scholarly journals Policy Preferences Of Political Party Leaders And The Mass Public: A Southern Perspective

1989 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Mark C. Ellickson
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Mass Public ◽  
Vital Functions ◽  
American Party

In recent years there has been a steady stream of literature proclaiming the decline of the American party system (Burnham, 1976; Kirkpatrick, 1978; Ladd, 1982; Crotty, 1984, 1985; Konda and Sigelman, 1987). It is argued that the parties have been losing their “ relevance,” their critical capacity in responding to social needs and problems (Eldersveld, 1982; Miller and Wattenberg, 1983). This allegation entails serious ramifications as political parties have long been viewed as performing many vital functions in the American political system (Leiserson, 1958; Sorauf, 1984).

Types of Primary and Party Responsibility

1965 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ira Ralph Telford
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Party Organization ◽  
Government School ◽  
Party Government ◽  
Party Members ◽  
American Party ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Responsible Party

A chief criticism of the American party system is the lack of party responsibility. In the view of some students, one characteristic of our political system that contributes to this irresponsibility is the practice in some states of allowing individuals to vote in primaries without regard to their partisan allegiances. In such an open primary Republicans may, if they wish, vote in the Democratic primary, and vice versa. The contrasting, and more common, practice is the closed primary, in which participation is restricted to party “members.” Some political scientists think that the closed primary, by subjecting legislators to the presumed discipline of periodic scrutiny by their party's members, induces a greater measure of party regularity than the open primary, in which the official has to satisfy a more motley clientele. This position was taken in the best-known statement of the “party government” school, the 1950 report of the APS A Committee on Political Parties:The closed primary deserves preference because it is more readily compatible with the development of a responsible party system…. on the other hand, the open primary tends to destroy the concept of membership as the basis of party organization.Other political scientists have expressed doubts about this presumed relationship between primaries and party responsibility, but there has been no systematic empirical evidence on the point. This paper will examine the relationship between primaries and party responsibility by comparing the party regularity of senators from open primary and closed primary states.

Consensus and Conflict: A Content Analysis of American Party Platforms, 1840–1896

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 441-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Silver
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Alternative Programs ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Party Platforms ◽  
Nineteenth Century America ◽  
American Party ◽  
Over Time

Throughout the nineteenth century, political parties attempted to mediate local, state, and national conflicts to forge a winning electoral coalition. The question here is whether party leaders felt that success depended on offering clear divergent positions to their voters. In other words, to what extent did the parties present alternative programs to the electorate—at any specific time or over time? This study examines the growth of the two-party system in nineteenth-century America by focusing on the interaction of the elites of the Democrats and Whig/Republicans in forging their electoral message. The methodology includes a content analysis of national and state party platforms during presidential election years 1840 through 1896 to show when and where parties emphasized certain issue proposals. Ultimately, this is a story of interparty polarization—over time, the two major parties tended to emphasize the same issues and offer divergent positions in their platforms.

Legitimacy Decline and Party Decline

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rudy B. Andeweg ◽  
David M. Farrell
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Support ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Choices ◽  
Party Decline ◽  
Possible Cause

This chapter discusses the decline of political parties as a possible cause of the decline of legitimacy. Political parties constitute a link between the citizens and the political system, and therefore a loss of support could delegitimize the political system. However, the decline of political parties can only cause legitimacy decline if they are indeed in decline and if there is a causal relationship between citizens’ involvement in political parties and political support. The chapter argues that empirical evidence for party decline is limited, as parties may have undergone transformation rather than decline. Using ESS data from 2002 to 2010, the chapter finds only weak relations between political support and party membership and party closeness. However, being close to a particular party is more important than being a member of a political party, and is interpreted as a sign that the party system facilitates citizens in making meaningful political choices.

Presidential Elections in the American Political System

1971 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-23
Author(s):  
Robert D. Marcus
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political System ◽  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Party System ◽  
Human Life ◽  
American Constitution ◽  
Political Tradition ◽  
American Party

The founders of the American republic did not, by and large, like political parties. Their whole political tradition taught them to identify “faction” and “party” with the irrational and disruptive tendencies in human life, with “passion” and “interest.” Against this they set constitutions, first the British Constitution, then the written American Constitution of 1787 as rational artifices or constructions designed to thwart “the spirit of party and faction.” Yet the very men who left their political testaments against party were also the creators of the first American party system, the heroes whose rites the parties celebrate down to the present.

