Party Politics recent issues

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

Catch-All in the Twenty-First Century? Revisiting Kirchheimer's Thesis 40 Years Later: An Introduction

Hale Williams, M. — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:02:35 PDT

The Catch-All Party Revisited: Reflections of a Kirchheimer Student

Safran, W. — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:02:35 PDT

This article aims to do the following: reflect upon the life, experiences, ideas and teaching of Kirchheimer from the perspective of the author, his first dissertation advisee at Columbia University and one of his last students; discuss some of his major political observations and arguments; and consider their relevance today.

Campaigning and the Catch-All Party: The Process of Party Transformation in Britain

Smith, J. K. — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:02:35 PDT

Otto Kirchheimer’s well-known diagnosis of ‘catch-all’ partism in Western Europe rests on an implicit causal argument about the consequences of social change for political parties. This article takes up the causal story underlying Kirchheimer’s account and traces its implications for a specific, though central, party activity: campaigning. As Kirchheimer discerned, the transformation of advanced industrial societies radically altered the context of parties’ strategic decision-making. In the area of election campaigning, parties confronted heightened incentives to approach the electorate with ‘persuasive’ rather than more traditional ‘mobilizing’ appeals and developed a greatly increased demand for reliable information about voter preferences. These shifts, in turn, had consequences for party organization, promoting the centralization and marginalization of individual members Kirchheimer associates with the catch-all party type. Through the lens of campaign change, then, we can observe the causal processes that unite the diverse features Kirchheimer links to his catch-all party — although our attention is also drawn to ways in which party development has not conformed to Kirchheimer’s expectations. This article illustrates these intersecting processes with a discussion of Labour and Conservative campaigns in Britain.

Kirchheimer Italian Style: Catch-All Parties or Catch-All Blocs

Forestiere, C. — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:02:35 PDT

In this article, I use the Italian case to demonstrate that Kirchheimer’s catch-all thesis can be applied in various ways. Unlike parties in many European nations, Italian parties did not undergo a catch-all transformation in the post-war period. However, after the parties and party system were dramatically reformed in the 1990s, some catch-all characteristics — with clarifications — in Italy are in evidence. Specifically, an important distinction needs to be made between what Kirchheimer called a ‘catch-all party’ and what we may refer to as a ‘catch-all bloc’. The catch-all party is a single party that aims to capture as much of the vote as it can, oftentimes by converging its policy preferences on the centre political space. The catch-all bloc is a group of individual parties, catch-all or not, that agrees in advance to collaborate, and behaves, collectively, as a catch-all party. This important distinction helps us understand changes in the Italian party system over time and shows that Kirchheimer’s ideas — though modified — still have relevance in modern-day Italian politics.

Kirchheimer's French Twist: A Model of the Catch-All Thesis Applied to the French Case

Hale Williams, M. — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:02:35 PDT

Despite the fact that the catch-all thesis has profoundly affected scholarship on political parties, operationalizing the thesis and applying it to evaluate empirical cases has proved challenging for scholars. The thesis has been criticized for lacking a theoretical framework of analysis and clear causal logic. Therefore, while it is often cited it is rarely tested. In this article I develop a model of the catch-all thesis and then test it in the case of France, one of the original cases specified by Otto Kirchheimer in his observations. The French case exhibits competing tendencies of party convergence and polarization with the persistence of ideology. Findings suggest some confirmation of the catch-all thesis prediction regarding bipolarization, yet not according to the rationale asserted in the thesis. Additionally, presidentialism effects prove an important explanatory factor and the 2007 elections suggest a possible catch-all party in the UMP.

Holding Their Own: Explaining the Persistence of Green Parties in France and the UK

Spoon, J.-J. — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:02:35 PDT

In his seminal work, Kirchheimer (1966) argued that as larger parties transformed into catch-all parties we would see the disappearance of small parties. We know, however, that Green parties are one example of small parties that have persisted in many European party systems. In this article, I seek to explain this inconsistency. I argue that Kirchheimer did not anticipate the development and growth of the New Politics agenda or of Green parties. These parties, moreover, have endured because of their desire to gain electoral representation and maintain their distinct policy positions. To test this argument, I examine the electoral strategies and policy preferences of the British and French Green parties over the past decade. The results confirm my hypotheses. The findings not only update Kirchheimer’s theory, but also have important implications for our understanding of Green party behaviour and potential for longevity more generally.

