Party Matters

2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Hopkin
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Institutional Change ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Labour Party ◽  
National Party ◽  
Strategic Responses ◽  
British Labour ◽  
Real Picture ◽  
The Relationship

This article addresses the relationship between political decentralization and the organization of political parties in Great Britain and Spain, focusing on the Labour Party and the Socialist Party, respectively. It assesses two rival accounts of this relationship: Caramani's `nationalization of politics' thesis and Chhibber and Kollman's rational choice institutionalist account in their book The Formation of National Party Systems. It argues that both accounts are seriously incomplete, and on occasion misleading, because of their unwillingness to consider the autonomous role of political parties as advocates of institutional change and as organizational entities. The article develops this argument by studying the role of the British Labour Party and the Spanish Socialists in proposing devolution reforms, and their organizational and strategic responses to them. It concludes that the reductive theories cited above fail to capture the real picture, because parties cannot only mitigate the effects of institutional change, they are also the architects of these changes and shape institutions to suit their strategic ends.

Political Parties and Democratization

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Ishiyama
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Conflict Management ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Democratic Consolidation ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Ethnic Parties ◽  
Research Agendas ◽  
The Relationship

Parties are indispensable to the building and maintenance of democracy. This is because parties are purported to promote representation, conflict management, integration, and accountability in new democracies. Second, the failures of parties in helping to build democracy in systems in transition are because they have not performed these functions very well. Third, there are three emerging research agendas to be explored that address the relationship between parties and democratic consolidation: (a) the promotion of institutional innovations that help build institutionalized party systems; (b) the role of ethnic parties in democratization and democratic consolidation; and (c) the role of rebel parties in building peace and democracy after civil wars. Although not entirely exhaustive, these three agendas represent promising avenues of research into the role political parties play in democratization.

The role of political parties in shaping citizens’ political preferences for the territorial organization of the state: the Spanish case

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariano Torcal ◽  
Fabiola Mota
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
The State ◽  
Systems Dynamics ◽  
National Party ◽  
Political Preferences ◽  
Territorial Organization ◽  
The Individual

This article discusses how nationalist regional and state-wide parties, responding to different sub-national party systems dynamics, contribute similarly to interregional and individual public opinion disagreements about the model of the state in new, successfully decentralized democracies. Using individual survey data and other regional-level aggregate measures to perform a multilevel analysis in the 17 Spanish regions, we will show that both types of parties (non- and state-wide parties), following certain sub-national party system dynamics, are a very important influential and conditional factor in explaining the individual preferences adopted by citizens regarding the model of the state, despite the generally positive evaluation of the performance of new decentralized institutions by a large majority of Spaniards. These different positions are producing a persistent inter-individual conflict among Spaniards that have also a strong interregional component.

Constitutional Choices: Political Parties, Groups, and Prohibition Politics in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 609-634
Author(s):  
Aaron J. Ley ◽  
Cornell W. Clayton
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
The United States ◽  
Partisan Politics ◽  
National Party ◽  
Constitutional Politics ◽  
The Third ◽  
Electoral Coalitions ◽  
Eighteenth Amendment

Abstract:Traditional accounts of the Eighteenth and Twenty-first Amendments to the U.S. Constitution largely ignore the role of the major political parties. We argue that partisan politics was an integral part of the constitutional politics of this period. The need to manage divisions within both parties’ electoral coalitions during the transition from the third to the fourth-party systems led to the enactment of the Eighteenth Amendment without support from either national party. While most accounts trace prohibition’s demise to widespread noncompliance and the graft it generated, we argue that elite congressional support for prohibition gave way when civil service reforms removed federal prohibition agents as patronage resources. We also argue that by giving states control of designing state conventions, and thereby risking state malapportionment of conventions, Democrats succeeded in overcoming the traditional fissures that divided their southern and northern wings.

Parliamentarism and the Legislative Branch

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
András Sajó ◽  
Renáta Uitz
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Legislative Branch ◽  
Effective Decision ◽  
The Law ◽  
Internal Operations ◽  
Effective Decision Making ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Law Making

This chapter examines the relationship between parliamentarism and the legislative branch. It explores the evolution of the legislative branch, leading to disillusionment with the rationalized law-making factory, a venture run by political parties beyond the reach of constitutional rules. The rise of democratically bred party rule is positioned between the forces favouring free debate versus effective decision-making in the legislature. The chapter analyses the institutional make-up and internal operations of the legislature, the role of the opposition in the legislative assembly, and explores the benefits of bicameralism for boosting the powers of the legislative branch. Finally, it looks at the law-making process and its outsourcing via delegating legislative powers to the executive.

