Week 7: Political Parties and Elections

Definition What is a political party? Is it useful?

Rhinoceros party Canadian party established in Montreal in 2006. Some of its campaigns: promises not to keep any of its promises if elected. Storing nuclear waste in the Senate. "After all, we've been storing political waste there for years.“ To date, candidates of the Rhinoceros Party have not recorded any electoral victories.

Do you agree? Once a Prime Minister is elected to office, s/he should renounce party affiliation.

Group work: discussing party-system, party and electoral variety (1) what are the main political parties in your home country? (2) How would you classify both these parties and your country’s party system?

classifying voting systems (3) How would you classify the voting system used to elect your MPs and the underlying electoral formula (i.e. majoritarian, plurality or proportional)? (4) Explain how the voting system works in your country. Use the keywords: -district magnitude -ballot structure

District Magnitude how many people are elected within a given territorial unit to represent that unit e.g. 1 in Britain potentially hundreds in a nation-wide party list.

Ballot Structure Categorical : when voting you indicate a single preference (e.g. Britain under First Past the Post) Ordinal: you indicate multiple, ranked preferences (e.g. the Alternative Vote in Australia)

Plenary discussion: what makes a fair electoral system?

Conception of fairness Meaning Example of unfairness Equality Each citizen/party should be treated equally Small parties are under-represented; not all votes count the same Populist Voters, not party leaders should decide election outcomes Small parties decide the governing coalition Winner-takes-all The winner (however defined) should take all of the power Small parties share in power Majority The majority deserves to win Government lacks majority of votes Plurality The plurality (i.e. most) deserve to win if no majority The party with the most votes is kept out of government

Suggested Reading Adrian Blau, ‘Fairness and Electoral Reform’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 6:2 (2004), 165-81: 177.

Next Week Political Participation: the empirical question of how people participate and why. the normative question of whether people should be obliged to vote.