Parties and party systems

1
Parties and party systems
2
Relationships to political cleavages

• Parties may reflect (and sometimes reinforce, or
  even create) societal divisions
• OR
• Parties may try to bridge (and often blur)
  cleavages, societal divisions

3
Ways of classifying parties

• According to their relationship to patterns of
  cleavage
• Aggregative or brokerage parties try to bridge
  societal cleavages
• Example Canadian or US parties
• Cleavage-based parties parties represent or
  organize a particular cleavage or group in
  society Examples European parties --
  classified according to the ideological
  families they (once) represent(-ed) -- although
  not necessarily carriers of distinct ideologies.

4

Aggregative v. cleavage-based parties Aggregative v. cleavage-based parties Aggregative v. cleavage-based parties
Aggregative or brokerage parties Cleavage-based parties
United States Republicans Democrats
Canada Liberal PCs NDP, Alliance, Bloc
UK Conservative, Labour,
Germany Social Democrats (SPD) Christian Democrats (CDU)
5
Ideological families

• Parties often arrayed from left to right on
  social and economic issues
• Left
• Initially opposed church involvement, favoured
  secular state
• Early and mid 20th c favoured re-distribution
  of wealth, greater equality, greater state
  involvement in the economy
• Late 20th c favour a fairer distribution of
  wealth and opportunity less certain about state
  intervention

6
Ideological families cont

• Right
• Initially favoured church, monarchy, order,
  authority, a stratified society
• Today
• allocation via the market
• Oppose redistribution,
• Prefer to reduce state involvement in the economy

7
Political cleavages today

• Divisions between left and right have become
  blurred new parties have emerged
• Greens and other left-libertarian parties
  demanding post-material values, democratization,
  improved quality of life
• New Right ambiguous typically
  anti-establishment, populist, anti-immigrant,
  anti-refugee, anti-European Union

8
Types of parties

• Elite or caucus party is run by a small group
  the caucus without extensive membership or
  membership involvement
• Mass party has a mass membership, which it
  attempts to involve, educate and shape
• Catch-all has a membership but they are rarely
  involved party attempts to broaden out,
  represent a broad swath of society like the
  aggregative or brokerage type, but with a
  different heritage

9
Examples
Elite or caucus Mass Catch-all
Liberal Democrats (UK) Canadian parties Earlier socialist parties Social Democratic Party Germany (SPD) today
Liberals, Germany (FDP) Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Germany