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.

scholarly journals Milovan Đilas and the British Labour Party, 1950-1960

2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mateja Režek
Keyword(s):  
Labour Party ◽  
Eastern Bloc ◽  
Self Management ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
Democratic Socialism ◽  
Authoritarian State ◽  
British Labour ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
Social Democratic Parties ◽  
The Relationship

The article deals with Milovan Đilas’ political transformation presented through an analysis of his connections with the British Labourites, and with the reaction of the Labour Party to the Đilas Affair. After the dispute with the Cominform, Yugoslav leaders tried to initiate alternative international contacts through Western socialist and social democratic parties, considering the most suitable partner the British Labour Party. Official contacts with the latter were established in 1950, the key role in the dialogue with the British Labourites played by the head of the Commission for International Relations, Milovan Đilas. In the aftermath of the Đilas Affair, the once warm relations between the British Labourites and Yugoslav Communists grew rather cool, but the leadership of the Labour Party did not wish to compromise their relations with Yugoslavia, and therefore reacted to it with considerable wariness. Although Yugoslavia remained an authoritarian state under the leadership of the Communist Party, in the eyes of the West it continued to represent a significant factor in the destabilisation of the Eastern Bloc, and the friendly relationship between the Labour Party and the Yugoslav Communists were primarily based on foreign policy interests of the two parties. In the second half of the 1950s, the relationship between the Labour Party and the Yugoslav Communists rested, even more than before, on pragmatic geopolitical consideration and not on ideological affinity; the interest of the British Labourites in the Yugoslav self-management experiment decreased significantly, as did the Yugoslav interest in democratic socialism, the idea that Đilas was so passionate about.

scholarly journals RELASI AGAMA DAN POLITIK DI ACEH PASCA KONFLIK; Pemerintah Indonesia-Gerakan Aceh Merdeka

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Reni Kumalasari
Keyword(s):  
Community Development ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Islam And Politics ◽  
Indonesian Government ◽  
Free Aceh Movement ◽  
Practical Politics ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Relationship

This article tries to explain how the relationship between Islam and politics after the conflict between the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). After the peace agreement between the two parties with the signing of the Helsinki MoU, the Indonesian government interpreted the agreement in Law No. 11 of 2006 concerning the Government of Aceh (UUPA). The presence of the act makes the ulama a partner of the government in running the wheels of government by giving fatwa on issues of government, development, community development, and the economy. Furthermore, after peace, the role of the ulama was not only to give knowledge to the community, some ulama participated in practical politics. This was one of the effects of the UUPA, where Aceh was given the privilege of establishing local political parties. At present some ulama have occupied various positions in party management, and even participated in the regional head election (PILKADA), where religious values are used as a means of gaining power.

scholarly journals Political Parties and Participative Approaches to Democracy

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristiano Gianolla
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Five Star Movement ◽  
Representative Model ◽  
The Relationship

Representative democracy is currenty facing strong social criticism for its incapacity to envolve people in a way that makes them part of the decision-making process. An existing gap between the representatives and the represented is hereby emphasized. In this space, the role of political parties is central in order to bridge society with institutions. How much are parties concerned about this issue? How and in which context do they interact more with their electorate and the wider society? Participatory democracy is emerging throughout the world in different forms and with different results, but the dominant pattern of democracy remains the liberal western democratic paradigm in which people can contribute barely through electing candidates. In order to achieve what Boaventura de Sousa Santos calls ‘democratisation of democracy’ the role of political parties is therefore fundamental in particular to achieve a more participative democracy within the representative model. This article approaches this theme through a bibliographic review comparing social movements and political parties with a focus on the innovation of the Five Star Movement in Italy. Finally, it provides a reading of the relationship between political parties andparticipation, including good practice and perspectives.KEYWORDS: Participation, political parties, social movements, political movements, representative democracy, participatory democracy.

Diminished Parties

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Analytical Tool ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Developing Democracies ◽  
Party Organizations ◽  
Definition Of

Many contemporary party organizations are failing to fulfill their representational role in contemporary democracies. While political scientists tend to rely on a minimalist definition of political parties (groups of candidates that compete in elections), this volume argues that this misses how parties can differ not only in degree but also in kind. With a new typology of political parties, the authors provide a new analytical tool to address the role of political parties in democratic functioning and political representation. The empirical chapters apply the conceptual framework to analyze seventeen parties across Latin America. The authors are established scholars expert in comparative politics and in the cases included in the volume. The book sets an agenda for future research on parties and representation, and it will appeal to those concerned with the challenges of consolidating stable and programmatic party systems in developing democracies.

scholarly journals A Two-Stage Theory of Discussant Influence on Vote Choice in Multiparty Systems

2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck ◽  
Julia Partheymüller
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Social Pressure ◽  
Consideration Sets ◽  
Multiparty Systems ◽  
Social Network Influence ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
Two Stages ◽  
The Relationship

This article addresses two aspects of social network influence on voters’ electoral choices that are not well understood: the role of party systems as institutional contexts and the relationship between social pressure and information sharing as mechanisms of influence. It argues that in the cleavage-based multiparty systems of Western Europe, discussant influence at elections occurs in two stages. First, discussants place social pressure on voters to opt for parties from the same ideological camp. Secondly, by providing information, discussants influence which parties voters eventually choose out of these restricted ‘consideration sets’. The study tests these assumptions using a panel survey conducted at the 2009 German federal election. The first proposition is clearly confirmed, and the evidence supports the second proposition, although less unequivocally.

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