Party Politics current issue

Party Behaviour in the Parliamentary Arena: The Case of the Korean National Assembly

Hix, S., Jun, H.-W. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:07:17 PDT

This article investigates the nature of party behaviour in the legislative arena in a developing democracy by undertaking a spatial analysis of voting in the Korean National Assembly. We discover the main dimensions of politics in the Korean parliament and look at how KNA members’ ideological preferences, regional interests and the shift from divided to unified government shapes relations between parties in this chamber. We find that party behaviour in the KNA is primarily ideologically based around a ‘progressive—conservative’ dimension of South Korean politics. However, we find that the geopolitical element of the progressive—conservative divide in Korean politics is more salient in the KNA than the socio-economic (left—right) element. We also find more division between the parties in the 17th KNA than in the 16th KNA, but this had less to do with ideological splits than the fact that the main progressive party (Uri) held the presidency and a majority in the parliament for the first time.

Dissent in a Party-Based Parliament: The Portuguese Case

Leston-Bandeira, C. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:07:17 PDT

With a focus on the Portuguese case, this article shows how MPs express disagreement with their parties in a highly cohesive and party-dominated parliament. We review the features that explain why the Portuguese institutional framework reinforces party control over the parliamentary mandate and discuss the different ways Portuguese MPs express party dissent. In the last section of the article, we analyse data on voting for a period of just over 30 years. Contrary to what the literature tells us, Portuguese MPs have been breaching voting discipline regularly since 1976.

Modelling Government Formation in Denmark and Beyond

Skjaeveland, A. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:07:17 PDT

This article proposes a new model of government formation: the Dual Power Base Model. The starting point is the median voter theorem, but an institutional limitation suggested by Laver and Shepsle (2000) is added. The claim is that it takes a certain number of MPs to cope with the practical tasks of running a government — that is, to have ‘Office Capacity’. If the median party has Office Capacity, the model predicts that the median party will form the government. If the median party does not have Office Capacity the median party will choose the closest party or parties that do have Office Capacity. This model is applied most thoroughly to government formation in Denmark, but also to the Norwegian and Swedish cases. When party positions are measured by previous voting behaviour on bills in parliament, the model explains 23 out of 25 government formations in Denmark in the period 1953 to 2007.

Gender and Political Party Leadership in Canada

O'Neill, B., Stewart, D. K. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:07:17 PDT

In this article, we compare the experiences of male and female party leaders at the provincial and federal levels in Canada between 1980 and 2005 and test several hypotheses regarding gender and party leadership. The Canadian case provides an excellent case study given the relatively large number of women (21 in total) who held the position of party leader during the time period in question. The case study reveals that major parties are less likely to elect women as their leaders, while parties on the ideological left are more likely than other parties to select women. The leadership races won by women are as competitive, if not more so, than those won by men, although the mandate secured by women leaders is less overwhelming. Not surprisingly, then, men are found to enjoy longer tenures as leaders than women, and, moreover, to enjoy greater electoral success.

Rein Taagepera, Predicting Party Sizes: The Logic of Simple Electoral Systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. {pound}45.00. xxi + 314 pp. ISBN 9780199287741

Gallagher, M. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:07:17 PDT

Michael M. Franz, Choices and Changes: Interest Groups in the Electoral Process. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2008. $23.95. xii + 225 pp. ISBN 978 1 592 13674 2

Berry, J. M. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:07:17 PDT

Regina Smyth , Candidate Strategies and Electoral Competition in the Russian Federation: Democracy Without Foundation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. {pound}48.00. vii + 247 pp. ISBN 0 521 846 900

White, D. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:07:17 PDT

Gino G. Raymond, The French Communist Party During the Fifth Republic: A Crisis of Leadership and Ideology. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. {pound}50.00. x + 233 pp. ISBN 1 403 996 121

Guiat, C. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:07:17 PDT

Book Review: Anne Tiernan, Power Without Responsibility: Ministerial Staffers in Australian Governments from Whitlam to Howard. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2007. $34.95. x + 283 pp. ISBN 978 0 868 40981 8

Bennister, M. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:07:17 PDT