Social Structure, Value-Orientations, and the Party System: The Problem of Interest Accommodation in Western Democracies

1982 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 367-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
MAX KAASE ◽  
HANS-DIETER KLINGEMANN
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Party System ◽  
Value Orientations ◽  
Western Democracies

Minderheitsregierung im Bund? Lehren zum Oppositionsverhalten aus Schweden

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-158
Author(s):  
Melanie Müller ◽  
Marcus Höreth
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
Opposition Party ◽  
Minority Government ◽  
Adequate Understanding ◽  
Alternative Function ◽  
The Government ◽  
German Bundestag ◽  
Western Democracies ◽  
Opposition Parties

Government stability in the German Bundestag is traditionally tied to a parliamentary majority and an opposition minority . Nonetheless, minority governments in other Western democracies show that, despite the lack of a parliamentary majority, they govern stable and effectively together with the opposition . In this article, on the Swedish case, we examine how opposition parties in parliament are involved in the legislative process in a minority government and what patterns they follow in order to maintain governmental stability without neglecting their alternative function . The paper combines theoretical and concep­tual considerations on the adequate understanding of the opposition in the Federal Repub­lic of Germany with empirical findings on cooperation and conflicts between opposition party groups and minority governments . The results show that opposition parties strategi­cally switch between confrontational (Westminster-style) and consensual patterns of behav­ior (republican) . Through this flexible majority finding, opposition parties in parliament can alternately present themselves as policymakers or as an alternative counterpart to the government . This opposition behavior is functionally adequate under the conditions of a pluralized and fragmented party system and the resulting difficulties in forming a stable government majority .

Social Structure and Party Support in the East Asian Democracies

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian McAllister
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Party System ◽  
East Asian ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Democratic Transitions ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
Party Support ◽  
The Comparative Study ◽  
The Relationship

A stable and effective party system depends on consistent and enduring support from social groups. Using the Lipset-Rokkan paradigm as a point of departure, this article tests the relationship between social structure and party support in four East Asian democracies (Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Taiwan) and two Western democracies (Australia and New Zealand) using the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems. Using Australia and New Zealand as a reference point, the results show that the four Lipset-Rokkan social cleavages are only loosely related to party support in the four East Asian nations, mainly through center-periphery and urban-rural divisions. The absence of an owner-worker cleavage is explained by the suppression of labor-based parties in these countries. More generally, the results suggest the importance of the socializing experiences associated with the democratic transitions in each of the four newer democracies.

Dynamics of the social structure of the Russian middle class

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 44-54
Author(s):  
Алексеенок ◽  
Anna Alekseenok ◽  
Гальцова ◽  
Anna Galtsova
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Value Orientations ◽  
Social Self ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Financial Position ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
Analysis Of Dynamics

The article presents a study of the dynamics of the social structure of the Russian middle class. It examines the dynamics of a number of different social groups in Russia in 2003-2014, «blocking» signs for the population which is not a member of the middle class, 2003-2014, self-assessment of the dynamics of 2014 and the possible dynamics for the next year of the financial position in the last year prior the survey in the different groups of the population. Also the analysis of dynamics of value orientations of different population groups, social identity, of the ways and the main types of leisure in the middle class is held. The article compares the model of Russian social structure, built on the basis of social self-assessment of the status of the Russian people in 2014 and 2000.

scholarly journals Forecasting Dutch elections: An initial model from the March 2017 legislative contests

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 205316801772002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Dassonneville ◽  
Michael S. Lewis-Beck ◽  
Philippe Mongrain
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Party System ◽  
Routine Activity ◽  
Forecasting Model ◽  
Prediction Markets ◽  
Initial Model ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Election Forecasting ◽  
Accurate Forecast ◽  
Western Democracies

Serious election forecasting has become a routine activity in most Western democracies, with various methodologies employed, for example, polls, models, prediction markets, and citizen forecasting. In the Netherlands, however, election forecasting has limited itself to the use of polls, mainly because other approaches are viewed as too complicated, given the great fragmentation of the Dutch party system. Here we challenge this view, offering the first structural forecasting model of legislative elections there. We find that a straightforward Political Economy equation managed an accurate forecast of the 2017 contest, clearly besting the efforts of the pollsters.

Social structure and voting in the Austrian party system

1984 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Haerpfer ◽  
Ernst Gehmacher
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Party System

Globalization, Cleavages, and the Radical Right

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Bornschier
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Party System ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
System Change ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Scale Transformations ◽  
Relative Salience

This chapter underscores the merit of studying the emergence and growth of the radical right from a cleavage perspective, which sees party system change as rooted in large-scale transformations of social structure. The chapter begins by discussing explanations for the rise of the radical right in terms of the educational revolution, the processes of economic and cultural modernization, and globalization, showing where these perspectives converge and where they differ. It then goes on to show how the structuralist perspective has been combined with a focus on agency. Under conditions of multidimensional party competition, the behavior of mainstream parties is crucial, because it determines the relative salience of competitive dimensions and whether they offer space for radical right-wing challengers. Some of the most exciting recent research studies how the processes of dealignment and realignment structure the propensity of specific social groups such as the manual working class to support the radical right.

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