Political Sciences Past Paper Q1 PDF

Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein Part III – Political actors 1. Political parties Introduction: what are the functions party? Political parties are at the he...

Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein Part III – Political actors 1. Political parties Introduction: what are the functions party? Political parties are at the heart of democratic institutions and they are not only important for political sciences but also from a legal point of view: → organizations which are legally recognized as political parties are frequently given special privileged → Ex: public subventions and bounded by special obligations → Ex: requirement of transparency Even though we will tackle the question of the definition of the political party from a scientific perspective, it's not only scientific. The dividing line between a gathering of people and a political party as such is also very important From the political sciences perspective, we can refer to 2 American political scientists, La Palombara and Weiner (Political Parties and Political Development, 1966) → They tried to define the fundamental characteristics of a political party and retained 4 main criteria 1| lasting organization that aims to survive its leaders: → it allows to distinguish political parties form other types of organizations that are only for instance networks of supporters for such or such leaders 2| local organizations are in very close contact with the national organization → there is a nationalization of the party, since basic units are found throughout the national territory → it allows to distinguish political parties from parliamentary groups (only within the parliament and have no local representation) and from what used to be the committees of notables (only local existence) 3| explicit desire to have access to political power: → it results in the presentation of candidates to the election → it allows to distinguish political parties from other types of group o Ex: interest group, whose only purpose is to influence political leaders, whereas the leaders and their parties seek to exercise power 4| deliberate will to find popular supports: → here again, the aim of the criterion is to distinguish with other types of groups, especially, thought clubs or think tanks who want to provide ideas to political organizations and thus don't need to attract voters, militants DEFINITON: A political party is therefore a sustainable organization established throughout the territory, whose goal is to gain political power, thanks to popular support. 28  Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein a. What are the functions of parties? Political parties are focused on elections (sometimes even called electoral machines) but not only, they have several activities that coexist and give them meaning Robert K. Merton (1965) elaborated a difference between two types of functions : → manifest functions: visible, explicit and claimed/acknowledged as such by the organisation → and latent functions: implicit, not claimed as such by the organisation, which is not necessarily aware of them) Manifest functions Manifest functions are visible, explicit, and claimed as such by the organization. It has 3 functions Programmatic function: → parties present competing programs and structure the political debate, → while allowing voters to identify themselves within the political sphere, life and debate Selection function: → parties recruit professionals or politics by nominating candidates for elections through the process of investiture Supervisory function: → parties supervise and control the actions of elective representatives to whom they have given their investiture → mainly through the parliamentary groups Latent functions The latent functions are not claimed as such by the organization, which is not aware of them. Nevertheless, those implicit functions exist and are important: Social integration: → parties constitute places of sociability, shared values, but also place of social ascending for some of their members etc.; – “Tribunitian” function (GEORGES LAVAU): → parties speak for the people and they especially voice the dissatisfaction of the people and they defend social categories that are or feel excluded from society; – Legitimization and stabilization of the political system: → parties exist within a given political regime, accept its the rules and by doing so, contribute to legitimizing the political regime and order. → They are an extremely powerful tool of socialization for the regime that helps citizens internalize the democratic behavior → they are an instrument of acceptance among others. → This is true also for populist and extremists parties, which criticize the system but are part of it. All these latent functions have indirect effects on the political system but are nevertheless absolutely essential 29  Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein Extra note These are ideal-types and since Lavau's writings (post WWII), there have been many changes. As a way of consequence, a number of these functions are now in decline: Programmatic function: Manifest functions → there is a tendency for major governing parties to propose similar policies and options, thus blurring off the frontiers; Selection function: Manifest functions → recently questioned with the appearance of new channels of recruitment for political professionals → political parties are no longer the only way to be recruited → Ex: weight of the media, opinion surveys, more and more parties organizing primary elections etc; → Best illustration = Donald Trump Function of social integration: Latent functions → decline of large mass parties (fall in membership) → and decline of socialisation in parties (see decline of communist parties which endorsed this role) STILL, political parties maintain a very key role in the democratic system: → they have much of the control over the investiture and also supervise political life. b. How to classify parties? Beyond the common features, political parties are very different from each other, there are a plurality of structures A classical typology This typology can be found in Maurice Duverger's book Political Parties, 1951: he distinguishes 