distinctive feature of party electoral strategy. I discuss the implications for our broader understanding of electoral competition.

Public funding of political parties in Italy

Modern Italy ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Chiara Pacini
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Electoral Competition ◽  
Public Funding ◽  
The State ◽  
Reimbursement System ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Problematic Issue ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Politically Active ◽  
Different Levels

Public funding of political parties in Italy has developed along quite clear-cut lines: increasingly generous reimbursements; non-selective criteria for the allocation of funds; and an increase in the number of beneficiaries. The current reimbursement system costs the State more than 250 million euros a year. The payment of such reimbursements in annual instalments means that in many cases they continue to receive funds even though they are no longer politically active. However, the most problematic issue concerns party fragmentation. Reimbursements are paid out at different levels of electoral competition (European, general and regional), effectively providing parties with different channels of funding. This is a big opportunity, above all for small parties that often find it difficult to reach the thresholds for representation and funding in some spheres of the electoral competition. This is even more evident if one considers that public funding is the main source of revenue for the Italian political parties.

Divided over Diversity: Political Discourse in a Chicago Neighborhood

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen C. Berrey
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Class Inequality ◽  
Progressive Politics ◽  
Neighborhood Diversity ◽  
Value Diversity ◽  
Mixed Income Housing ◽  
Diversity Discourse

In a Chicago neighborhood made up of different racial and economic groups, nearly everyone claims to value diversity. Yet, this powerful and plastic symbol can influence political activity in opposite directions. An ethnographic study of the neighborhood shows how three different groups—white real estate professionals and politicians, white progressive organizers, and black low‐income housing advocates—deploy diversity. It presents three key findings: (1) mixed‐income housing often becomes a proxy for diversity; (2) the diversity concept can support progressive politics while downplaying certain racial and class disparities; and (3) a focus on neighborhood diversity can obscure issues that poor people care about, including tenants rights. By providing a microlevel perspective on diversity discourse, these findings demonstrate how a shared symbol can both illuminate and veil fundamental disagreements over race, class, inequality, and gentrification in cities today.

Community Organizations and Latin America’s Poorest Citizens: Voting, Protesting, and Contacting Government

2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 98-125
Author(s):  
Carew Boulding ◽  
Claudio A. Holzner
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Strong Predictor ◽  
Community Organizations ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Income Groups ◽  
Politically Active ◽  
Latin American Countries

ABSTRACTHow do Latin America’s poorest citizens participate in politics? This article explores the role that community organizations play in mobilizing individuals into three common modes of political participation: voting, protesting, and contacting government. It argues that community organizations help mobilize poor individuals both through the resources they provide for mobilization and because they serve as sites where political parties target individuals for mobilization. It analyzes survey data from LAPOP surveys for 18 Latin American countries and finds that overall, poor people are just as politically active as more affluent individuals; that involvement in community organizations is a very strong predictor of all types of political participation; and that membership in organizations has an especially strong effect on voting and protesting for poor people. By equalizing levels of political participation across income groups, organizations help erase class-based inequalities in participation that have plagued democracies in the region.

Protest as a Political Resource

1968 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 1144-1158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lipsky
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Income Group ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Political Resource ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Protest Activity

The frequent resort to protest activity by relatively powerless groups in recent American politics suggests that protest represents an important aspect of minority group and low income group politics. At the same time that Negro civil rights strategists have recognized the problem of using protest as a meaningful political instrument, groups associated with the “war on poverty” have increasingly received publicity for protest activity. Saul Alinsky's Industrial Areas Foundation, for example, continues to receive invitations to help organize low income communities because of its ability to mobilize poor people around the tactic of protest. The riots which dominated urban affairs in the summer of 1967 appear not to have diminished the dependence of some groups on protest as a mode of political activity.This article provides a theoretical perspective on protest activity as a political resource. The discussion is concentrated on the limitations inherent in protest which occur because of the need of protest leaders to appeal to four constituencies at the same time. As the concept of protest is developed here, it will be argued that protest leaders must nurture and sustain an organization comprised of people with whom they may or may not share common values. They must articulate goals and choose strategies so as to maximize their public exposure through communications media. They must maximize the impact of third parties in the political conflict. Finally, they must try to maximize chances of success among those capable of granting goals.