'Empty Nets': Social Democracy and the 'Catch-All Party Thesis' in Germany and Sweden

Allen, C. S. — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:02:35 PDT

The Social Democratic parties of Germany and Sweden were part of ‘third way’ movements common to such political parties during the mid-1990s. By continuing to moderate their positions and move away from their traditional bases towards the centre, they seemed to embody — a generation later — a second embracing of Kirchheimer’s ‘catch-all’ party thesis. But unlike its 1960s’ incarnation, each of them in the mid-1990s disregarded their left flanks and saw considerable growth of both Green and Left (former communist) parties fill the policy space that social democracy had relinquished. Both parties no longer lead their governments. This article suggests that the decline of social democracy in Germany and Sweden can be understood by a nuanced interpretation of the Kirchheimer thesis. Ultimately, it is argued that the failure of both parties to maintain electoral dominance results, paradoxically, from their overemphasis on the political centre, which left a lucrative space for left-wing parties to occupy especially in a PR setting. Kirchheimer helps us understand this pattern, because the focus on the centre leaves an ideologically moribund electorate that created space for Left parties to institutionally renew or adapt themselves to address the needs of these forgotten voters. This central hypothesis, along with others that derive from the catch-all thesis, is tested empirically with historical analysis and electoral and opinion data.

Book Review: Lieven De Winter, Margarita Gomez-Reino and Peter Lynch (eds), Autonomist Parties in Europe: Identity Politics and the Revival of the Territorial Cleavage. Volumes I and II. Barcelona: ICPS, 2006. ISBN 846080450X; ISBN 9788460804505

Massetti, E. — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:02:35 PDT

Book Review: David B. Magleby and Kelly D. Patterson (eds), The Battle for Congress: Iraq, Scandal, and Campaign Finance in the 2006 Election. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2008. $28.95 (pbk). ISBN 9781594515569

Francia, P. L. — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:02:35 PDT

Book Review: Russell Dalton, Doh Chull Shin and Yun-han Chu (eds), Party Politics in East Asia: Citizens, Elections, and Democratic Development. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2008. ix + 207 pp. ISBN 9781588265708

Martinez Kuhonta, E. — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:02:35 PDT

Book Review: N. J. Crowson, The Conservative Party and European Integration since 1945: At the Heart of Europe? Abingdon and New York, NY: Routledge, 2007. xiii + 306pp. ISBN 0 415 40022 8; ISBN 978 0 415 40022 0

Daddow, O. — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:02:35 PDT

Book Review: Ivan Katchanovski, Cleft Countries. Regional Political Divisions and Cultures in Post-Soviet Ukraine and Moldova. Stuttgart: Ibidem-Verlag, 2006. 286pp. ISBN 38982558X; ISSN 1614--3515

Kuzio, T. — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:02:35 PDT

Still Talking, But Is Anyone Listening?: The Changing Face of Constituency Campaigning in Britain, 1997--2005

Pattie, C., Johnston, R. — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:07:28 PDT

Constituency electioneering has become established as an important element of postmodern political campaigning, allowing parties and candidates to focus effort on targeted seats. A substantial literature has developed, showing the efficacy of such targeting: other things being equal, the harder parties campaign locally, the more votes they win relative to their rivals. However, on the whole, such studies have taken a relatively static view of local campaigning, concentrating on particular elections. Yet there are a priori grounds to expect the efficacy of local campaigns to vary from party to party and from election to election. In this article, we therefore analyse dynamic trends in constituency campaigning using a pooled data set of British constituency electioneering between 1997 and 2005. The results illustrate important and substantial variations over time and across parties in the impact of local election campaigning.

It's About The Benefits: Choice Environments, Ideological Proximity and Individual Participation in 28 Democracies

Brockington, D. — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:07:28 PDT

This article approaches the question of turnout by focusing on the benefits term in the classic equation through an examination of the relationship between the quality of the choice environment, ideological proximity and participation in 28 democracies. Using data from the CSES (Comparative Study of Electoral Systems), I find that electoral contexts that feature choice-rich environments, measured both at the individual level by ideological proximity and the contextual level by the coverage of the ideological continuum, are associated with a higher probability that any single voter will participate in an election. These findings hold in the presence of individual and institutional controls, and are confirmed using both robust standard errors and against estimated variance in individual over-reporting of turnout.

Rethinking Factionalism: Typologies, Intra-Party Dynamics and Three Faces of Factionalism

Boucek, F. — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:07:28 PDT

It is time to think again about the conceptualization of factionalism in political science. Following a brief review of scholarly contributions in the field, I argue that the analytical approach based on typologies and categories of subparty groups is not very useful in explaining intra-party behaviour and the process of change because, by their nature, these are static tools. Building on previous contributions to the study of factions, notably Sartori, I suggest focusing on intra-party dynamics instead of on organizational forms of faction. Factionalism should be viewed in non-exclusive terms, i.e. as a dynamic process of subgroup partitioning. It is a multifaceted phenomenon that can transform itself over time in response to incentives. Based on conclusions from case study research of factionalized parties in established democracies, I identify three main faces of factionalism: cooperative, competitive and degenerative. I suggest that the process of change may occur in a cycle that contributes to party disintegration, as illustrated by the case of the Christian Democratic Party in Italy (DC), which imploded in the mid-1990s under the centrifugal pulls of its factions.