2 main types of parties: The cadres parties (or elite party): The mass parties: → they are organizations mainly composed of notables, → they search for the largest number of members, who have been forced to gather and to create party which is among the main resource of the especially at the end of the 19th century (with the end organization of the census and the universal suffrage) → They are born with universal suffrage : allow actors → Although they have evolved, their action is mainly with no personal resources to participate to engage centered on the elections and they mostly attract in the electoral competition members of the social elites, who built on their o Thanks to the collective resources of the fortune/notoriety as their unique important electoral organization resources: individual resources → electoral resources → Membership fees make it possible to finance the → They are quite poorly developed, weakly centralized activities of the parties and the electoral campaigns and, not disciplined and there have very few → They also provide the party members and members permanent staff and the carry out the propaganda → Their articulation is mostly local with rather activities autonomous networks o Ex: writings newspapers, gluing posters etc. 30  Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein LONG DOMINANT TYPOLOGY Although this typology has been dominant for a long time, this was brought at the beginning of the '50s, so it draws a lot on the political situations at the time: → it was believed that mass parties represented the future in terms of political institutions, for left and right Duverger even predicted a gradual disappearance of the cadres parties for the benefit of ne mess parties → Yet this prophecy didn't materialize: there was a decline of the cadre parties in their traditional historical forms, but we have also seen a decline of mass parties → fall in the numbers of members and decline of the main mass parties that have emerged after WWII, most notably the communist ones in France and in Italy Why such decline? This crisis of activism/membership resulted from 4 main factors explaining that: [1. Societal transformations: → decline of the working class (made most of the membership) and rise of middle classes, which are less homogeneous [2. Socioeconomic transformation at work, within the parties: → parties are increasingly financed by public authority o Ex: reimbursement of campaign expenses, fundings according to the number of elected representatives, … → so the importance of member fees decline o Parties are hiring people and specialist [3. Crisis in the form of traditional partisan militancy: → there is a transformation of the way of being a party member as such (militancy) and the way of being an activist for a mass party in the '50s. → It became too costly in time and energy, constraining → Commitment “à la carte”: new kind of commitment, more autonomous, with respect to the hierarchy of the past. It surely changes the relation of the members and the party [4. Negative image suffered by political parties → Especially in the younger generation Mass parties have not won the battle → they have been replaced by smaller parties composed of political professionals. → This is why some authors have tried to update Duverger's typology in order to make it more in line with contemporary reality. 31  Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein Characterizing the transformation of the parties Catch all parties/electoral-professional parties (Kirchheimer, 1966): They differ from mass parties: → they are characterized by a small number of members, → they are not developed and most of the activities of the party are carried out by paid specialists They differ from the cadres party: → the leaders are very dependent on the party, which allows them to be elected, pays them etc. → It's even truer since campaign costs have increased following DUVERGER's work. → Candidates need the collective capital of the party to be able to win in the ballot. → It's essentially an electoral machine that brings together. All these are organizational features but they have an ideological consequence: → parties tend to diversify their ideology/“offer” in order to get the biggest suffrage Cartel parties (Richard Katz & Peter Mair, 1995): The aim in defining such party was to refer to the increasing professionalization of political parties → it is considered as another evolution of the catch all parties. → They become agencies that train and select professionals and are very much linked to state structures because their survive through public funding. There is a few dominant parties wanting to exercise political system within a given system: → they create a cartel, a mutual agreement to divide the resources between them. → It contributes to limiting electoral competition (new parties have a hard time entering the electoral market) → it also contributes to provoke an anti-cartel reaction Anti-cartel parties or the anti-party-system party (RICHARD KATZ & PETER MAIR, 1995): They challenge cartel parties → Ex: parties which are also identified as movement party, new right parties etc and expect a much deeper commitment from the member than other parties.  In this way, they are quite similar to mass parties → the difference is that they are organized on an idea rather than on a social grouping. → They gather around two main ideas: o the fact that there is a sense of frustration that substantive outcome appears to change very little whatever the type of party winning the election because of the cartel and o the sense that all other types of parties are more interested in protecting their own privileges than the interests of the citizens → Ex: Ukip in the UK, Cinque Stelle in Italy, Podemos in Spain, and Siriza in Greece, which faces the dilemma of being a successful anti-cartel party (paradoxical and difficult to be both anti-cartel and in the government). 