Introduction to political science

October 30th

Political Parties

1) What is a party?
2) What are the origins?
3) Typologies of parties

1) Definition by Joseph Lapalombara and Miron Weiner (TO CHECK)

Political party = a group of individuals which responds to four criteria:
- continuity in organisation -> the lifespan of the organisation is
longer than that of the founders / current leaders
- is permanent at both local and national levels -> the local units of
the organisation communicate with the national units and vice-versa
- the leaders deliberately want to capture and to hold political
power and decision making
- popular support
Functions of political parties:
-the clearest holders of ideologies, political programmes
-the channels for representation in legislative, government formation etc.
-means of achieving success of failure
-mobilization
-social interest => pluralism, more voices

2) Origins
-recent
-along the 19th century
-root: partire = to divide (Latin)
-the word does not enter the political vocabulary until the 17th century; the
longstanding predecessor with practically the same connotations is "sect",
deriving from secare = to cut and to divide (Latin) which slowly becomes
associated with religion
- contradiction in terms when we talk about a one-party political system
(totalitarian regimes, for instance, where the monopoly was held by one party)
because there is no other part.

Three theories:

1.The institutional theory

-parties emerged from parliaments as the members felt the need to act as a
group and to renew their mandates.
-parliaments hystorically consolidate as representative bodies
-extention of the voting rights
-three stages (Duverge):
a. the creation of parlamentary groups who feel they are more or less by
ideas etc
b. the organisation of electoral committees that had the task to help the
candidates (mps) to run again for a new mandate.
c. a permanent connection is established between the groups in the
parlament and the electoral committees.
-two types of political parties, depending on their origins & relationship with the
parliament:
 a. the internally created political parties (first emerged) - parties that
emerged from within the parliaments - geographic basis - 1832 - 1848 - Europe;
1830s - USA; e.g.: The Conservative Party in UK; The Democrats and Republicans
in USA;
b. the externally created political parties

2.Hystorical crisis theory

-emerged from outside the parliaments when the old parties were challenged
socially or ideologically
-new social developments, different occurring interests
-crisis of legitimation, e. g. some of the earliest parties in Europe were created
around the issue of legitimacy, the old authority was challenged (the
revolutionary groups that turn into parties in France during the beginning of the
19th century, groups mobilized quite often by members of Parliaments who
defended revolutionary ideas against the monarchy; nationalist parties in 1848
born out of the revolutionary events challenging either monarchies or empires)
-religious crisis, e.g. in Germany the divide between the Catholics (South -
Bavaria) and the Protestants (North - Prussia) => Center Party (Catholic) vs the
Liberal Prussian Party (Protestant)
-rural crisis, e.g. Agrarian Party (Scandinavia)
-regional divides e.g. the Irish Party (UK), the Flemish Catholics and the Valon
Catholic parties (Belgium)
-the explanation for their emergence: S. Rokkan (died in 1979) - parties emerged
as results of social conflicts through various stages. - social cleavages (e.g. rural
- urban cleavage; center - periphery cleavage; religious - secular cleavage;
workers - capitalists cleavage)

3.Developmental theory
-relate the birth of parties to modernization process
-transportation networks, pollution etc

3)Typologies of parties
1. Origins
a) internally created parties
b) externally created parties
2.Internal structure
a) personell parties - internally created, old parties - limited & low
recruitment, based on notables (elite) - flexible internal structure, de-
centralization - loose ideology
b) mass parties - externally created parties - challenge the establishment;
the model remains the Social Democrat Party from Germany - a lot of members,
supporters, heavey mobilization - rigid ideology, rigid internal structure, strict
subordination to the central hedquarters, disciplined voting
c) catch-all-parties - recent typology - three or four decades - initially in
Western Europe - tries to mobilize everybody, so the ideology is rather loose. ->
general tendency

3.Ideologies
a)left-wing parties (SEMINAR next week)
b)right-wing parties