Party Non-Systems: A Conceptual Innovation

Sanchez, O. — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:07:28 PDT

This article makes a case for expansion of the conceptual framework for the classification of party universe types. In particular, it introduces the concept of ‘party non-systems’, defined as those party universes characterized by a fundamental absence of inter-temporal continuity in the identity of the main parties. At the heart of this concept is the explicit differentiation between intra- and extra-systemic volatility. Party non-systems are characterized by persistently high transfers of votes away from the main parties towards new and small parties (i.e. high extra-systemic volatility), an ever-changing constellation of parties without a stable ‘core’. It is argued that the difference between non-systems and all other party universe types is not only one of degree (in level of institutionalization), but also one of kind. This conceptual innovation is then applied to a number of Latin American cases (Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia) at the low end of the institutionalization continuum to highlight important cross-country and inter-temporal differences in the nature of (core) party competition.

Erratum

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:07:28 PDT

Book Review: Paul Webb and Stephen White (eds), Party Politics in New Democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. {pound}50.99 (hbk), xv + 375 pp. ISBN 978 0 19 928965 3

Lewis, P. G. — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:07:28 PDT

Book Review: Bryon Moraski, Elections by Design: Parties and Patronage in Russia's Regions. DeKalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press, 2006. $36.00 (hbk), x + 164 pp. ISBN 0 87580 355 5

Ross, C. — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:07:28 PDT

Book Review: Michel Huysseune, Modernity and Secession. The Social Sciences and the Political Discourse of the Lega Nord in Italy. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2006. $80.00/{pound}45.00 (hbk), xv + 298 pp. ISBN 978 1 84545 061 8

Brunazzo, M. — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:07:28 PDT

Book Review: Richard R. Lau and David P. Redlawsk, How Voters Decide: Information Processing during Election Campaigns. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. ISBN 13: 9780521613064; 10: 052161306X

Smirnov, O. — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:07:28 PDT

Book Review: Jonas Hinnfors, Reinterpreting Social Democracy: a History of Stability in the British Labour Party and the Swedish Social Democratic Party. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006. 176 pp. ISBN 0719073626

Pettitt, R. T. — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:07:28 PDT

Party Politics and Pop

Janda, K. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:52:26 PDT

Measuring the Professionalization of Political Campaigning

Gibson, R. K., Rommele, A. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:52:26 PDT

This article develops and tests a new multidimensional index — CAMPROF — that is designed to measure and compare parties' use of professionalized campaign techniques during elections. Based on the extant literature, we identify and operationalize the essential components of this new form of campaigning to create a 30-point index that is applied to the case of the 2005 German federal election. The results show the CAMPROF Index to be: (1) successful in capturing variance in parties' engagement in professionalized campaigning, and (2) capable of producing rankings that correspond to a priori expectations about how well the parties would perform. The findings are significant in that they provide preliminary confirmation of the Index's capacity to measure the concept of professionalized campaigning as well as providing new insights into the party-level dynamics that may be driving the current wave of campaign modernization. The opportunities and challenges involved in wider application of the measure to cross-national research are discussed.

Party Strategy or Candidate Strategy: How Does the LDP Run the Right Number of Candidates in Japan's Multi-Member Districts?

Reed, S. R. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:52:26 PDT

Under the single non-transferable vote (SNTV), political parties are faced with the strategic problem of matching the number of candidates to their vote total. Running either too many or too few candidates may lose a seat that could otherwise have been won. Many studies have confirmed that Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) solved this strategic problem relatively well and ran close to the optimal number of candidates. Each of these studies makes the standard unitary actor assumption that the LDP can be understood as if it were a single individual maximizing its total number of seats in the Diet. Even though these unitary actor models have produced an impressive account of LDP nomination policy, I argue for an alternative decentralized model based on candidate strategy. The primary mechanism producing the optimal number of LDP candidates per district is not strategic decision-making by the party headquarters, but competition among strategic candidates. Political parties are organizations and therefore capable of unitary action, but parties are also arenas for competition among factions and candidates. The LDP was not a coherent organization but rather an open arena for candidate competition.

