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Lecture summary Political Parties
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Lecture 1Introduction.
No information.
Lecture 2.
Party models.
Alan Ware: “A political party is an institution that (1) seeks to influence a state, often by attempting
to occupy positions in government, and (2) usually consists of more than a single interest in the
society and so to some degree attempts to aggregate interests”.
- An institution means there is a structure to it. There is a linkage between the state and the
party. There is more than a single interest. (but is this true for a one-issue party)
Giovanni Satori: “Any political group identified by an official label that presents at elections, and is
capable of placing through elections (free or non-free), candidates for public office”.
James Bryce: “Parties are inevitable. No free country has been without them. No-one has shown how
representative government could be worked without them. They bring order out of chaos to
multitude of voters”.
The type of party model is important for the type of democracy you have. Parties organize cleavages
and mobilize voters. The type of party and its relation to the system is important and is related to
Luke’s second dimension of power.
There is always a linkage between civil society, parties and the state. Steven Luke has two dimensions
of power that connects with this linkage
1. First dimension is where you force an individual to do something
2. Second dimension is that the power is limiting. The power can limit people from doing
something.
Party models: (mainstream)
- Cadre party
- Mass party
- Catch-all party
- Cartel party
No model is going to stay forever, there is an interaction (= dialectical process). The party systems are
structures in which there is a dominant model but there is also room for new models. These new
models evolve and so new dominant parties occur.
(1) Origins, (2) ideology and (3) organization are important elements when measuring political
parties.
The cadre party :
Origins = A small group of individuals in parliament, often aristocrats, coalesced around key
individuals.
Ideology = Not much of an ideology. They often claimed to present the ‘national’ interest, but
because they had low ideology they tended to focus more on non-partisan.
Organization = They were loosely organized. Rarely had any party conventions and were not really
linked with civil society. Due to low links with civil society the representation was low.
The Mass Party:
1
,Origins = The industrialization and the extension of the franchise made space for civil society to form
movements. The people wanted to mobilize since more people were able to vote. They worried the
state was going to take over education and religion. The origins came from civil society, from the
‘bottom’. The most important factors were (1) the industrialization, (2) extension of the franchise and
(3) secularization which caused the rise and mobilization of the working class.
- These parties start to become dominant over the cadre parties. The mass parties start to
define the party system.
Ideology = There is a strong ideology. This is important to mobilize the voters. The party is part of the
identity of the voter.
Organization = The party was extremely organized, centralized and hierarchical. There was a pyramid
structure. The party was the link between civil society and the state. The role of membership is also
very important for the funding of the party (the state did not fund parties yet). The party offered all
sorts of things for their voters such as sports, insurance, newspapers, etc.
The Catch-all party:
Origins = The growing of the middle class, the rise of the welfare state and the changing in class
structures. The state took over functions of the parties such as healthcare or education. People were
not fixed on a certain party, there vote mentality changed.
- The mass parties became less reluctant to the liberal democracy. Their ideology lessened
after the second world war.
Ideology = The party tried to catch as many voters as possible so their ideology became less strong.
They tried to be more broad with their ideology.
Organization = The role of the party member became less because the state started to finance the
parties. The party is the middle between civil society and the state. The party is more about
mobilization than integration. There campaigns are more about the personalized leader since he is
the head in the media. The party becomes ‘lighter’.
The Cartel Party:
Origins = There is more funding from the state so parties become more linked with the state. The
party is moving away from society. The parties rely on the state.
Ideology = There is a reduction of ideology and there are more broad coalitions. There is less of an
ideological difference between the extreme parties. The parties start as a cartel.
Organization = The leader is more personalized. The party membership is downgraded and the party
is more dependent on state finances and other state resources.
Party models: (niche parties)
- Memberless parties
- Personal parties
- Movement parties
- Neo-mass parties
- Local and non-aligned movements.
Memberless parties:
They have a strong leader and ideology. However, they have no members. They have a highly specific
vision of representation. It could be sort of an anti-cartel party.
Personal parties:
There is a weak ideology. The party is leader centered but with members. Very loosely organized.
Movement parties: They are more a social movement that evolves into a political party. The often
have a weak ideology and that makes them weaker in parliament. They tend to be radical, but very
specific. They present themselves as not left or right and this is confusing in parliament.
2
, The neo-mass party:
There origins are from civil society and they have a strong ideology. The members are very
important. They have a pyramid structure with a strong leader on top.
Local and non-aligned movements:
Very critical of the mainstream parties. They find mainstream parties too busy with themselves and
not responsive to the local needs. They also argue that mainstream parties are stuck in their old ways
and are critical of their ideology.
Lecture 3
Party systems I (Demand side).
Cleavages set up party systems. A party system is the system of interactions resulting from inter-
party competition. We can determine the party system from looking at the cleavages.
How should be look at party systems?
- Demand side = starts from the ‘bottom’. It looks at society, the economic side, cleavages and
classes.
- Supply side = internal and external
o External supply means the institutional structures of the party system. This would be
the nature of party competition, the electoral system or the nature of the state.
o Internal supply looks more at the role of the political parties itself. How do parties
organize and what is their ideology. This is the links between demand and supply.
This distinction is to give order to our analysis. It does not tell us which variable to use.
How did party systems came to be in Europe and how did they transform (demand side):
Post World War II period: cleavages.
- Cleavage = a deep structural divide that persist through time and through generations. Deep
divisions within society such as class, ethnicity or religion. A cleavage structures debate.
There are three elements to cleavages. Only when all three are present can we talk about a cleavage.
1. Objective reality = there has to be a problem in society on which the opinions are divided.
2. Subjective identification = individuals have to be aware of this division. The issue has a
meaning or relevance for them.
3. Political mobilization = there has to be an institutionalization of the cleavage. This could be a
political party, union or social movement. The cleavage needs to be mobilized.
There are four traditional sets of cleavages:
- Church-state
- Centre-periphery
- Urban-rural
- Worker-owner.
These cleavages set the stage for the fundamental structures of party systems. The first three create
difference because they do not exist the same in every country. The worker-owner cleavage creates
tension in every country.
Two revolution caused the structure of these cleavages (= critical juncture).
- National revolution = church-state and center-periphery.
o The national revolution caused for state formation. You see the conflict between
state and church in which the rulers in the center have to battle the people in the
periphery. The centralized power caused for conflict.
3
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