Psychological aspects of political participation and protest readiness of the youth of Primorsky Krai

2021 ◽  
pp. 23-34
Author(s):  
Olga Aleksandrovna Kaptsevich ◽  
Egor Borisovich Marin ◽  
Nadezhda Vladimirovna Osmachko
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Far East ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Primorsky Krai ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Politically Active ◽  
Categorical Method

Changes that take place in the Russian society generate conflicts that are often implemented in  form of a protest. Youth is the peculiar actor of protest behavior. The subject of this research is the psychological, namely emotional aspect of the attitude towards politics and its engagement into political interest and political behavior (including protest behavior) of youth of the Far East. The research involved 254 students from several universities of Primorsky Krai. Questionnaire that included a number of blocks aimed at studying emotions, interest in politics, political participation, and protest behavior was used for collecting the information. Application of the categorical method of key components, the author determined the two forms of potential protest behavior: “radical” and “moderate”. “Radical protest” reveals correlation with an entire range of negative emotions, while “moderate protest” has relatively few emotional correlates and is more typical among female respondents. “Radical” protest indicates high political activity: its supporters actively participate in politics in one or another way; “moderate” protest does not indicate such correlates. Therefore, politically active youth is more likely to have radical protest moods. The analysis of emotional attitude towards government can be considered as a marker of protest potential and its vector towards “softer” or “aggressive” forms of protest. The acquired results are valuable for government authorities, political parties, and educational institutions.

Inclusion and Exclusion during the Left Turn

2021 ◽  
pp. 133-156
Author(s):  
Carew Boulding ◽  
Claudio A. Holzner
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
Left Turn ◽  
Turn On ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Leftist Parties

Chapter 6 takes a closer look at the impact of Latin America’s left turn on the political activism of poor people, and on political equality more generally. This chapter shows a surprising pattern: while the election of leftist governments did spark more political activity across the board, it did not produce more equal patterns of political participation. On the contrary, political participation is most stratified by wealth where radical-left parties or candidates govern. This chapter argues that the ideology of ruling parties matters less than expected for a number of reasons. First, due to their electoral and institutional dominance and weak organizational structure, ruling leftist parties in places like Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela had neither the capacity nor the incentives to mobilize poor citizens outside of election. This is in contrast to European contexts where leftist parties face stiff electoral competition and have strong linkages to groups in society. Second, most research based on advanced democracies assumes that poor people are core constituents of leftist parties. In Latin America, in contrast, poor people are just as likely to hold right-of-center views as left-of-center views.

Voice and Inequality

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carew Boulding ◽  
Claudio A. Holzner
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Resource Constraints ◽  
Electoral Competition ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Voluntary Organizations ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
Socioeconomic Resources

How do poor people in Latin America participate in politics? What explains the variation in the patterns of voting, protesting, and contacting government for the region’s poorest citizens? Why are participation gaps larger in some countries than in others? This book offers the first large-scale empirical analysis of political participation in Latin America, focusing on patterns of participation among the poorest citizens in each country. Far from being politically inert, under certain conditions the poorest citizens in Latin America act and speak for themselves with an intensity that far exceeds their modest socioeconomic resources. We argue that key institutions of democracy, namely civil society, political parties, and competitive elections, have an enormous impact on whether or not poor people turn out to vote, protest, and contact government officials. When voluntary organizations thrive in poor communities and when political parties focus their mobilization efforts on poor individuals, they respond with high levels of political activism. Poor people’s activism also benefits from strong parties, robust electoral competition, and well-functioning democratic institutions. Where electoral competition is robust and where the power of incumbents is constrained, we see higher levels of participation by poor individuals and more political equality. Precisely because the individual resource constraints that poor people face are daunting obstacles to political activism, our explanation focuses on those features of democratic politics that create opportunities for participation that have the strongest effect on poor people’s political behavior.

scholarly journals Sociodemografic and psychological characteristics of voters for SNSD and SDP BiH: Two faces of social democracy in Bosnia & Herzegovina

Psihologija ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-175
Author(s):  
Srdjan Puhalo
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Psychological Characteristics ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
Republika Srpska ◽  
Social Democratic Parties

There are two social democratic parties in Bosnia Herzegovina: SNSD and SDP BiH. These two parties differ regarding their origin and their political activity in Bosnia Herzegovina. Thus, it was assumed that voters of the two parties differ regarding their national composition, socio-demographic characteristics and political attitudes. In May of 2007 a face to face interview was conducted with 260 voters of SNSD and 147 voters of SDP BiH. SNSD?s voters were found to be less tolerant, less liberal and more prone to nationalism and the feeling of ethical superiority relative to voters of SDP BiH. As a matter of fact, SNSD?s voters were more similar to voters of some nationalistic political parties like SDS then to voters of SDP BiH. The observed differences between political attitudes of SNSD and SDP BiH voters was explained by increasing ethnic tensions in Bosnia Herzegovina in Spring of 2007 and by their essential dissimilarity: SNSD?s primary objective is Republika Srpska and its survival, while SDP BiH insist on unity of Bosnia Herzegovina.

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