Forms of Party Organization

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Forms of Party Organization

• Party Types
• Why do parties organize in the ways that they do?

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The Department of Political Science Presents

• The Effect of Partisan Stereotypes on the
  Evaluations of Party Leaders?
• Dr. Amanda BittnerDepartment of Political
  Science
• Memorial University of Newfoundland
• Friday February 6, 2009
• SN2033
• 230pm

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(No Transcript)
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Debates timing

• Moderator 
• Introduction   20 seconds
• Opening arguments
• Proponent 1  (2 minutes)
• Opponent 1   (2 minutes)
• Rebuttal       
• Proponent 2  (1.5 minutes)
• Opponent 2   (1.5 minutes)
• Discussion and evaluation
• Judge(s) plus rest of class (3-4 minutes)

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Why do parties organize in the ways that they do?

• How much organization do they need?
• Do they need
• thick organization with large of members?
• to be organized at all times or only when
  elections are called?
• professionals rather than amateurs?
• Organization at all levels of government?

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Party types a composite typology

• Cadre parties
• Mass parties (or parties of mass integration)
• Catch-all parties and/or
• Electoral-Professional parties
• Cartel parties

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Where this comes from

• Maurice Duverger
• Sigmund Neumann
• Otto Kirchheimer
• Angelo Panebianco
• Richard Katz and Peter Mair

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Duvergers theory of party organization

• Degree of organization reflects parties
  electoral needs
• First parties were internally created
• Took the form of loose cadre parties
• Made of local notables
• Minimal organization outside of parliament
• Minimal organization between elections
• Few members

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Duverger contd

• The mass party
• Mass parties externally created
• Extensive organization
• Outside of parliament
• In between elections
• Mass membership enroll a larger of target
  groups
• The mass party is
• A superior form of party organization
• The wave of the future

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Sigmund Neumann

• Parties of individual representation
• Parties of mass integration
• Party not only organizes electorally,
• but also provides services and spiritual home for
  its citizens of the masses (Otto Kirchheimer,
  1966)
• Parties of total integration

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Epsteins critique

• Contagion from the left vs. contagion from the
  right
• Leon Epstein (Political Parties in Western
  Democracies, 1967) argues that the mass party is
  not the wave of the future
• Parties are not dependent on numbers or mass
  organization
• They can rely on the media instead

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Catchall and electoral professional parties

• Problem
• How do parties change over time?
• What are they like in middle age?

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Otto Kirchheimer and the catch-all party

• Parties of mass integration adapt to a more
  affluent and consumer oriented society by
• Abandoning attempts at the intellectual and
  moral encadrement of the masses
• Bidding for the support of interest groups
• Emphasizing the qualities of their leaders
• Scuttling excess ideological baggage
• Moving to the centre
• The success of one catch-all party forces others
  to imitate it, transforming the party system

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Panebiancos Political Parties

• Parties reflect genetic types
• Parties forced to transform themselves into
  electoral-professional parties

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The cartel party

• Katz and Mair 1995
• Parties share power with each other
• Parties have become part of the state
• Parties draw on state resources e.g. state
  finance
• Party members are involved, but only at a distance

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Problems

• How appropriate are these types?
• Do they encompass all political parties?
• Do they describe contemporary parties?
• Do they fit political parties in Canada or the
  United States?
• How accurately do they characterize them?
• What about parties in other parts of the world?

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North American Contrasts

• Canadian American parties as coalitions of
  divergent interests
• Enlist divergent interests, regions in hopes of
• Winning a parliamentary majority in Canada
• Capturing the Presidency in the United States
• Do they fit any of these categories?

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American parties

• Come together as coalitions to capture the
  Presidency in the 1820s
• Martin Van Burens Democracy
• Republicans established in 1856
• Periodic realignments?

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The Republicans

• After the civil war, the party of the north and
  east
• Represent urban areas
• Including both capital Labour
• Opposed by Democrats based in the south west
• Tendencies more pronounced after 1896

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The Democrats

• Date, if not from Thomas Jeffersons
  Democratic-Republicans to the 1820s
• Martin van Burens Democracy elects Andrew
  Jackson and then Van Buren to in 1828, 1832,
  (Jackson) and 1836
• Party splits in run up to the Civil War
• Close competitor to Republicans until 1896
• Roosevelt coalition from 1928-32 to 1960s and
  beyond

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Democrats and Republicans today

• Republicans move to the right from the 1970s
• Impact of religious right, social conservatives
• Demcrats
• Move left in 1970s
• Back to centre, centre-left under Clinton
• Today?

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Parties elsewhere

• What about parties in
• Latin America?
• Africa?
• Asia?
• Eastern Europe?

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Reminders

• Paper topics due today, February 3rd
• These should contain
• A brief statement of the topic as you propose to
  define it
• A preliminary bibliography of sources you are
  likely to use
• Including a brief annotation of what you expect
  to find in them or how you expect to use them
• Party system maps due February 12th