1. Spanish Politics and Society Hispanic & European Studies Program Fall 2009 Raimundo Viejo Viñas Office 20.182 www.raimundoviejo.info raimundo.viejo@upf.edu

2. Institutions of Spanish Democracy, 1 Political parties and party system

3. What’s a political party?  A political party is a group of people that is organised for the purpose of winning government power by electoral (or other) means.  Political parties as such: … aim to exercise government power by winning political office … are organised bodies with a formal membership … adopt a broad issue focus, addressing each area of government policy … are united by shared political preferences

4. Main functions of political parties  Representation  Elite formation and recruitment  Goal formulation  Interest articulation and aggregation  Socialization and mobilization  Organization of government

5. Types of political parties  Caucus parties (elite parties) and mass parties  Catch-all parties and electoral-professional parties  Media parties and Cartel parties  Post-materialist parties (green parties, animal rights parties, etc)

6. Government Formation: Parliamentary Systems Party systemAssemblyGovernment One-party Dominant One-party majorityDominant party government – Japan, Sweden, South Africa Two-party systemOne-party majority or near-majority One-party government with swings between the two main parties – Greece, Norway, Spain, UK. Multi-party systemsMulti-party assembliesCoalition government

7. Spanish Political Parties  Left-right cleavage (socio-economic dimension) Partido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE (center-left wing party) Partido Popular, PP (right-wing party) Izquierda Unida, IU (federation of left-wing parties)  Centre-periphery cleavage (territorial dimension) Convergència i Unió (Catalan liberal and christian- democratic coalition) Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea (Basque christian-democratic party) Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Catalan pro- independence party) Bloque Nacionalista Galego (Galician nationalist coalition) Coalición Canaria, Chunta Aragonesista, and others.

9. Centre-right party positions Party19791982198619891993199620002004 AP/PP7.928.508.478.208.237.947.437.77 PSOE3.903.563.784.294.174.524.284.27 PCE/IU2.501.872.082.262.372.522.452.43

10. Spanish party system, 1  Spanish democratic elections can be separated in four different phases:  1977 and 1979 founding elections (UCD governments)  1982-1989 Socialist absolute majorities (sudden disappearance of the UCD)  1993-2008 Conservatives and Socialists alternating majorities

11. Spanish Party system  Main features of Spanish party system Electoral volatility Party-system fragmentation Governability and competitiveness Moderation

12. Electoral volatility Electoral Volatility YearsTotal Volatility Intrabloc Volatility Interbloc Volatility 1977-197910.88.62.2 1979-198242.335.66.7 1982-198611.99.52.4 1986-19898.97.21.7 1989-19939.57.81.7 1993-19964.42.71.7 1996-200010.12.77.4

13. Party-system fragmentation Effective Number of Parties YearsElectoralParliamentary 19774.452.89 19794.292.81 19823.202.33 19863.592.68 19894.092.85 19933.472.67 19963.212.72 20003.022.48

14. Governability and competitiveness Electoral and Parliamentary Competitiveness YearsElectoralParliamentaryParties 19775.213.9UCD-PSOE 19794.513.4UCD-PSOE 198221.927.1PSOE-AP 198618.322.6PSOE-AP 198914.019.4PSOE-PP 19934.05.1PSOE-PP 19961.34.3PP-PSOE 200010.516.6PP-PSOE