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GPSP Lecture 2: Political parties
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Lecture notes + exam topics emphasized by Prof. Krouwel
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Lecture 2: Political parties and the transformation of thepolitical space across Europe
Political parties
- Functions of political parties
- Cleavages and the origin of party families
- Types of political parties (party transformation
- The changing political landscape
Functions of political parties
Core function of political parties: field candidates for elections
- Recruitment and selections function of elites: they recruit political personnel and nurture
future generations of politics → they select persons and present them as candidates for
elections
Main functions: these functions are also done by all kinds of other organizations, but parties do it in a
more advanced and organized way.
- Political opinion-making: articulate and aggregate social interests → parties express public
expectations and demands of social groupings to the political system
- Interest integration/aggregation function: parties develop political programmes → parties
integrate various interests into a general political project and transform it into a political
program, for which they campaign to receive the consent and support of a majority
- Socialization and mobilization function: parties promote the political socialization and
participation of citizens → parties create a link between citizens and the political system.
They enable political participation of individuals and groupings with the prospect of success.
- Governing (and opposition) function: they organize the government. Parties participate in
elections to gain official/elected power positions.
- Legitimization function: parties contribute to the legitimacy of the political system → in
establishing the connection between citizens, social groupings and the political system, the
parties contribute in anchoring the political order in the consciousness of the citizens and in
social forces.
Revolutions and cleavages
Social cleavages: lines of division within society that are
1. Actual primary identities that are felt and experienced by members of society
2. Which groups opposed by the cleavage are aware of and prepared to act upon
3. That become politically relevant through the creation of formal organizations (trade unions,
parties) representing and defending the interests of the group
Each critical historical juncture and related cleavage structure resulted in the birth of political parties
with different ideological orientations.
, Main underlying conflicts → cleavages
- Left and right
- Economic
Possible to have multiple opinions about issues.
Liset & Rokkan
Three critical junctures are important to understand both variation and similarities in the emergence
of ideological ‘party families’ that shaped European party systems:
1. Reformation: freedom of religion→ allow states to be non-catholic → national revolution →
national government and laws
2. French Revolution: struggle between secular state and catholic church → state became
distant from religion
3. Industrial Revolution: from agricultural to industrial → impact on losing power of landlords
to national state
Landed elite (people with land) competing with more industrialized people
Large groups of people moving to the city → fighting for better rights
Critical junctures, issues and social cleavages that structured party
systems in Europe
From all the cleavages parties evolve
- Ethnic cleavages: in Spain and Italy never completed so still existing regional parties
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