1. Political Parties and Party Systems Nov. 17

2. Overview Defining political parties Origins and political cleavages Functions of parties Models of party organization State regulation of parties Party systems Electoral systems and party systems

3. Defining political parties Key elements: Their objectives: obtaining political office, obtaining political power, advancing issues, representing interests Their methods: organizing, mobilizing (and hopefully) creating supporters, contesting elections and forming governments

4. Origins Earliest parties emerged within parliaments and legislatures (cadre parties) Extra-parliamentary parties emerged to organize and represent excluded interests (mass parties)

5. Origins and Political Cleavages In the western European context, most contemporary parties and party families originated from the radical socio-economic and political changes between the mid- nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth.

6. Origins and Political Cleavages national revolutions (the rise of the nation state, process of state formation and nation-building)  centre-periphery cleavage  state-church cleavage industrial revolution  rural-urban cleavage  workers-employers cleavage (further divided into communism-socialism cleavage)

7. Origins and Political Cleavages “post-industrial revolution”  materialism-post-materialism cleavage  globalization cleavage?

8. Functions of parties Interest aggregation, this is the process by which the interests of separate individuals and groups are aggregated together into a program of governance. Interest articulation, this is the process by which individuals and groups express (articulate) their needs and policy preferences within the political process. Source: http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~rdalton/germany/other/glossary.htmhttp://www.socsci.uci.edu/~rdalton/germany/other/glossary.htm

9. Functions of parties Coordination  Within government  Within society  Between government and society Contesting Elections Recruitment Representation

10. Models of party organization cadre or elite parties mass parties catch-all parties cartel parties (and anti-cartel parties) business firm party

12. Party Membership Political parties face a crisis of declining membership.

14. State regulation of parties Political parties are regulated due to: their centrality to democracy, the power of parties, administrative convenience or necessity.

15. State regulation of parties State regulation of parties is particularly prominent in the area of party finance: regulation of spending, regulation of fundraising, public subventions.

16. Party Systems Dominant-Party System Two-Party System Multi-Party System Bipolar system

18. Electoral Systems and Party Systems mechanical effects psychological effects

19. Conclusion: Political parties are among the central actors in politics. Very rare to have democratic governance without parties. Political parties are experienced a crisis, to a certain extent. But there appears to be little chance of them disappearing or being replaced.