Suchergebnisse

This article explains the positions taken by national political parties on the issue of European integration over the period 1984-96. Based on the theory of party systems developed by Lipset and Rokkan, we develop a cleavage account of party response to new political issues. We hypothesize that European integration is assimilated into pre-existing ideologies of party leaders, activists and constituencies that reflect long-standing commitments on fundamental domestic issues. (British Journal of Political Science / FUB)

In simple plurality voting systems smaller parties facing resource constraints may struggle to field candidates, particularly when the number of electoral districts is large. In the absence of a strong coordinating party organization, the pattern of contestation may also be sub-optimal -- the small party fields candidates where support is minimal, ignoring other electoral districts where voters would support the party if it had stood a candidate. This article considers how and whether the separate operation of an Additional Member voting system running parallel to a simple plurality system assists smaller parties by providing low-cost information about the spatial distribution of voter support. Using aggregate voting data collected at the London ward level for both simple plurality local council elections and the separate mixed-member proportional system used to elect the Greater London Assembly we test whether the Green Party demonstrated an ability to modify and optimize its pattern of contestation. There appears to be little evidence of either a contagion or learning effect in respect of the location of Green candidates, suggesting that a free but valuable data source is unexploited. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright holder.]

In the European Union (EU) today political parties face a range of issues and challenges within the party systems of their respective countries. For parties in new member states of the EU, those which underwent a process of democratic transition during the 1990s, the situation is more complicated than for the rest. In a way, their position is more precarious than that of their Western European counterparts, as the concept of "political party" has various and not always positive connotations in Central Europe. Our contribution will not attempt to evaluate the positives and negatives of party politics in all EU member states with postcommunist legacies, but will focus on the Czech Republic. ; V současné Evropské unii čelí politické strany ve svých zemím rozličným problémům a výzvám. Pro politické strany v nových členských zemích, tj. těch které prošly demokratickou tranzicí v 90. letech, je situace ještě komplikovanější. Ve srovnání se západní Evropou má ve střední Evropě totiž pojem politické strany často negativní konotace. V příspěvku analyzujeme nicméně nikoli situaci ve všech postkomunistických zemích EU, ale jen v České republice ; In the European Union (EU) today political parties face a range of issues and challenges within the party systems of their respective countries. For parties in new member states of the EU, those which underwent a process of democratic transition during the 1990s, the situation is more complicated than for the rest. In a way, their position is more precarious than that of their Western European counterparts, as the concept of "political party" has various and not always positive connotations in Central Europe. Our contribution will not attempt to evaluate the positives and negatives of party politics in all EU member states with postcommunist legacies, but will focus on the Czech Republic.

Abstract
This paper explores if and how electoral defeats affect the changes in organisational structure of political parties and investigates whether party characteristics, such as being in a government or in an opposition, its country of origin affect how parties respond to defeat in terms of the party organizational structure. For the purposes of this article, three elements were considered for the scope of organisational structure change: party decomposition, change of power balance and the appearance of new organs or bodies in the party. Analysis is based on the examination of 73 parties from 28 countries, and of the consideration of party efforts to change their organization. The conclusion, however, was unclear. Therefore, an in-depth analysis of 12 selected political parties representing three different party systems and electoral systems was also conducted. The study of the Polish, Belgian and British systems facilitate explanation of the reasons why parties take some selective corrective structural actions after electoral defeat. Nevertheless, they are mostly not to be fundamental and have some relation to a specific conditions affecting concrete parties in different party systems.

We start from the assumption that processes of profiling & constituting the political party scene of Croatia are at work & that, in spite of the inexistence of many conditions necessary for clear links between party programs & social interests, we can already talk about a configuration that corresponds with party profiles in countries of a developed parliamentary democracy. Our study shows two essential characteristics: a pronounced unambiguousness, consistency, & compatibility of the criteria applied to analyze the party scene; & a pronounced affinity among the electorates of specific groups of parties. 8 Tables, 6 Figures, 9 References. Adapted from the source document.

Political parties are seen within liberal democracies to be essential organizations for the selection of candidates & leaders. While voters have some choice over the candidates elected they have much less choice over the selection of prime minister & ministers following the process of government formation. This makes leadership elections within political parties an important issue. Until recently all leadership elections within Irish political parties were restricted to members of parliament, with ordinary party members having no direct role to play in this process, but in Oct 2002, the Irish Labour Party chose its new leader using a postal ballot with an Alternative Vote (AV) electoral rule. In this article we provide a brief discussion & analysis of this unique election & the opportunities which leadership election surveys offer scholars of political parties. 4 Tables, 1 Figure, 15 References. Adapted from the source document.