Patrons Against Partisans: The Politics of Patronage in Mass Ideological Parties

Pappas, T. S. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:52:26 PDT

Patronage is an enduring feature of contemporary politics and may well develop in modern, mass organized and ideological political parties. This article approaches patronage in an analytical way, and seeks to explore its micro-foundations and logic of development. As the case of Greece's socialist party suggests, patronage is the deliberate outcome of choices made by political actors at the sub-party level in their pursuit of power. Three particular actors are identified and their relations analysed: the party leader, the party organization and the party officeseekers, who are further distinguished into `patrons' and `partisans'. Patronage is likely to develop when a party leader is able to exercise control of both the party organization and the appointments for public office; in this case, even ideologically motivated partisans are expected to turn into self-interested patrons. Finally, some interesting implications for further research are pointed out.

Clientelism Versus Ideology: Problems of Party Development in Brazil

Epstein, D. J. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:52:26 PDT

Although aggregate data on party competition in Brazil seem hopeful, unsettling trends appear in state-level party systems in the years of the consolidation of Brazilian democracy (the period this article examines extends through the 2002 elections), such as instability and fragmentation, which exceed the extent of problems apparent at the national level. These hamper the informational role parties can play for voters picking from a large number of candidates. While other possible explanations shed little light on these problems, a hypothesis about clientelistic party-building strategies may explain the patterns in party competition across states. Such strategies depend on the distribution of selective benefits, such as patronage or vote-buying, to attract candidates, elicit votes and gain office for the party. Clientelistic party-building strategies provide no extra-material incentive for party cohesion, and may stymie the development of a stable competitive system. Furthermore, it is through clientelism that party clans exercise hegemony over the local political system in some states, promoting an undemocratic monopoly on power.

The Rise and Fall of the Argentine Centre--Left: The Crisis of Frente Grande

Medina, J. A. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:52:26 PDT

This article analyses the inner workings of the Argentinian Frente Grande party at the height of its political and electoral development. It is based on the assumption that parties are not singular actors, but diverse organizations with complex internal operations. From that perspective, in order to identify the causes of both its rapid growth and current crisis, the article examines the distribution of power, styles of leadership and formal and informal rules of the Frente Grande. Starting from conceptual frameworks recently suggested in the literature, this article explains the Frente's institutionalization attempts and the resilience of its leadership. The article also considers the impact of the party's original organizational characteristics on its subsequent development.

Party Preferences and Economic Voting in Turkey (Now That the Crisis Is Over)

Baslevent, C., Kirmanoglu, H., Senatalar, B. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:52:26 PDT

The purpose of this study is to re-examine the factors that shape party preferences in Turkey by estimating an individual vote intention function. The economic variables in the empirical model are items that can be used to test the conventional `economic voting' hypotheses, i.e. whether individuals' economic evaluations about the past or the near future affect their party choice. In an earlier article, based on data from 2002, evidence was found in favour of these hypotheses. Those who had been affected adversely by the economic crisis of 2001 were found to be very unlikely to vote for the incumbent parties of the time. In the present article, we focus on comparing the characteristics of the intended voters of the currently ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) with those of other parties. According to multinomial logit estimates, those who make the more optimistic evaluations about the state of the economy are more likely to vote for the AKP. There is also an obvious increase in the number of AKP voters who support Turkey's European Union membership.

Book Review: Kay Lawson and Peter H. Merkl, eds, When Parties Prosper: The Uses of Electoral Success. Boulder, CO and London: Lynne Rienner, 2007. ISBN 978 1 58826 534 0 (hbk); ISBN 978 1 58826 510 4 (pbk)

Bolleyer, N. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:52:26 PDT

Book Review: Robin Archer, Why Is There No Labor Party in the United States? Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007. $19.95, xvii + 348 pp. ISBN 978 0 691 12701 9

Schwartz, M. A. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:52:26 PDT

Book Review: Lubomir Kopecek, ed., Trajectories of the Left: Social Democratic and (ex-) Communist Parties in Contemporary Europe: Between Past and Future. Institute for Comparative Political Research (ISPO), Masaryk University, Brno, 2005 (pbk), 179 pp. ISBN 80 7325 078 0

Keith, D. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:52:26 PDT

Book Review: David White, The Russian Democratic Party Yabloko: Opposition in a Managed Democracy. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006. {pound}55.00. xi + 276 pp. ISBN 0 7546 4675 0

March, L. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:52:26 PDT

Book Review: Jeremy Nuttall, Psychological Socialism: The Labour Party and Qualities of Mind and Character, 1931 to the Present. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006. ix + 205 pp. ISBN 0 7190 7164

Hale, S. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:52:26 PDT