Political Parties

1
Political Parties

• Interest Aggregation
• Interest Representation
• March 30th, 2004

2
Political Parties vs. Interest Groups

• interest groups strive to influence political
  outcomes
• political parties strive to become the governing
  party
• both represent political interests
• political parties also aggregate interests
• in doing so, political parties act to filter of
  interests

3
Type of Political Parties

• basis of organization
• electoral-professional parties vs. mass parties
• basis of electoral competition
• pragmatic parties (brokerage parties)
• ideological-programmatic parties
• interest parties

4
Ideological/Programmatic Parties

• organized around social cleavages
• class
• religion
• ethnicity
• region
• traditional conceptions of ideology
• left vs. right

5
The Ideological Spectrum
The Left -- Socialist
The Right -- Conservative
Less Govt
More Govt

• greater reliance on the market
• fewer government regulations
• no special treatment for special interest groups
• lower taxes

• government regulation of the economy
• policies to help disadvantaged groups
• policies to redistribute income

6
General Trends -- Political Parties

• the rise of pragmatism

7
The Ideological Spectrum The Rise of Pragmatism
The Left -- Socialist
The Right -- Conservative
Tony Blair (Britain) New Labour Bill Clinton (US)
New Democrats
George W. Bush (US) Compassionate Conservatism
8
General Trends -- Political Parties

• single member plurality systems encourage
  pragmatic parties PR promotes ideological/interes
  t parties
• the rise of pragmatism
• parties increasingly competing to occupy the
  centre of the political spectrum
• reasons?
• success of pragmatic parties has been
  self-reinforcing
• the fall of communism
• affluence of western industrialized societies

9
Political Parties Democracy

• mass parties vs. electoral-professional parties
• mass parties encourage greater participation in
  politics by the public
• majoritarian democrats
• electoral-professional parties
• elite democrats

10
Political Parties Democracy

• ideological/interest parties vs. pragmatic
  parties
• ideological/interest parties
• gives clear electoral choices
• help make elections meaningful
• encourages greater mass participation
• majoritarian democrats
• pragmatic parties
• depend on party elites (to broker deals among
  various interests)
• elections
• differences between parties are limited
• electoral choice is really about best management
  team
• elite democrats

11
Political Parties Democracy

• liberal democrats
• crucial point is that individuals remain free to
  form political parties (and contest elections)
  free from state interference