This paper contributes to our understanding of legislative behaviour in mixed-member electoral systems through a simple game-theoretic model. It argues that legislators seeking re-election in mixed-member electoral systems need to take into account the interests of two distinct selectorates rather than an electorate in order to maximize the probability of regaining a legislative mandate. Assuming that the policy interests of list and district selectorates systematically differ, legislators may face diverging demands from two principals whose relative capability to sanction incumbents crucially hinges upon the reward they may offer. Such reward, I argue, is best understood as the strength of the nomination, which refers to the probability of subsequent election. A simple game-theoretic model then shows how variation in the relative strength of both selectorates induces three different scenarios with distinct equilibrium outcomes and thus effectively impacts patterns of representation.

This paper examines the effects of party control (Republican or Democrat) on state welfare policies after congressional passage of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in 1996. Interviews & surveys of legislative actors suggest that the adoption process in many states was highly partisan, but there was no relationship between party measures & welfare policy content for all states. Policy makers reported that welfare policy choices were influenced by the re-election context in a state. States that adopted more generous TANF policies had: competitive party systems, liberal ideologies, or previously high rankings on AFDC expenditures. Party positions redefined the welfare policy problem & set the parameters for welfare reform choices, but those choices were modified by contextual variables in some states. A few Republican governors accomplished comprehensive welfare policy reform. 5 Tables, 31 References. Adapted from the source document.

Private-heavy welfare systems, in which low or moderate state benefits are topped up by private welfare arrangements, are expected to undermine political support for the extension of social rights and perpetuate benefit fragmentation over time. And where low state benefits are means tested, political support is expected to be particularly prone to erosion. In this article I develop the argument that the combination of private pensions and means-testing does not always perpetuate fragmentation. Rather, it structures the policy preferences of pension industry representatives and right-of-centre parties such that these actors push for reforms to make the state pension more universal. I make my argument by examining the reform history of nine private-heavy pension systems in the three decades since 1980. A fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis maps the conditions under which universalizing reforms have occurred, and two case studies link institutional conditions to reform outcomes via the policy preferences of key political actors.

"Today, regional parties in India win nearly as many votes as national parties. In Why Regional Parties?, Professor Adam Ziegfeld questions the conventional wisdom that regional parties in India are electorally successful because they harness popular grievances and benefit from strong regional identities. He draws on a wide range of quantitative and qualitative evidence from over eighteen months of field research to demonstrate that regional parties are, in actuality, successful because they represent expedient options for office-seeking politicians. By focusing on clientelism, coalition government, and state-level factional alignments, Ziegfeld explains why politicians in India find membership in a regional party appealing. He therefore accounts for the remarkable success of India's regional parties and, in doing so, outlines how party systems take root and evolve in democracies where patronage, vote buying, and machine politics are common"...

Scholarship on East European politics expects that party competition in the region is determined by various communist legacies, juxtaposing state-centric authoritarianism to a liberal market economy. Recent empirical evidence, however, uncovers significant variance of party competition patterns across East European countries. To explain this variance, this article argues that an interaction between communist institutional framework and partisan responses to ethnic minorities determines party competition structure in the region. While experience with communist federalism determines partisan affinities with ethnic minorities, tolerance or support for ethnic minorities leads the political actors associated with those minorities to general socially liberal positions. Consequently—and contrary to received knowledge—ethnic politics influence the ideological content of party competition and structure party systems in Eastern Europe.

Based on the Banzhaf-Coleman approach to the analysis of political power, this article presents a new analysis of government coalitions. The party systems and types of government formation in Germany and Austria can be compared over time in a new systematic way from 1920. The findings support the theory of democratic stability that emphasizes the power balance between the major right- and left-wing groups in the party system. It can be achieved either by power alternation or through consociationalism.

Using the Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP) data for twenty established parliamentary democracies, the authors have studied the relationship between number of parties in a party system and party dispersion. They found that as the number of parties in the system increases, the dispersion of parties also increases, but only up to a point. The boundaries of a finite issue space appear to expand up to at most five parties. In addition, once the number of parties in the party system was controlled for, they found that electoral rules have no direct effect on party dispersion. Thus, their findings validate the theoretical predictions of spatial theory while at the same time highlighting surprising ways in which the policy space is constrained.

This article examines party institutionalization in Hong Kong in order to understand the development of political parties in a political system undergoing democratization. Party institutionalization is defined as the extent to which political parties develop a systematic set of mechanisms and structures that enable them to compete effectively for political power. By examining partisanship, autonomy, and the stability of political parties in Hong Kong, the author concludes that party institutionalization is still weak, although there are signs of progress. Constitutional constraints, structural factors, lack of public support, and the problem of adaptation pose serious obstacles in the party institutionalization process. Political parties, as one of the essential conditions for democratic consolidation, have brought a new page of democratic politics to Hong Kong. However, in terms of institutionalization, political parties in Hong Kong are far from mature, thereby limiting their impact on the democratization process. (Asian Perspect/GIGA)