1. Interest Aggregation & Political Parties

2. Interest Aggregation
Definition – activity in which the political demands of individuals and groups are combined into policy programs
How interests are aggregated is key in the political process
Determines which interests are heard
What groups are allowed to participate
Effects stability & effectiveness of governments
Occurs in many ways
Influential party leader or dictator may have impact
Large states develop organizations for aggregating interests
Political parties
Authoritarian System – single party
Democratic System – two or more parties

3. Institutional Interest Aggregation
Interest groups with powerful resources cross line between interest articulation & interest aggregation
Institutional groups like bureaucratic agencies & military factions can be interest aggregators
Negotiate with interest groups to identify preferences or mobilize support
Create client support networks to expand organizations

4. Interest Aggregation Party Systems
Parties are often primary structures of interest aggregations
Political Parties are groups or organizations that seek to place candidates in office under their label
Can be one, two, or twenty in a political system!
The number of parties & their relationship are components of a party system
Competitive Party Systems primarily try to build electoral support
Authoritarian Party Systems seek to direct society

5. Competitive Party Systems
Role of competitive parties in interest aggregation depends on each party, the structure of parties, electorates, electoral laws, and policymaking institutions
Aggregation takes place at several stages
Within individual parties
Through electoral competition
After election via bargaining & coalition-building with other parties in the legislature or executive

6. Voting in Competitive Party Systems
Parties live and die by performance in elections
Voting – giving support to political candidates, parties, or policy proposals – is simple & frequently performed political action
Aggregating votes gives citizens ability to make collective decision about leaders or policies
Profound implications
Choice of parties or candidates aggregates political interests
Determine who manages affairs of government and makes policy
Examples: Leftist governments came to power in Europe, expanding size and efforts of government whereas conservative parties generally slow the growth of gov’t
Usually voters can choose whether or not to vote
Some countries require voting

7. Electoral Systems Definition – rules by which elections are conducted
Determine who can vote, how people vote, and how the votes get counted
Single Member District Plurality (SMDP) Election Rule – the candidate with the most votes in the district wins (not necessarily a majority)
Majority Runoff – voting happens in two stages – first takes a majority, if not, there’s a second round
Proportional Representation (PR) – each district may elect as many as 20 or 30 representatives
Competing parties offer lists of candidates for slots in each district
# of representatives a party wins depends on the overall proportion of the votes it receives

8. Competition Among Parties in Electoral Systems
Formulate appealing policy programs
Nominate attractive candidates
Anticipate offerings of their competitors & preferences of voters
Must offer candidates for office
Primary Elections – in the US, voters select party candidates
Single Member Districts – usually party officials select candidates
Closed-PR Systems – elected representatives drawn from the top of the list
Open-List Systems – voters give preference to individual candidates on the list

9. Patterns of Electoral Voting
Duverger’s Law – relationship between electoral systems and party systems
Plurality single-member district systems create two-party systems in the legislature
Proportional representation systems generate multiparty systems
2 mechanisms behind it:
Mechanical Effect – way that electoral systems convert votes into seats
Single Member Districts offer no representation unless you finish first in at least one district
Psychological Effect – voters & candidates anticipate the mechanical effect, so voters don’t throw away votes towards candidates they don’t think will win (third parties)
Strategic Voting is giving your vote to a party or candidate who’s not your first choice to avoid an even worse outcome
Downs’ Median Voter Result – parties moderate policies to try to win support of the median voter

10. Authoritarian Party Systems
Attempt to develop policy proposals & mobilize support in a different way from competitive party systems
Aggregation takes place within the party or in interactions with business groups, unions, groups in the bureaucracy or the military
May be sham elections, but citizens have no real opportunity to shape aggregation by choosing between party alternatives

11. Classification of Authoritarian Party Systems
Distinguished according to degree of top-down control within the party and party’s control over other groups in society
Exclusive Governing Party insists on almost total control over political resources
Totalitarianism
Policies legitimized by ideology like communism or national socialism
Inclusive Governing Party recognizes and accepts at least some other groups, but may repress those it sees as serious challenges to its control
Sometimes labeled authoritarian corporatist systems, encouraging formation of interest groups that can bargain, but not supplying political resources to the public
Electoral authoritarianism looks like democratic elections, but political opposition, media, and social organizations cannot criticize or challenge the current regime

12. Recap: Major Differences
Competitive Party Systems and Authoritarian Systems offer interest aggregation
Competitive Party systems aggregate interests in multiple political parties and elections
Authoritarian Systems aggregate interests within the dominant political party
Citizens of competitive party systems have more options in interest articulation and aggregation than in authoritarian systems

13. Activity: Left-Right Scale of Political Parties
Political parties are groups that try to get candidates into office
Members are connected through common political beliefs or ideologies
Step 1 – Predict where these ideologies fall on the left-right spectrum:
Centrism
Conservatism
Liberalism
Reactionism
Communism
Fascism
Social Democracy

14. Political Ideology Spectrum
Communism
Liberalism
Conservatism
Fascism
Social Democracy
Centrism
Reactionism
LIBERAL
CONSERVATIVE

15. STEP 2 Place Republicans and Democrats along the scale.
The left-right scale is divided up by numbers 1-10
1 is Communism
5 is Centrism
10 is Fascism

16. Placement of Parties on the Left-Right Scale & Their Voter Support
United States, 2000
Britain, 2001
Germany, 2002
France, 2002
Mexico 2000
Democrats
Republicans
Labour
Liberal-Democrat
Conservatives
SPD
CDU/CSU
PDS
Green
FDP
RPR
Socialist FN
Communist
Green
UDF
PAN
PRI
PRD

17. Short Essay
Democrats & Republicans make themselves appear VERY different in elections
But, on the left-right scale, Democrats fall between a 5 and 6, and Republicans fall between a 6 and 7 – not that different!
SO, Why do you think Democrats and Republicans in the United States portray themselves as being so radically different when they are not as far apart on the Left-Right Scale as the Labour and Conservative Parties in Great Britain?