PARTIES AND

PARTY SYSTEMS
 Key Issues

• What is a political party? How can parties be classified?

• What are the key functions of political parties?
• How are parties organized, and where is power located within them?
• What kinds of party systems are there?
• How does the party system shape the broader political process?
• Are parties in decline, and is this decline terminal?
 Key Concepts
• Political party
• Faction, factionalism
• Primary election
• Party democracy
• Party government
• Coalition
 Types of political party
• A political party is a group of people organized for the purpose of winning
government power, and usually displays some measure of ideological
cohesion. Parties of modern kind emerged in the USA. The Federalist Party (from
1860 onwards the Republican Party) appeared as a mass-based party during the US
presidential election of 1800. Many conservative and liberal parties started life as
legislative factions; socialist and religious/ethnic parties were born as social
movements or interest groups operating outside the government. By the late 1950s
some 80% of the world’s states were ruled by political parties.
Cadre and mass parties (the most common distinction)
• The term ‘cadre’ is used to denote trained and professional party members
who are expected to exhibit a high level of political commitment and doctrinal
discipline. CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union), NSAP (National-socialist
Workers’ Party)
• A mass party places a heavy emphasis on broadening membership and
constructing a wide electoral base. The German Social Democratic Party and the
UK Labour Party were designed to mobilize the working class. Otto Kirchheimer
(1966) ‘catch-all’ parties: they have reduced their ideological baggage in order to
appeal to the largest possible number of voters (the Christian Democratic Union in
Germany and the Republicans and Democrats in the US).
 Types of political party
Representative and integrative parties (the 2nd distinction of parties):
Sigmund Neumann (1956): Representative parties see their primary
function as being the securing the votes in elections. They adopt a catch-
all strategy and therefore place pragmatism before principle and market
research before popular mobilization. Schumpeter & Downs portray politicians
as power-seeking creatures who are willing to adopt whatever policies are likely
to bring success.
Integrative parties adopt proactive, rather than reactive, political
strategies; they wish to mobilize, educate ad inspire the masses. Mass
parties may also exhibit mobilizing tendencies. Socialist parties are set out to
win over the electorate to a belief in the benefits of public ownership, full
employment, redistribution, social welfare etc.
 Types of political party
Constitutional and revolutionary parties (the third type of classification):
•Mainstream parties in liberal democracies all have a constitutional character. They operate
within a framework of rules and constraints. They acknowledge that there is a division
between a party and the state, between the party in power (the government) and state
institutions (the bureaucracy, judiciary, police, etc). They respect the rules of electoral
competition. Revolutionary parties are anti-system parties, which aim to seize power and
overthrow the existing constitutional structure. When they come to power they become the
‘ruling’ or regime parties, suppressing rival parties and establishing permanent relationship
within the state.
Left-wing and right-wing parties (the final classification):
•Left-wing (progressive, socialist, communist parties) are associated with social reform and or
wholesale economic transformation. They have drawn their support from the ranks of the
poor and disadvantaged. Right-wing parties (conservative and fascist) are associated with
upholding the existing social order and are in that sense, a force for continuity. They have
drawn their support from business interests and the materially-satisfied middle classes. This
classification of left and right might be misleading: the left and right is often divided along
reformist and revolutionary lines; constiutional parties encompass their left and right wings.
Post-materialist issues, such as the environment and animal rights have also been important.
These rendered the conventional left-right classification redundant (Giddens, 1994)
 Functions of parties
• Representation: the primary function of political parties. The capacity to
respond to and articulate the views of both the members and the voters.
Anthony Downs(1975) rational choice: politicians act as entrepreneurs
(businessmen) seeking votes.
• Elite formation and recruitment: Politicians achieve office by virtue of their
party post. Presidents are usually elected from among party leaders, in
parliamentary systems the leader of the largest party in the assembly normally
becomes prime minister. However, political leaders are drawn from a relatively
small pool of talent. This problem has been solved to an extent by primary
elections.
• Goal formulation: parties formulate programmes of government; they formulate
a coherent sets of policy options that give the electorate a choice amongst
realistic and achievable goals. The tendency towards the catch-all parties, and
the fact that electoral campaigns increasingly stress personality and image over
policies and issues, has generally reduced the impact that parties have on policy
formulation. Party programmes are almost certain to be modified by pressures
from the civil service and interest groups, as well as in the light of domestic and
international circumstances.
 Functions of parties
• Interest articulation and aggregation: parties help to articulate and
aggregate the various interests found in society. National parties articulate
the demands of a multitude of groups and this forces them to aggregate
these interests by by drawing them together into a coherent whole,
balancing competing interests against each other.
• Socialization and mobilization: Through internal debate and discussion, as
well as campaigning and electoral competition, parties are important agents
of political education and socialization. Mainstream parties play a significant
role in encouraging groups to play the rules of the democratic game (19th
&20th ct. integration of working class into industrial society).
• Organization of government: in the absence of political parties, it would be
impossible to govern complex modern societies. The governments in
parliamentary systems are, to an extent, ‘party government’. If members of
the government are drawn from a single party, parties give governments
stability and coherence. Parties facilitate cooperation between the major
branches of government: the assembly and the executive. Parties provide, in
competitive systems at least, a vital source of opposition and criticism.
 Party organization
• The organization of parties provides vital clues about the distribution
of power within society as a whole.
• Ostrogorski (Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties, 1902)
argued representation of individual interests had lost out to the growing
influence of the party machine and senior figures. Criticism: Michels wished
to analyze the power structure of the SPD and pointed to the inevitable
failure of democratic socialism. Generalization was made on the single case
at a particular moment in time. It rests on questionable psychological
theories.
• Michels’ study of the German SDP (1911) led him to coin the term ‘iron law
of oligarchy’ which described the concentration of power in the hands of a
small group of party leaders.
• In the USA attempts were made to strengthen the democratic and
participatory features of parties through reform.
• The existence of factions and tendencies is as important as formal
organization in determining the location of power within a party. Factionalism
is a luxury that only long-time parties of government can afford.
 Party systems
• A party system is relatively stable network of relationships between
parties that is structured by their number, size and ideological orientation.
A) The most familiar way of distinguishing between different types of party system
is by reference to the number of parties competing for power. Duverger (1954)
single-party (China), two party (USA) and multi-party systems (Germany).
B) Sartori (1976): the relevance of parties in relation to the formation of
governments, whether their size gives them the prospects of winning or sharing
power.
C) How these relevant parties relate to one another: cooperation or conflict?

