Samenvatting: Political parties, origins, transformations and future prospects
College 1- 2 november 2020 (inleiding: niet belangrijk)
- vergelijkende politiek (comparative politics)
Political parties, origins, party systems
Comparative politics
- what are the origins of parties and party systems (mostly focussed on western-
europe)
- How have they transformed in the last years, where did they come from and main
focus: how have they changed?
- what can we expect?
- What are the prospects for the older parties
- what are the prospects for newer parties
Key: where did political parties(systems) come from, and how did they transform?
In order to do this we will look at several key concepts
● what is the political party?
- how do political parties organize
What does this mean
→ We will talk about specific types of parties
- the movement party
- the personal party
- the cartel party
- the mass party
We will talk about different types of party systems
- cleavages old and new
- how parties compete for government
- are party systems becoming more polarized
- are party systems becoming more fragmented
We will break party systems down into supply and demand
Key: Political parties & party systems
We will talk about ideologies
- why are political ideologies important
- how have political ideologies changed of the years
● christian democracy
● social democracy
● conservatism
● liberalism
first part of course: core features
second part of the course: new types of parties , change
- rise of populism
, - define populism
- which parties are populist
- why individuals vote for populism
Next: Rise of post material or new left parties
- german greens
What are the origins of these parties
how have they transformed through the years
Third: rise of regionalist parties
- how and why has the region; (central-periphery) cleavage become so important
We also talk about social movements
- they are key in understanding political mobilisation
- We will discuss why some parties combine more bottom up social movements with
political party mobilization
● podemos
● star movement
Wat gaan we leren:
- You will have learned about some of the most important theories of political parties
- how should we think about political parties
- And about the nature of change, how does change occurs?
● READ THE COURSE MANUAL!
EXAM: core of the course:
- parties organized
- party systems
- ideologies
- how parties have changed
Structure of the lectures
- lecture is online
- virtual classroom
- lectures are recorded
- lectures will be of different length
Date: lecture 2 times a week:
● monday: 13:30-15:15
● Thursday: 10:30-12:15
Readings: only articles
- what did he say in the lecture, and why is this article important and why is it important
- VPN connection → radboud environment
Prepare for lectures
- read articles before lectures
- attend the lecture!
- return to the readings if they are not clear after the lecture
, - lectures and readings = exam!\
College 2 Political parties The party as political organization
What is a political party:
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 (opwekken).
(more than a single interest)" (Katz and Crotty, 2006, p. 5)
Giovanni Sartori: “ 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
oce." Sartori
Liberal Democracy without political parties:
- parties are inevitable (onvermijdelijk, ze zijn er altijd)
- they bring order in chaos
- mediated representation (through political parties) but how: Key role by political
parties.
● political parties mediate
Individuals think that political parties are needed
- populists think that parties are NOT necessary
Have we always hated parties?
- Party means part, part of the whole, thus it was seen as division, or even faction
- Madison and the founders of the American constitution
- But there was an evolution: from responsible government, to the building up of
parties
- Parties have changed over time: more or less?
- Does this say something about our democracy?
Democracy with parties: models
- Changing Models of Party Organization and Party Democracy: The Emergence of
the Cartel Party (Katz and Mair, 1995)
- Democracy is not possible without parties
- The type of party model you have is important for the type of democracy you have
- It is not about more or less party, but what kind of party
→ It is about: linkage
But maybe even more importantly
- Parties organize cleavages
- Or they don't
- They mobilize parties
- The type of party and its relation to the system is very important here
→ This related to Luke's second dimension of power
,How to proceed/how to assess?
● We will focus on three things
- The Party Origins: where do they come from, says a lot about the party
- The role of the ideology: as what role does ideology play, political identity
(thick/thin)
- How the party organizes: can be different, thinking about how we think about
party models
● This is a dialectical process
- =interaction. Parties and party systems are structures. Interaction between
different models = historical process.
● One party (system) brings about the other party (System)
The Cadre Party (kader party)(elite party)
Origins: this is where democracy began
- created by small groups in parliament (aristocrates)
- Formed around individuals, Prominent individuals
- Prominent individuals in the community
● Notables, land owners, business men...
- Formed in parliament
- Coalesced around key individuals
Ideology
What about ideology?
- Low level of ideological coherence
- Low level of party platform
- Elites claimed to present `national' interests
- `Claimed' to be non-partisan
Organisation
- loosely organized
- party conventions are rare (Bijeenkomsten zijn zeldzaam)
- Low links with civil society
The Mass Party
Origins
- When do we find the mass party?
- In the 19th century→ industrialization and extension of the franchise
- Rise of socialism (mass parties)
- But also from secularization (mass parties)
- Rise of class politics
- parties come from civil society
Who are we talking about?
- The mass party begins to replace the cadre party
● mass parties become dominant
- We are talking about Christian Democratic and Social Democratic parties
- Some cadre parties remain but for the most they change or dissolve
, Ideology
- they have a strong ideology, is part of their identity
- Unlike the cadre parties they had a strong ideology
- The ideology was part of the identity of the party
- The ideology was articulated in a strong party Organization
- Party was very well organized
- Organization (emerging from civil society)
- Role of membership is important
Organization
- Organization was centralized
- Organization of hierarchical and layered
- Strong local organization
● cells and party branches-party is a bottom up organization
Purpose of the organizational strategy
- Socialize members, parties were paid by their people (achterban)
- Create a strong identity
- Create structures that the state did not do
- Party influenced by members Campaigning is important; for identity, gaining
members, and winning election
Organizational form
- Extensive organization within civil society
- Party newspapers,
- Working associations
- Education clubs
- Sports clubs
- Insurance
- Culture
- Banking
→ late 19th century beginning 20th century (grote organisatie die actief bezig was met zijn
achterban)
The Catch-all Party
Origins
- rise of the Welfare state and changing class structure
● who votes for thee parties changes
- Larger middle class
- Role of fascism and the Second World War
Ideology
- Ideology became less strong: reduction of ideology
● they tried to be more catch-all, more open in who they attracted (Wilde
iedereen aantrekken)
● waning of the opposition
- Less of a role for class and denomination
- The points was to access different groups in society (catch-all)
- Role of fascism and the Second World War