Political Parties and the Political System in Iraqi Kurdistan

2020 ◽  
pp. 002190962094154
Author(s):  
Hawre Hasan Hama ◽  
Farhad hassan abdullah
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Charismatic Leadership ◽  
The Political ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Kurdistan Region ◽  
Iraqi Kurdistan

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq has a multi-party system which has been held up as a model for democratic pluralism in the whole region. The nature of Kurdistan’s political parties is strongly related to the position of Kurds in Iraq. From the mid-twentieth century, the dominant Kurdish political party in Iraq was the Kurdistan Democratic Party; in a later partisan split the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan was born. Moreover, in the last three decades other political parties have come into being, which have all influenced the characteristics of Iraqi Kurdistan’s political system. This paper’s main argument is that Iraqi Kurdistan shares many of the characteristics of its main political parties, including reliance on charismatic leadership, a focus on nationalism, and the lack of transparency. This paper analyzes the primary characteristics of the Kurdish political parties and their influence on the institutional functions of the political system in the Kurdistan Region.

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.

New Perspectives on British Local Government

1973 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-138
Author(s):  
Howard A. Scarrow
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Pressure Group ◽  
Party Organization ◽  
Pressure Groups ◽  
Party Cohesion ◽  
American Party

It is both humbling and encouraging to recall notions that Americans once entertained of the British political system. Critics of F.D.R. looked enviously at the British Parliament for its reputed ability to hold the executive firmly accountable for its actions. Somewhat later, observers on both sides of the Atlantic supposed that Britain was blessed with an absence of pressure groups. Would-be reformers of the American party system further implied that British voters cast their ballots according to the content of party programs, and that party cohesion was the result of discipline imposed by a centralized party organization able to deny renomination to recalcitrant M.P.'s. Careful analyses of intra-party workings, pressure-group activity, and voting behavior have now dispelled these and other mistaken impressions, and it seems likely that the contours of our understanding of these subjects have now been established. However, additional frontiers of knowledge of the British political system remain to be charted; one of these is government at the local level.

Changing Dynamics of Democratic Parliamentary Arena in Slovenia: Voters, Parties, Elections

2015 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 84-104
Author(s):  
Simona Kustec Lipicer ◽  
Andrija Henjak
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
The Future ◽  
Analytical Assessment ◽  
Insight Into

The main goal of this paper is to provide a descriptive analytical overview of the existing evolution of the Slovenian parliamentary arena since its transition to democracy and independence. The paper is divided into two main parts: (1) an overview of a normative insight into the parliamentary and party system, and (2) an analytical assessment of the structure of the parliamentary arena as it is reflected in electoral and parties’ choices and policy preferences. A look at the contemporary democratic parliamentary arena in Slovenia shows that it, in itself, has been quite stable, while, on the contrary, its main integral parts – political parties – have gradually become less stable and less predictable, especially in the second decade of democracy, which can potentially influence the future stability of parliamentary arena, too.

scholarly journals Populism and the American Party System: Opportunities and Constraints

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 370-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances E. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The Us ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
Constitutional System ◽  
American Party ◽  
Democratic Norms

Does populism threaten American democracy, and if so, what is the nature of that threat? In dialogue with the comparative literature on populism, this article considers the opportunity structure available to populist parties and candidates in the American political system. I argue that compared to most other democracies, the US system offers much less opportunity for organized populist parties but more opportunity for populist candidacies. Today’s major parties may also be more vulnerable to populist insurgency than at other points in US history because of (1) changes in communications technology, (2) the unpopularity of mainstream parties and party leaders, and (3) representation gaps created by an increasingly racialized party system. Although no democratic system is immune to deterioration, the US constitutional system impedes authoritarian populism, just as it obstructs party power generally. But the vulnerability of the major parties to populist insurgency poses a threat to liberal democratic norms in the United States, just as it does elsewhere.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document