The Internet and Politics Goals for this Module To understand:  roles of parties and interest groups  factors that determine the success of different parties or interest groups  how the Net has become one of the success factors  how the Net may be challenging the role of parties and interest groups

The Internet and Politics Goals for this Module: Skills  Reading:  skimming (first/last formula)  comprehension  quotation analysis  Writing: (web guides)  writing for the web  tone/audience  Reminder: Lab class participation is required.

The Internet and Politics Goals for Today PARTIES  What are parties?  What are the types of parties and party systems?  What role do they play in politics?  What determines their success or failure? INTEREST GROUPS  What are interest groups?  What are the types of interest groups and interest group systems?  What role do they play in politics?  What determines their success or failure?

The Internet and Politics Party Systems  ORIGINS: voting system  one-party  authoritarian  dominant  multiple party systems  simple majority ballot leads to two-party systems  proportional representation leads to multi-party systems  STABILITY

The Internet and Politics Party Roles  reflecting and transmitting preferences  forming preferences  mobilizing mass involvement in politics

The Internet and Politics Party Types  cadre parties:  elite, decentralized  generally right-wing or middle-class  mass parties  centralized, tight knit  generally left/labour, working class  catch-all parties  type of mass party`  recruit from a large segment of population, not just 1 class  efficient, large voter base

The Internet and Politics Party Success  Measures:  popular vote  frequency and duration in government  Determinants:  electoral dilemma  strategy and ideology interact  modern strategy tends to involve:  leadership focus  centralized campaign organization  money to buy air time

The Internet and Politics Interest Group Systems  Pluralism:  politics as struggle between competing groups  Interests are given  represented through multiple overlapping organizations  membership is voluntary  The state is seen as either:  an arena  an interest group itself  or as a neutral arbiter

The Internet and Politics Interest Group Systems  Societal corporatism:  state institutionalizes interests to harmonize them  interest group representation is state- sanctioned, centralized  representation aims at harmonization not conflict of interests  literature focuses on economic performance benefits  e.g. Sweden, Denmark, Germany  State corporatism:  repressive -- e.g. Chile, Brazil in 20s/30s

The Internet and Politics Interest Group Types  associational  institutional  nonassociational  anomic

The Internet and Politics Interest Group Roles (1)  Shape policy:  Distributive policy: individual logrolling  regulatory policy: small groups  redistributive policy: large groups

The Internet and Politics Interest Group Roles (2)  Mobilization of political interests  Roadblock: collective action problems (Olson)  “public goods” or “non-excludable goods”  “free rider” problem  answer: selective incentives, including:  coercion  pay-offs  status, professional connections

The Internet and Politics Interest Group Success  technical conditions  social conditions  political conditions  economic conditions

The Internet and Politics Discussion