32  Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein Period of Locus of Organizational Nature and role of Primary dominance origination structure membership resources Cadre Rise of Parliamentary - minimal and local Elites are the only Personal Party parliamentary origin - party central office “members” wealth and government to subordinate to party connections mass suffrage in public office Mass Drive for mass Extra members organized - Large and Fees from Party suffrage to parliamentary in local branches homogeneous members and '50s origin membership ancillary - leadership organizations Formally accountable to = secondaire, members accessoire ch Cat-All '50s to present Evolution of members organized Heterogeneous Contributions Party preexisting in branches, but membership organized from interest parties marginalized in primarily as cheerleader groups and decision-making for elites individuals Cartel 70s to present Evolution of Central office - distinction between State subsidies Party existing parties dominated by party member and supporter subventions d'État in public office, and blurred largely replaced by - members seen as hired consultants individuals rather than as an organized body Anti- 2000s to Extra Members organized - members gathered Members Cartel present parliamentary in local branches around an idea rather than involvement Party origin around social characteristics - expect important commitment from members To remember Those are ideal types → they are fictional simplified representations aimed to compare ≠ situations → reality is much more nuance and there are many many many models and labels → These classifications were elaborated in a European and North American context, so their capacity to apply to another political context has to be questioned. Choices were made, because it has become a sort of Olympics of Political science to define and impose their own label to a specific model of political parties Ex: business firm parties, entrepreneurial parties etc Other possible classifications The different models of political parties we have just seen are mainly built on the analysis of the organization of the parties → However, other types of variables are used to classify parties : [1. The main aim or objective of the party (Müller & Storm, 1990): → vote-seeking, → office-seeking or → policy seeking → etc. → there are also classification based on the lifestyle of the party 33  Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein [2. Thelife-cycle of the party (PEDERSEN, 1982 and BARNEA & RAHAT, 2011): → what is its degree of novelty ? New, old? [3. The place of the party within the party system of the country: → mainstream or “niche” party ? c. Party systems and the theory of cleavages What is a party system? Giovanni Sartorti, (Parties and party systems, 1976) : according to him, we can define a party system following 3 main elements: 1| Party systems and their analysis is more interested in the interaction between parties than in individual parties: They are a whole which is more important than its part → a party system views parties in their connection to a specific system. → The analogy is that of planet systems: the focus is not on a one single planet, but in the whole constellation formed by all planets. o It allows to ask questions about the number of planet, the different sizes, the distance that separate planets form each others etc. → Here it's exactly the same idea for political parties: they can be ideologically near or distant, they can make system with many small parties, or with only a few large parties: o analogy is true in the idea that over time, some systems change while other remain stable. 2| Party systems are set of parties or structures that compete or cooperate with the aim of increasing their power in controlling government: → here if we still follow the analogy, whereas in planet system there is a main principal gravity, o the main political interaction is about the competition for power. → The shape and the dynamics of party system are determined by the electoral game of which parties are main actors → it's the result of competitive interaction between all parties; → they can also cooperate o Ex: coalition 3| Party systems allow to analyze the functioning of the system of political representation: → it's appropriate to speak of such system only in a democratic system in which parties competitive for vote, in open and plural elections: → there is no system if there is only one unit → it requires pluralism and free elections Analyzing political parties in their environment allows to ask central questions central in political science: → Which and why parties exist rather than others? What is the origin of party systems ? = genealogy → What is the format of party systems? Why are some composed of 2 large parties and others of many small ones? = morphology 34  Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein The genealogy of party system Why do party systems exist? We can introduce the very important notion of cleavages, developed by Seymour Martin Lipset and Stein Rokkan, Party Systems and Voter Alignments, 1967 → Socio-historical perspective on the origins of political parties o role of the “building elites of the nation-state → Party development are linked to the existence of social and ideological divisions (cleavages) expressed during elections They consider that most parties from the period they wrote originated from the changes that happened in the mid-19th century, until the end of the '20s. → There have been important socio-economic changes that gave birth to most of the contemporary parties → These two major changes opposed different social groups with different values and interests = cleavages 2 revolution ; 4 cleavages; 8 possible “party families” NATIONAL REVOLUTION INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION th Early 19 c Late 19th c Restricted electorates Suffrage extension Centre-periphery Workers-employers State-church cleavage Rural-urban cleavage cleavage cleavage It’s a consequence of The national revolution the industrial it's sometimes led to a process of revolution, referring to assimilated to the left- territorial integration Mainly referred to as the the respective role of right cleavage and the and a will to philosophic/religious two different activities concerns is about the homogenize the cleavage in Belgium in the development of distribution of income territory and to erase The national revolution led the state, namely in society and the access local or regional to the affirmation of state