POL 002 (Second Half)
The Cadre Party (usually the OPPOSITE of the Mass party)
Definition: Elite-based parties; business and capital interest; as a result less people are part of the party, so it is consists of small but high capital donors who finance 1. Temporal or weak organization 2. "Ideology" is important insofar as it serves that interest of the party elite and donors; not interested in the general public good → less members 3. Financed by small amount of donors, but large donations because they're high capital donors
The Mass Party
Definition: Formed by grassroots orgs (created outside of parliament); focuses on the "larger" interests 1. High # of members (both for finance and mobilization) 2. Ideology plays a huge role; ideology is somewhat clear, as in voters knew what parties stand for, but not exactly/specifically. 3. Historically the most successful kind of party; made up of Mostly Socialists, Social Democrats, and Christian Democrats
Green Parties ("The classic niche party")
Definition: A formally organized political party that focus mostly on environmental issues (i.e. social justice, environmentalism, and non-violence), but also gender equality, bottom-up democratization, and nonviolent politics 1. Believe the issues they focus on, are inherently related to one another as a foundation for world peace 2. Mostly left of economic issues; but economics is not a large part of their campaign 3. In Europe, they're mostly pro-EU
Political Parties
Definition: A party is a unified actor or organization that aims to get politicians reelected 1. one of the political parties is the mass parties 2. the mass parties is formed by grassroots orgs (created outside of parliament); focuses on the "larger" interests 3. other political parties include: the catch-all party, the cadre party, and the cartel party
Valence Issues
Definition: Issues that all voters approve or disapprove, regardless of the policy stance of each party 1. Voters evaluate parties based on their image of competence, integrity, unity, leaders' popularity, ability to govern, historical record 2. These considerations affect both parties and voters decisions 3. An example of valence issues human trafficking
Party Identification
Definition: Long-term affective-psychological ID w/ one's preferred party 1. Party ID is distinct from voting and ideological preferences 2. It's something that you feel; something a person is; Many people think it's an attribute of their lives 3. Developed at very early age, at home and in school
Liberals
Definition: Mostly center-left on social issues, but on the right for economic issues; thus, they are sometimes referred to as "centrist" parties 1. regarding Economic Values: free market, minimal gov't intervention, free trade, and economic growth 2. regarding Social Values: secularism, freedom, pluralism (diversity), social justice, and equality 3. against the dominant culture, don't want to limit the freedom of minorities
Social Democrats and Labor Parties
Definition: Mostly center-left parties that emphasize economic and social values 1. regarding economic values, focus on job creation and nationalization of many industries 2. within economic values, there's a very high investment in public broadcast, education, transportation 3. regarding social Values, focus on progressive; cultural pluralism (diversity), civil and political rights for minorities
Christian Democrats and Conservative Parties
Definition: Mostly center-right parties that support neoliberal economy, national culture, and family values 1. Conservative; emphasize the economy, esp. the free market, and economic growth, as well as a decrease in social benefits. 2. Emphasize family values and unified culture (i.e. religion) 3. On avg, the most electorally successful, considered to be the largest or second largest party in most European countries
The Cartel Party (loose organization)
Definition: Office seeking politicians, has a greater focus on the interests of the politicians, not the interests of capital owners or donors 1. Broad ideology; emphasis on quality of the leadership and effectiveness of their policies 2. Financed by state subsidies bc hard to get donations 3. Some variations in the cartel party are the "political entrepreneur" party and the "popular leader" party
Niche Parties
Definition: Parties that emphasize a position on issues other than the economy (post-materialistic); emphasize policies neglected by its competitors 1. Mainstream parties take positions and emphasize those positions on the main political left-right issues that is economics vs. Niche Parties may or may not take a position on the left-right spectrum with the political cleavage issue of economics 2. smaller and newer 3. An example of a niche party is the green party
Mainstream Parties
Definition: Those parties that take a position and emphasize that position on the main political left-right issue (the economy) 1. Broader ideological positions 2. Larger focus on getting elected 3. example would be the Republican and the Democratic parties in the United States of America
Ideological Change / Policy Shifts
Definition: When parties change their policy image they do so as a reaction to changes in public opinion, other parties' policy change, their valence image, and after they lose elections 1. Changes in party's ideology are most unnoticed by voters 2. Changes in party's ideology are rare, small 3. We do not really know how voters know to place parties on the Left-Right scale, but at the same time do not notice changes in parties' ideology
Party Systems
Definition: a combination of the rules and outcomes of the electoral game 1. long-term electoral preferences are translated into organizations (parties) that try to win elections; also create public policies that are in the preferences of the public 2. this is a larger political dynamic that translates voter ideology into transaction between different organizations 3. number of parties in the party systems doesn't express relative power and size; only tells how many parties there are in the system
The Catch-all Party "the big tent"
