Elections, Parties, and the Party System Malcolmson

1
Elections, Parties, and the Party
SystemMalcolmson Myers, Chapter 9 10

• The Canadian Party System
• Party System
• Number of parties
• Relative Size strength
• Number nature of Social Cleavages
• Parties ideological locations on cleavages

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Elections, Parties, and the Party
SystemMalcolmson Myers, Chapter 9 10

• Social Cleavage A long-standing, salient social
  division that receives organizational expression
  (i.e., parties compete by offering positions on
  this social division)
• Examples
• Class (Economic, left-right)
• Centre-Periphery
• Church-State
• Urban-Rural

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Elections, Parties, and the Party
SystemMalcolmson Myers, Chapter 9 10

• Evolution of the Canadian Party System
• The First Party System (1867-1911)
• Liberal Conservative Duopoly
• Quebec the key to electoral and parliamentary
  dominance
• The First Transition (1911 1935)
• WW 1, Conscription, the Liberal split and Union
  government
• The Progressive incursion (Western alienation)
• The Great Depression (Socialism)

4
Elections, Parties, and the Party
SystemMalcolmson Myers, Chapter 9 10

• Evolution of the Canadian Party System
• The Second Party System (1935 1963)
• Return to duopoly but with different geographic
  patterns
• The Second Transition (1963-74)
• Conservative weakness
• Incursion of NDP into federal politics
• Series of minority governments

5
Elections, Parties, and the Party
SystemMalcolmson Myers, Chapter 9 10

• Evolution of the Canadian Party System
• The Third Party System (1974 1993)
• Return to majority government
• A 2 ½ party system
• The Third Transition (1993-2008)
• Conservative demise reconstruction
• Liberals base now Ontario not Quebec
• NDP nearly wiped out challenged by Greens
• Series of minority governments

6
Elections, Parties, and the Party
SystemMalcolmson Myers, Chapter 9 10
7
Elections, Parties, and the Party
SystemMalcolmson Myers, Chapter 9 10

• Parties Ideology
• Conservative
• Right Conservative Party
• Toryism traditional, organic view of society,
  hierarchical
• Classical Liberalism very weak tradition in
  Canada
• Progressive
• Left Liberals, NDP
• Social Democratic, Socialist
• Not the only cleavage in Canadian society or
  politics
• Regional (centre-periphery), urban-rural

8
Elections, Parties, and the Party
SystemMalcolmson Myers, Chapter 9 10

• Party Platforms
• Partys platforms are explicit statements of
  their ideological positions
• Liberals http//www.liberal.ca/default_e.aspx
• Conservatives http//www.conservative.ca/
• NDP http//www.ndp.ca/
• Greens http//www.greenparty.ca/
• Bloc http//www.presentpourlequebec.org/accueil.
  aspx

9
Elections, Parties, and the Party System
Malcolmson Myers, Chapter 9 10
Decentralization
BQ
Con
Liberals
NDP
Centralization
Left (Progressive)
Right (Conservative)
10
Elections, Parties, and the Party System
Malcolmson Myers, Chapter 9 10
Where do the Greens fall on this map?
Decentralization
BQ
Con
Liberals
NDP
Centralization
Left (Progressive)
Right (Conservative)
11
Elections, Parties, and the Party
SystemMalcolmson Myers, Chapter 9 10

• Re-alignments De-alignments
• De-alignment when old social cleavages lose
  their capacity to structure politics
• Religion Catholic-Protestant divide used to be
  an excellent predictor of political behaviour
  (e.g., how a person voted) in Canada but much
  less so today
• Re-alignment when old social cleavages are
  replaced by new social cleavages (often expressed
  by new parties)
• Environmentalism Green Party challenges all the
  old parties on this new issue
• NDP transformed from working-class to New Left
  party
• (Whether a single issue like environment is
  strong enough to structure politics in the
  long-run is an open question)

12
Elections, Parties, and the Party
SystemMalcolmson Myers, Chapter 9 10

• Re-alignments De-alignments
• Characterised by
• Rise of new issues (environment, free trade)
• Major events (World Wars, Depression, Oil Shocks)
• Change in number of parties (rise of new parties,
  demise of old parties)
• Electoral volatility
• Parliamentary instability (i.e., extended periods
  of minority government)

13
Elections, Parties, and the Party System
Malcolmson Myers, Chapter 9 10

• De-alignments Re-alignments
• Is the old 2-½ party system re-emerging
• Will the NDP be over-taken by the Greens?
• The impact of new financing rules

By-elections in early 2008