The major party systems found in modern politics are:

• One party systems: one party enjoys a monopoly of power through the
exclusion of all other parties. They develop an entrenched relationship with the
state machine (a fused ‘party-state’ apparatus) First type: state socialist
regimes, ideological discipline and vanguardism; the second type: anti-colonial
nationalism and state consolidation in the developing world.
 Party systems
• Two party systems (e.g. USA): 1)although a number of parties exist, only two major
parties enjoy sufficient electoral and legislative strength to have a realistic prospect of
winning government power.2) The larger party is able to rule alone (on the basis of
legislative majority); the other provides the opposition.3) Power alternates between these
parties; both are ‘electable’, the opposition serving as a ‘government in the wings’.
• Dominant party systems (Japan): Competitive, in the sense that a number of parties
compete for power in regular and popular elections, but is dominated by a single major
party that consequently enjoys prolonged periods in power. Until its defeat in 2009, the
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Japan had been in power almost continuously for 54
years. Its party dominance was based on the Japanese economic miracle. Danger:
‘natural’ party of government.
• Multiparty systems (Germany): competition amongst more than two parties, reducing
the chances of single-party government and increasing the likelihood of coalitions. This
classification has subcategories: Germany’s two-and-a-half-party system (CDU and SPD
and another small party); moderate pluralism in Belgium and polarized pluralism in Italy
until the 1990s. Strength: balance within government and exhibits conciliation and
compromise. Weakness: pitfalls and difficulties of coalition formation and maintenance.
The domination of the political centre may prevent the parties from offering clear
ideological alternatives.
 A decline of parties?

• Evidence of a crisis in party politics can be found in the decline in

party membership and partisanship, as well as in the rise of
‘antiparty’ groups and movements. Why?

• Parties are seen to have failed to articulate the aspirations and

sensibilities associated with postmaterialism, or generated within
post-industrial societies.

• Parties are seen as bureaucratized political machines.

• Disillusionment and cynicism grow as governments fail to deliver on

promises. Governments face new challenges in this era of an
increasingly globalized economy and more powerful interest groups.