scholarly journals Revolution from Below: Cleavage Displacement and the Collapse of Elite Politics in Bolivia

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-250
Author(s):  
Jean-Paul Faguet
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Folk Theorem ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Political Liberalization ◽  
Elite Politics ◽  
Political Party System ◽  
Social Cleavage

For fifty years, Bolivia’s political party system was a surprisingly robust component of an otherwise fragile democracy, withstanding coups, hyperinflation, guerrilla insurgencies, and economic chaos. Why did it suddenly collapse around 2002? This article offers a theoretical lens combining cleavage theory with Schattschneider’s concept of competitive dimensions for an empirical analysis of the structural and ideological characteristics of Bolivia’s party system from 1952 to 2010. Politics shifted from a conventional left-right axis of competition, unsuited to Bolivian society, to an ethnic/rural–cosmopolitan/urban axis closely aligned with its major social cleavage. That shift fatally undermined elite parties and facilitated the rise of structurally and ideologically distinct organizations, as well as a new indigenous political class, that transformed the country’s politics. Decentralization and political liberalization were the triggers that politicized Bolivia’s latent cleavage, sparking revolution from below. The article suggests a folk theorem of identitarian cleavage and outlines a mechanism linking deep social cleavage to sudden political change.

Hong Kong's Stunted Political Party System

2002 ◽  
Vol 172 ◽  
pp. 1010-1028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lau Siu-kai ◽  
Kuan Hsin-chi
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Business Elites ◽  
British Colony ◽  
Political Party System ◽  
Representation Of Interests

Hong Kong's political parties are now in decline after the return of the former British colony to China. The decline of political parties stands out in stark relief in a context featuring “Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong” and gradual democratization. A major reason for the decline is the stunted political party system of Hong Kong. Prominent in that stunted system is the absence of a ruling party. The stunted party system is primarily the result of Beijing's antipathy towards party politics in Hong Kong, which in turn discourages party formation by the Hong Kong government and the conservative elites. The lack of incentives for the business elites to organize political parties to protect their interests is another major reason. The stunted party system has produced serious adverse consequences for the governance of Hong Kong, representation of interests, public attitudes towards the political class and the further democratization of the territory.

The Politics of Status

2020 ◽  
pp. 34-53
Author(s):  
Amílcar Antonio Barreto
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Puerto Rican ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
Puerto Ricans ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Of The Union ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Status ◽  
Political Party System

Puerto Ricans, US subjects since 1898, were naturalized en masse in 1917. Congress did so to eliminate the possibility of independence from the US. That citizenship is the cornerstone of island-mainland relations for those advocating a continued relationship with the United States—either in the form of the 1952 Commonwealth constitution or statehood. The epicenter of Puerto Rican partisan life remains the status question. This remarkably stable political party system featured two strong parties of near-equal strength—the pro-Commonwealth PPD and its statehood challenger, the PNP— and a small independence party, the PIP. A core feature of the PNP’s platform has been estadidad jíbara—"creole statehood.” In theory, a future State of Puerto Rico would be allowed to retain its cultural and linguistic autonomy while attaining full membership as the 51st state of the Union.

“No. Please Understand”

2019 ◽  
pp. 33-86
Author(s):  
Brendan O’Leary
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Political Party System ◽  
The Uk

The return of direct rule to Northern Ireland in 1972 and its mechanisms and conduct are outlined in this chapter. Their impact upon the local political party system is treated at length, as are the first consociational initiatives pursued under Conservative and Labour governments in the UK. The failure of the first peace process is considered, as well as Britain’s counterinsurgency policies and their limits. Criminalization, Ulsterization, and Normalization were the policies begun under Callaghan’s government and continued by the Conservatives until they were broken by the republican hunger strikes. The new consociational initiatives after the hunger strikes are examined.

When a right-wing extremist political party appeals to European integration and a constitutional court takes the national perspective…A comment on the Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands judgment BVerfG, 2 BvB 1/13

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 388-409
Author(s):  
Benedikt Reinke
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Potential Conflict ◽  
European Governance ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Federal Constitutional ◽  
Political Party System ◽  
National Perspective

With Regulation 1141/2014, the EU has inaugurated a truly transnational political party system as well as a potential conflict between national and European governance – or so the Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands has recently argued when faced with party ban proceedings before the German Federal Constitutional Court. The party contended that its representation in the European Parliament and membership in a political party at European level established exclusive European governance and denied the competence of the Federal Constitutional Court for national proceedings. The court, by contrast, summarily dismissed the Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands’s arguments, maintaining its own exclusive authority, and failed to engage in a substantive legal assessment of recent developments in European party law. In this paper, I argue that precisely such a thorough analysis of the newly emerging intertwinement between national and European law as a consequence of Regulation 1141/2014 would have been in order. The Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands’s arguments need to be taken more seriously than the Federal Constitutional Court allows, despite, or perhaps more accurately because, of their highly strategic invocation of European integration: the European argument cannot rest with the extremist party alone, who, elsewhere a most imminent opponent of the European idea, now uses it to challenge national law.

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