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Understanding Party Systems: Structures, Interactions, and Implications

This document provides an initial overview of party systems, exploring their characteristics and interactions. It outlines the two-part examination structure, with short essays evaluating six statements and a longer essay addressing the concept of a party system. Key features include the number of political parties, their polarization, and the context in which they operate. The text examines how parties interact, influence one another, and the broader implications for electoral choices, accountability, and stability in governance.

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Understanding Party Systems: Structures, Interactions, and Implications

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  1. Party systems: An initial view

  2. Midterm • Thursday, Feb. 26th • Two parts: • Part I Short essays: Briefly comment on the validity of six (6) of the following statements. • 10 points each, 40% (35 minutes) • Part II Longer essay. Answer one (1) of the following questions: • 40% 40 minutes

  3. What is a party system? • Implies: • Parts • Regular, recurring, systematic, interaction • Party system = the milieu or environment in which parties interact with each other • `Systemness: • Has the character of being a system • Each party’s strategy, tactics, and behaviour affected (among other things) by what other parties do

  4. Party systems: • System: any regular, recurring pattern of interaction • Party system: the context in which parties operate and interact with each other. • Systemic features: • what one party does influences others • they need to take account of its behaviour, strategies, the support which it can win

  5. Ways in which party systems vary: • Differences in number of parties: • Two party • Multiparty • Moderate • Extended (“extreme”) • Differences in the degree of polarization • Differences in the number of dimensions along which parties compete

  6. Making sense of party systems Classifications usually based on • Number of political parties • But how do you count them? • Extent of polarization: how far apart are they? Poles apart Other relevant factors: • Number of dimensions or factors on which parties divide

  7. Counting parties: • Do you count all parties contesting elections or only parties of significance? • If so, how do you tell? • Giovanni Sartori’s counting rules: • Include all parties winning 5% or more • Include smaller parties if they have blackmail potential (e.g. their seats in parliament are needed to form a coalition)

  8. Types of party systems

  9. Accounting for differences: Standard explanations: • Party systems rooted in patterns of cleavage • The impact of electoral laws • PR vs. SMP Other considerations: • Chicken or egg: which came first? • Patterns of mobilization and the freezing of electoral alignments

  10. What difference does it make? Impact of the number of parties: • on electoral choice? • on political accountability? • on cabinet stability? Impact of polarization: • What problems does a more polarized party system create?

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