The Shrinking Elephants: The 2009 Election and the Changing Party System

2010 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 25-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
David P. Conradt
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Supply Side ◽  
The Future

While the 2009 election resulted in a familiar governing coalition, the dealignment of the party systems continued. Support for the once-major parties dropped to historic lows as did turnout. This article delves into the factors underlying this dealignment process. In addition to familiar demandside variables—social structure, values, and interests—particular attention is given to the supply side of the dealignment equation: the role of the parties, their leaders, strategies, and policies. The consequences of these changes for the future of the party and political system are then discussed in a comparative context.

Segmental Volatility in Ethnically Divided Societies: (Re)assessing Party System Stability in Southeast Europe

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Damir Kapidžić ◽  
Olivera Komar
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Party System ◽  
Ethnically Diverse ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
System Stability ◽  
Southeast Europe ◽  
East European ◽  
Ethnic Parties ◽  
Stabilizing Factors

Abstract This article examines the role of ethnicity and ethnic parties as stabilizing factors in Southeast European party systems. It compares two ethnically divided countries in Southeast Europe: Bosnia and Herzegovina, where ethnic identities that form the political cleavage are firm, and Montenegro, where they are malleable. Theoretically, it addresses the debate between scholars who either find stability or instability in East European post-communist party systems. The article traces the role of ethnicity in the formation and development of electoral contests and compares the two cases by utilizing measures of block volatility, based on analysis of official electoral data. We argue that party systems in ethnically diverse countries are stable at the subsystems level, but unstable within them. In BiH, firm ethnic identity stabilizes the party system by limiting competition between blocks, leading to closure. Malleable ethnic identity in Montenegro opens competition to non-ethnic parties seeking to bridge ethnic divisions, leading to more instability. We find that party system dynamics in ethnically divided new democracies depend on identity rigidity and cleavage salience, in addition to levels of heterogeneity.

Party Systems and Government Stability in the Indian States

1977 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 1384-1405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul R. Brass
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Indian States ◽  
Leadership Skill ◽  
Dominant Party ◽  
Coalition Governments ◽  
Indian State ◽  
Degree Of Fragmentation

This paper contributes to the substantive and methodological discussion of the issues concerning the causes of cabinet instability through analysis of data from Indian state politics. The focus of the analysis is on explaining the duration of Indian state governments in days with variables measuring the degree of fragmentation and cohesion in the party system, the composition of the cabinet, the characteristics of the opposition, and the role of ideological differences. A substantial amount of the variation in the durability of coalition governments is explained with variables that measure the degree of party system institutionalization and the extent of political opportunism, but ideological factors do not explain much of the differences in durability of governments. It is also found that none of the measures used can explain much of the variation in one-party majority governments for which, it is argued, explanations must be sought that focus on leadership skill and on relationships between leaders and factions in a dominant party.

scholarly journals EVOLUTION OF THE PARTY SYSTEM OF THE REPUBLIC OF CYPRUS: FROM BIRTH TO STABILIZATION

2018 ◽  
pp. 16-22
Author(s):  
Nataliya Khoma
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Internal Conflict ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Republic Of Cyprus ◽  
The Eu

The process of the formation of the party system of Cyprus was considered. The period from colonial to 1981 is covered. The factors that influenced the evolution of the parties of Cyprus, in particular the internal conflict, were underlined. Emphasizes the importance of the ethnic component of the population of Cyprus. The attention was paid to the role of the Orthodox Church in shaping the political system of Cyprus. The article analyzes the norms of the Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus (1960) concerning political parties, in which the focus was on the parliamentary aspect of party activity. The role of Archbishop Makarios III, the first president of Cyprus, for the further evolution of the party system in the 1960–70s was revealed. Presented chronology of the appearance of the main parties of Cyprus and their participation in elections and coalitions. The article emphasizes that after the accession of Cyprus to the EU in 2004, the party system of the state is experiencing the trend of the newest European tendencies on the national party palette: the level of people’s confidence in the parties is decreasing, the party identity is blurred, the voter turnout is gradually decreasing, new types of parties are emerging, Radicalization is notable and so on. The party system of Cyprus is special, even if only within the EU there is a pro-communist party (Progressive Party of the Labor People of Cyprus), represented in the European Parliament, among the leading political forces. It was emphasized that the political parties of Cyprus until 1974 were purely electoral mechanisms. The new stage of development began with the stabilization of the post-colonial political system of Cyprus. At this time, the church lost its past influence, and the majoritarian electoral system alienated itself. This led to a new stage in the development of the party system in the late 1970s. It is noted that the determining factor was the transition to a proportional electoral system and the introduction of mandatory participation of voters in the vote. It was emphasized that these legislative innovations became important factors in the development of the modern party system of Cyprus. Since that time, the Cypriot parties have become more independent and united in the coalition.

