Comparative Politics Final Exam Review Ch 14 Social Cleavages and Party Systems Political Party group of people that includes those who hold office and those who help get and keep them there Purposes Structure the political world information shortcuts tell voters how to feel about certain issues Party identification attachment to a party that helps citizens locate themselves on the political landscape Recruit and socialize the political elite Mobilize masses Provide link between rulers and the ruled Not limited to democracies or electoral activity Whip individual whose job it is to ensure that members of the party attend legislative sessions and vote as the party leadership desires Political scientists categorize democracies in terms of type of party system they exhibit based on number and size of parties Nonpartisan democracy no official political parties Single party system only one political party is legally allowed to hold power ex Dictatorship One party dominant system multiple parties may legally operate but only one particular party has a realistic chance of gaining power Two party system only 2 major political parties have a realistic chance of gaining power Multiparty system more than two parties have a realistic chance of gaining power Effective number of parties weights the number of parties by the share of votes or seats they get A party that is large is counted more than party that is very small Ex A party system where there are 2 parties that each win 50 of the vote has 2 effective parties system with 5 parties that each win 20 of the vote has 5 effect parties Effective number of electoral parties measure of the number of parties that win votes Effective number of legislative parties measure of the number of parties that win seats Where do parties come from Primordial view treats parties as the natural representatives of people who share common interests there are natural divisions or cleavages in society Bottom up party formation groups of individuals form around these cleavages and political parties emerge and evolve to represent these interests Instrumental view treats parties as teams of office seekers and focuses on the roles played by political elites and entrepreneurs Top down party formation parties created by individuals who perhaps because of certain informational advantages and additional resources are able to discern an opportunity to represent a previous unrepresented interest Political entrepreneurs help citizens become aware that such interests exist they create cleavages in society Social Cleavages the more social cleavages there are in a country and the more that these cleavages are cross cutting the greater the demand for distinctive representation and the greater the demand for political parties Urban rural cleavage Conflict between rural and urban interests rural actors tend to value tradition whereas town dwellers favored change Confessional cleavage Notion that the leader of a country city state or principality is entitled to choose the religion for those who live under his or her rule Secular clerical cleavage Conflict between the growing state which sought to dominate and the church which tried to maintain its historic corporate rights Anticlericalism opposition to religious institutional power and influence in public and political life Laicite notion that there is a division between private life where religion belongs and public life where it does not Class cleavage Pits actors against each other over conflicting economic interests Typically involves attempts to use the state to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor Michel s iron law of oligarchy the leadership of organizations such as political parties will never be faithful to the program and constituency that gave rise to the organization in the first place Post material cleavage Lipset and Rokkan freezing hypothesis states that western European party systems became frozen following the extension of universal suffrage in most countries during the 1920 s Ethnic and Linguistic cleavages Ethnic group one in which members possess some attributes believed to be related to descent which are shared more closely with fellow group members than with nongroup members Ethnic party champions the interests of one ethnic category or set of categories to the exclusion of others and does so as a central component of its mobilizing strategy Politicized Cleavages Individuals are multifaceted and have a repertoire of attributes such as religion language class gender skin color and so on that makes them eligible for membership in some identity category Attribute characteristic that qualifies an individual for membership in an identity Attributes can take on different values Attributes are given and self evident A country with uncorrelated attributes has cross cutting attributes cleavages category A country with correlated attributes has reinforcing attributes Identity category social group in which an individual can place herself Identity categories are socially constructed Number of Parties Why do some systems have many parties and others have few Duvergers s Theory the size of a country s party system depends on the complex interplay of both social and institutional factors Social divisions are the primary driving force behind the formation of parties Electoral institutions influence how social divisions are translated into political parties determine whether this latent demand for representation actually leads to the existence of new parties Duverger s law single member district plurality systems encourage two party systems multiparty systems Duverger s hypothesis proportional representation electoral rules favor Non proportional electoral systems act as a brake on the tendency for social cleavages to be translated into new parties Mechanical Effect of Electoral laws refers to the way votes are translated into seats When electoral systems are disproportional the mechanical effect punishes small parties and rewards large parties Strategic effect of electoral laws refers to how the way in which votes are translated into seats influences the strategic behavior of voters and political elites Strategic voting voting for your most preferred candidate who has a realistic chance of winning Strategic entry the decision by political elites about whether to enter the political scene under the label of their most preferred party or under the label of their most preferred party that has a realistic chance of
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