agriculture and of various categories of particularism or to authority in the industry. the population to goods foster the development government The question is not only and services that allow of the state in some economic but also worthy living conditions. privileged areas. cultural Workers' Employers' Conservative Regionalist Centralist Antireligious Agrarian Productivis parties parties and religious parties parties parties parties parties (defending (defending parties labour) capital) 2 revolution: First, they distinguish two aspects of the main changes that happened: → the industrial revolution : changes produced by both industrialization and urbanization → the national revolution : the formation of nation states and liberal democracy Those two revolutions created socio-economic and cultural divisions within society, → opposing different social groups with their own values and interest. → Authors called this conflict cleavages, referring to the conflict between different social groups within society → political parties are apolitical translation of this cleavage, a political mirror of the larger socio-economic conflict. 4 cleavages: After, each revolution created two different cleavages: 35  Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein → on the one side, there are workers/employers and rural/urban cleavages → on the other side, state/church, and a central periphery cleavage. Their argument is that if there is an active cleavage (if it exists in a specific country), then it gives birth to one party for each side of the cleavage because → each party mediates the interests of the population on each side of the social division. 4 cleavages → 8 party families More recent development POST-INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Late 20th and early 21st c (Demobilized electorates) Materialist – post materialist values Open-closed societies Generational cleavage over policy priorities: new Globalization of the economy, opening up of labour values of civic rights, pacifism, feminism markets, perceived threats of immigration to jobs environment and identity, supranational integration The younger generation developed post materials values Green parties, libertarians Populist parties of left and, above all, right Conclusion: a gendered perspective on political parties Political parties as male stronghold Political parties emerged and were structured at a time when women were most often formally excluded from political space. → Even today working with a masculine sometimes openly sexist, structure and culture, parties do not provide an environment conductive to women’s involvement, even if there are disparities between countries and parties Role of organization of the parties: transparency and formalism of candidates selection procedure + centralized already centralize functioning + existence of women’s organization within parties. → Women are structurally underrepresented in the governing bodies of the parties =10.8% of the cases the party is headed by a woman, 33.1% of the parties include at least 1 woman in their governing bodies (1997, Inter-parliamentary Union survey on nearly 80 countries and 500 parties). The role of electoral institutions and electoral laws We can understand the impact of electoral systems on women's access to elected office as fallows: Majority in single-member electoral systems: → France (parity-program), United States Canada etc. → tend to offer a bonus to already established and professional candidates, who are mostly men; Proportional systems: → Nordic countries Germany Belgium etc → generally, more conducive to the designation of women. → NGLEHART and NORRIS underlined that Sweden, which has a proportional system of representation, exemplifies a society where women experience the highest level of parliamentary representation of any nation in the world. Women occupy 18.3% of the seats in the proportionally elected chambers, compared to 13.8% in those elected by majority votes (2007). 36  Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein Women’s resistance strategies There is an internal resistance of women who advocate the adoption of party quotas which explains the differential performance of countries in terms of women’s representation in Parliament → Legislated and voluntary party quota → Voluntary party quotas and the o Have an “contagion effect” Ex: in 2006, 181 parties in 58 countries of adopted gender quotas to nominate candidates for parliamentary elections → mainly socialist, green, communist parties 2. Citizens: Political socialization and political participation The question of citizenship has been re-evaluated and focused on by political science over the past 20 years. → It's a general concept for the theoretical and empirical analysis of the links between individuals, institutions and the State. Introduction: citizenship from a political science perspective Origins and definition Citizens = “a member of a political community, endowed with the prerogatives and entrusted with the responsibilities which are attached to this belonging” (Michael Walzer) → rights and responsibilities: citizenship consists of individuals enjoying rights and accepting a number of duties in return Citizenship = the prerogatives and obligations of the members of a specific political community ( → ex : the right to participate directly or indirectly to the exercise of power) Citizenship is : → the enjoyment by one individual of rights and duties → a legal condition & a sociological and historical reality → linked to the emergence of democracy, emerged with the American and French revolutions in the 18th century T.H Marshal and the stage of citizenship In Citizenship and Social Class,1950, T.H. Marshall showed and underlined that citizenship was built in 3 main stages through history: [1st stage, 18th century: Citizen were granted the main civil rights : freedom of speech, thought, ownership, contract and right to equal justice. → Equality before the law is implemented, → constituting the embryo of citizenship → institutionalized into the rule of law [2nd stage, 19th century: Citizen were granted political rights :voting and eligibility rights → citizens were subjects of successive conquests → institutionalized into the parliament 37