Conflict and cohesion within parties

2021 ◽  
pp. 205-236
Author(s):  
Paul Webb ◽  
Tim Bale
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Single Issue ◽  
Party Cohesion ◽  
Key Questions

This chapter explores a number of key questions relating to intra-party cohesion and conflict in Britain. To what extent do parliamentary backbenchers influence the development of government policy? How factionalized are British political parties? And what bearing does intra-party politics have on matters of cross-party cooperation and realignment? We discuss conceptual distinctions between factions, tendencies, and single-issue alliances, before going on to identify the main attitudinal clusters within the major parties’ extra-parliamentary memberships and parliamentary groups today. The chapter further identifies the most significant intra-party groups that exist inside parliament and among the parties’ grassroots.

The ‘(party) politics of attention.’ Party competition and decentralist reforms: the Italian case

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Basile
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Party System ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Single Issue ◽  
Electoral Campaigns ◽  
Italian Case

AbstractThis paper sheds light on the role played by political parties in influencing policy change, by connecting literature on party competition and agenda-setting and focusing on a single-issue domain, namely decentralization in Italy from 1948 to 2013. The article argues that major decentralist reforms usually followed electoral campaigns in which most parties focused attention on the issue. Such shifts in attention are caused by, among other things, the issue entrepreneurship activity undertaken by individual parties that are trying to influence the party system agenda and obtain electoral, office, or policy advantage. Contrary to the expectations of the issue entrepreneurship model, however, the analyses reveal that the entrepreneurship role on decentralization in Italy was not played by those parties that can be classified as ‘political losers’ in the party system; rather, in the case of the policy of decentralization in Italy, issue entrepreneurship activity is mostly explained by strategic considerations other than purely electoral ones.

The Social and Attitudinal Basis of Political Parties: Cleavage Politics Revisited

2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zsolt Enyedi
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Social Embeddedness ◽  
Democratic Representation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship

As a result of various political and non-political developments, the socio-culturally anchored and well structured character of European party systems has come under strain. This article assesses the overall social embeddedness of modern party politics and identifies newly emerging conflict-lines. It draws attention to phenomena that do not fit into the trend of dealignment, and discusses the relationship between group-based politics and democratic representation.

Oiling the Wheels of Multi-Party Politics in Africa: How Power Alternation Affects Party Financing in Ghana

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (5) ◽  
pp. 666-682
Author(s):  
Joseph Oti Frimpong
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Incumbency Advantage ◽  
Party Funding ◽  
Opposition Parties

Supplementing literature study with in-depth unstructured interviews from the two dominant political parties in Ghana on how they mobilize funds, the key argument of this article is that the loss of a presidential election in Ghana is a reduction in a party’s major income streams. Unlike other studies that look at incumbency advantage in party funding from the angle of governments’ policies that weaken the opposition parties, this article analyses incumbency from their sources of funds. It fulfils two major objectives of identifying the sources of funds of political parties and establishing the link between these sources and incumbency.

Party Politics Triumph over Substantive Scrutiny and Principled Policy: Examining Czech MPs’ Voting Behaviour in Regard to EU Affairs

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-125
Author(s):  
Martin Kuta
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Party System ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Voting Behaviour ◽  
The European Union ◽  
National Parliaments ◽  
European Dimension ◽  
The Eu

The paper deals with the European dimension of the competition and contention between Czech political parties and argues that domestic party interests undermine the formal oversight of EU politics by the Czech national parliament. Within the current institutional arrangements, national political parties assume stances – which are expressed through voting – towards the European Union (and European integration as such) as they act in the arena of national parliaments that are supposed to make the EU more accountable in its activities. Based on an analysis of roll-calls, the paper focuses on the ways the political parties assume their stances towards the EU and how the parties check this act by voting on EU affairs. The paper examines factors that should shape parties’ behaviour (programmes, positions in the party system, and public importance of EU/European integration issues). It also focuses on party expertise in EU/European issues and asserts that EU/European integration issues are of greater importance in extra-parliamentary party competition than inside the parliament, suggesting a democratic disconnect between voters and parliamentary behaviour. The study's empirical analysis of the voting behaviour of Czech MPs also shows that the parliamentary scrutiny introduced by the Lisbon Treaty is undermined by party interests within the system.

scholarly journals Nationalists versus Ethnic based political parties In Ethiopia

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miftah Mohammed Kemal
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
State And Society

Based on Secondary data the article analyzes party Politics in Ethiopia in light of its merits to building a democratic state and society in Ethiopia.