scholarly journals The role of political opposition: A pre-requisite for democracy

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-71
Author(s):  
Arif Khan ◽  
Saiful Islam ◽  
Muhammad Alam
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Parliamentary Democracy ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
The Government ◽  
Incumbent Party ◽  
The Times ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Do So

No doubt for a democracy to be triumphant, multi-party system or, at least two party systems is obligatory. A country where there is one party system and lack observant and efficient opposition there are every chances for the incumbent party to become autocratic and domineering. One party system is most of the times susceptible to transform into dictatorship. Most of the times where there is one party system, the opposition is stifled and trampled and the dictatorship of the single party is established. Germany during Hitler’s rule and Italy during Mussoloni rule are the cases in point. One cannot imagine of a democratic set up without a healthy and watchful opposition. For the success of any parliamentary democracy, an effective opposition is must to carry out its functions courageously and effectively. The paper analyses the rights, responsibilities and obligations of opposition in a democratic system. For this purpose, the techniques adopted by the researcher for data collection include a detailed survey of the available literature covering different aspects of the topic. The internationally reputed authors and experts have been quoted. It is for the government to allow the opposition to fulfil their functions, which indicates a sign of democratic maturity on the part of government. The opposition has to focus on its democratic functions and if it fails to do so, it will be a sign of dysfunctional democracy.

Party Systems: Types, Dimensions, and Explanations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zsolt Enyedi ◽  
Fernando Casal Bértoa
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
System Stability ◽  
Informal Institution ◽  
Democratic Experience ◽  
The Stability

The study of political parties and party systems is intimately linked to the development of modern political science. The configuration of party competition varies across time and across polities. In order to capture this variance, one needs to go beyond the analysis of individual parties and to focus on their numbers (i.e. fragmentation), their interactions (i.e. closure), the prevailing ideological patterns (i.e. polarization), and the stability of the balance of power (i.e. volatility) in all spheres of competition, including the electoral, parliamentary, and governmental arenas. Together, these factors constitute the core informal institution of modern politics: a party system. The relevant scholarship relates the stability of party systems to the degree of the institutionalization of individual parties, to various institutional factors such as electoral systems, to sociologically anchored structures such as cleavages, to economic characteristics of the polity (primarily growth), to historical legacies (for example, the type of dictatorship that preceded competitive politics) and to the length of democratic experience and to the characteristics of the time when democracy was established. The predictability of party relations has been found to influence both the stability of governments and the quality of democracy. However, still a lot is to be learned about party systems in Africa or Asia, the pre-WWII era or in regional and/or local contexts. Similarly, more research is needed regarding the role of colonialism or how party system stability affects policy-making. As far as temporal change is concerned, we are witnessing a trend towards the destabilization of party systems, but the different indicators show different dynamics. It is therefore crucial to acknowledge that party systems are complex, multifaceted phenomena.

scholarly journals Comparison of agrarian political  parties in selected Central European states after 1989

2012 ◽  
Vol 48 (No. 12) ◽  
pp. 544-553
Author(s):  
P. Blažek ◽  
M. Kubalek
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Agriculture Modernization ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Communist Countries ◽  
The City