Definition: a party that has a greater focus on winning the election 1. Blurred and ambiguous ideology statements 2. Membership is not enough for financing the party, Taking donations make donors more influential factors within the parties 3. Communication is top-down, using communication systems or media that is impersonal, as party leaders don't visit districts physically
Communist Parties
Definition: a party that is Extreme left on economic issues, sometimes anti-systems and anti-democratic 1. Gov't controls/regulates the market; not free market 2. Are not necessarily pro-EU (Some like the EU bc it helps poor folks out & Some don't like the EU bc it helps the rich and hurts the poor) 3. Are not necessarily progressive on social issues and sometimes take anti-immigrant positions
Economic Theory of Democracy (Down 1957)
Definition: a political science treatise written by Anthony Downs, published in 1957. The book set forth a model with precise conditions under which economic theory could be applied to non-market political decision-making 1. parties seek to win election; have no preference about policy 2. voters have preferences and vote for the party with that offers the closest policy 3. most voters are moderate (normal distribution)
The Far-Right Parties
Definition: a type of party family 1. Organized around identity issues (nationalism, populism, and ethnicity) 2. Some (but not a lot) go so far as being anti-system and Fascist 3. Mostly against EU
Barriers for Entry
Definition: barrier for a new party to enter the party system 1. Electoral system- the more permissive it is, the lower the barrier, making it harder for the political party 2. voter alignment- When voters are biased toward one party, the odds of other (new) parties to gain votes are smaller 3. new dimensions- When new issues become salient, new parties can gain electoral success
Political Cleavages
Definition: divides a country on ideological/interest bases, but only if parties use it to mobilize voters; electorates can be cut up into different subgroups, but it's not a political cleavage unless a party uses these differences in the electorate to a political gain 1. Since the industrial revolution, the main cleavage is economy-based; more than any other issue, the economy defines election results 2. Can be classified by the # of issues that affect voting behavior 3. Liberals believe in more government intervention and conservatives believe in a competitive market.
Party Families
Definition: how one party perceives itself within the international group of parties (like within other countries) 1. Because cleavages and mobilization take similar forms in many countries, many parties offer similar ideologies 2. Although there is a lot of variation among countries (and even in the same country), overall parties within the same family work together in international forums 3. These parties work together to solve international problems
Post-materialism (Inglehart 1977)
Definition: is the transformation of individual values from materialist, physical, and economic to new individual values of autonomy and self-expression. 1. Contrast w/ materialist values (Maslow 1943) 2. Until the 70s, materialistic values were politically most important, there's a focus on getting jobs, food, becoming secure 3. After the 70s, a sharp increase in the saliency of other issues, materialistic values taken for granted
The left-right continuum
Definition: it is a political spectrum classifying political positions, ideologies, and parties. 1. Originated in the French Revolution (1789) 2. The Left (red) is/was associated w/ labor, lower-classes, welfare, and progressive taxation 3. The Right (blue) is/was associated w/ the upper classes, low taxation, minimum social services
Sartori's Classifications
Definition: the way that Sartori classifies party systems 1. Predominant system = the number of parties is large than 2, but the same party wins the election time after time 2. Two-party system = there's the moderate (both parties are at the center like a bell curve) & the polarized (both parties are at extreme) 3. In moderate pluralism, when extreme parties are weak, and moderates are strong. In polarized pluralism, extreme parties are strong and moderates are weak
Personal Politics
Definition: treating the candidate as a celebrity for the person they are rather than the policies they offer to bring into the political systems 1. Vote and seat shares are affected by the leader or candidate qualities 2. Sometimes, famous ppl are being placed on party lists to attract voters 3. Celebrities are being elected bc voters recognize their name
Political Markets
Definition: where a subgroup (some) of parties compete for the votes of a subgroup (some) of the electorate; some parties compete for some area of the country 1. Within the same country there could be more than one political market 2. The dynamics of party competition, voter's preferences, and issue salience can change from market to market within the same country 3. We can use the # of political markets to classify the party system
Effective Number of Parties
It is not the simple count of the number of parties 1. when one party has most of the seats, it will equal almost one 2. when all parties are equal sized, ENP will equal the count of parties 3. It can be predicted by the size of the assembly and the average district magnitude.
Two-Party System
It's noted by Sartori as one of his classifications of party systems. 1. There is the is the moderate system where both parties are at the center (like a bell curve) 2. There is the polarized system where both parties are at the extremes 3. Sartori argues that the polarized two-party system doesn't represent public opinion as well as the moderate two-party system
Predominant Party Systems
One party out of several parties, keep winning and gaining parties- control of executives by winning presidency or being the larger party within the coalition. 1. The # of parties is larger than 2, but the same party wins the election time after time 2. There can be 5 parties. But if one of the parties holds 80% (it dominates), it's gonna win over and over again. 3. Comparing to the two-party system, a two-party system has the moderate and polarized parties while a predominant party is considered if a party keeps winning the election time after time