Downs Meets the Press: How Party Systems Shape the News

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Baum ◽  
Philip B. K. Potter
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
International Media ◽  
The Press ◽  
Content Analyses ◽  
Multiparty Systems

This chapter examines the validity of the “Downsian Premise,” which states that democratic multiparty systems tend to engender political coverage that is more diverse, more policy-centric, and more prone to challenge the government's policy line than coverage in two-party democracies. To test this proposition, the chapter conducts content analyses of international media coverage of four recent multinational conflicts (Kosovo 1999, Afghanistan 2001, Iraq 2003, and Libya 2011). Newspapers in countries with more political parties offered relatively more policy-oriented news, more criticism of government policy, and more varied topical coverage than their counterparts in countries with fewer parties. These results lend credence to the Downsian Premise.

Lockout: Peace Formation in Northern Ireland

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Mac Ginty
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
State Level ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Popular Support ◽  
Elite Level ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Pros And Cons

This chapter looks at the pros and cons of peace formation in Northern Ireland; a case where many would suppose that international, elite-level, and social claims had moved close together during the peace process, having been at least partly reconciled mainly by various international and state-level initiatives. This translates as a form of oligarchy between domestic political parties and the British and Irish governments which did its best to stage-manage popular input. Indeed, the agency of local actors was encouraged when deemed useful but was ignored if it fell outside of the intentions of the elite peace oligarchy unless it threatened a reversion to violence. At the same time, however, party politics managed to channel popular support into the peace process, even as popular legitimacy for the outcomes of this process was waning. The chapter argues that this level of peace process — elite negotiations and party politics — has not brought about reconciliation.

The policy capacity of political parties in Canada

2018 ◽  
pp. 257-274
Author(s):  
Greg Flynn ◽  
Marguerite Marlin
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Significant Influence ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Limited Impact ◽  
Policy Capacity ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Party Members

Political parties and their members are often viewed as having limited impact on government policy choices. However, prior research shows that both sets of actors devote considerably more time and resources to policy-related activities than this view would suggest. We examine the policy capacity of parties and their members to influence policy-making in Canada over the course of the last decade. We focus on the ability of party members to have their policy wishes included in election campaign manifestos and the extent to which the 2008 and 2011 federal Conservative governments were able to fulfill their campaign commitments in a highly challenging policy capacity environment. Consistent with prior studies on previous Conservative and Liberal governments, this examination demonstrates that while governments face a number of influences on their policy choices, the policy wishes of party members and the election campaign policy commitments of parties have a significant influence.

Adversary Politics and Land Policy: Explaining and Analysing British Land Values Policy Making since 1947

1981 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew W. Cox
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Land Policy ◽  
Land Values ◽  
Policy Failure ◽  
Effective Policy

This paper looks at the question of whether or not political parties in Britain have autonomy in drawing up legislation when in office. Using the development of party and governmental policies for land values problems since 1947 as case study, the paper assesses the relative merits of various explanations of policy making. While it is true in this particular case that adversary party politics and relative governmental autonomy in decision making does exist, the paper concludes by assessing the consequences of this for effective policy implementation. It is argued that policy formulated primarily on the basis of ideology and dogma leads to policy failure and, ultimately, the generation of pluralistic and/or corporatist tendencies.

V. Party Politics in the New Japanese Diet

1948 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
pp. 1163-1180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Williams
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Steering Committee ◽  
Individual Member ◽  
New Order ◽  
Popular Government ◽  
Political Factions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Internal Procedures ◽  
Japanese Diet

Internal Procedures. Unschooled in the history and theory of Occidental parliamentarism, the old political factions, with new names, naturally try to adapt the new order of things in the Diet to the normal Japanese pattern. Their modus operandi during the first and second sessions—by way of adjusting to the Diet as the “highest organ of state power”—is an eventful chapter in the development of popular government in Japan.Basic is the fact that political parties manage the Diet: every action is a party action, every vote a party vote, every decision a party decision. The individual member stands for nothing. Bills and resolutions, motions of any kind, speeches, interpellations, filibustering, even heckling and rowdyism, in committee and House sessions—all are products of political parties.The primary agency through which political parties collectively manipulate the Diet is an entirely new piece of legislative machinery, the “Steering Committee,” one of 21 standing committees in each House.

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