This study deals with the founding and development of agrarian political parties and movements in selected postcommunist states (with the emphasis put on the Czech party system in the early 1990‘s). The topic is discussed from the point of view of classic political science theories, namely the historical conflict approach of Stein Rokkan and Seymour Martin Lipset, complemented with Derek Urwin’s theory regarding emergence of agrarian parties as a means of defense of country against urbanization. The results of research into the urban – rural cleavage and its influence on the genesis of agrarian political parties in selected post-communist countries after 1989 seem to support the above mentioned theories (even though those were originally formulated for a much earlier period when the Western party systems were first coming into existence. These can be applied also to the Czech environment, where several profession-based political parties were established in the early 1990’s, some of which were concerned with the defense of peasants’ and farmers’ interests. The attempts to create profession-based parties in the Czech political system were destined to fail for several reasons. The first was a striking ideological profiling of the bipolar party spectrum, causing general parties to pick up the themes and voters concerned with economic recession, and radicalization of electorate. The second reason lied in the diminishing numbers of potential voters, a result of agriculture modernization and general urbanization of society, which caused that the city-country conflict was reflected in the election results only marginally. The result was similar to other post-Soviet states, with a specific exception of Poland: agrarian parties and movements lost their former influence.

The Puzzle of Indian Politics: Social Cleavages and the Indian Party System

1989 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pradeep K. Chhibber ◽  
John R. Petrocik
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Electoral Politics ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Theory Analysis ◽  
Social Cleavages ◽  
Indian Politics ◽  
Congress Party ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Cleavage

The social cleavage theory of parly systems has provided a major framework for the study of Western party systems. It has been quite unimportant in studying other party systems, especially those of developing countries, where comparative development, and not mass electoral politics, has been the focus of study. This article reports the results of an attempt to bridge these traditions by analysing popular support for the Congress Party of India in terms of the expectations of the social cleavage theory of parties. This analysis illustrates the degree to which Indian partisanship conforms to the expectations of the theory. More importantly, this social cleavage theory analysis offers some new perspectives on (1) the inability of the Indian political system to develop national parties other than the Congress and (2) the ‘disaggregation’ of the Congress party.

Parties as Agents of Transition

2019 ◽  
pp. 580-584
Author(s):  
Saara Inkinen
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Party System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Party Strategies ◽  
Collective Actors ◽  
Autocratic Regime ◽  
Autocratic Regimes

This chapter reviews recent political science literature on the role of political parties and party systems in regime transition processes. The first part focuses on parties as collective actors, discussing the effects of different regime and opposition party strategies on the liberalization and breakdown of autocratic regimes. It also notes how such strategies may be shaped by autocratic regime subtypes and the internal organization of political parties. The second part goes on to consider party systems as an institutional arena that constrains party interactions. It examines arguments linking democratization to the institutionalization and type of autocratic party system, with an emphasis on competitive and hegemonic autocratic regimes. Directions for further research are provided in the conclusion.

So far, so good: but what next? The Sutherland Report and WTO dispute settlement

2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 409-417
Author(s):  
NIALL MEAGHER
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Settlement System ◽  
Future Role ◽  
Wto Dispute Settlement ◽  
The Future ◽  
Dispute Settlement System

This comment will focus primarily on the Sutherland Report's analysis of and recommendations for the WTO dispute settlement system. Before turning to the specific issue of dispute settlement, however, it is necessary to make a few introductory remarks regarding the objectives of the Sutherland Report, as well as its view of the future role of the WTO, including the dispute settlement system, in the international political system.

The Theoretical Limits of Maximum Distortion: Some Analytic Expressions for Electoral Systems

1971 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 467-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Loosemore ◽  
Victor J. Hanby
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Empirical Relationship ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Mechanical Effects ◽  
Equal Importance ◽  
Analytic Expressions

The role of the electoral system in the political process is one which has long concerned political scientists. Traditionally, the emphasis has been on the ‘mechanical’ effects that such systems have or are assumed to have, on such features as the number and strength of parties in a given political system. More often the debate became of a polemical nature, fought on the respective merits of one or other of the major electoral systems. The culmination of all this effort was that, until recently, research in this area of the discipline consisted almost entirely of a body of material, basically unsystematic in scope and essentially descriptive by nature. More contemporary research has concentrated on discovering the precise nature of the empirical relationship between electoral systems and party systems, with some degree of success. Our concern in this paper however, is not to contribute to the knowledge of the ‘mechanical’ effects of electoral systems but, in a related fashion, to examine some possible theoretical properties that may have an equal importance for democratic theory.

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