Political Parties

And Election Systems

Political Parties & Democracy

In democracies, citizens organize their
political activity through political parties and
the election process.
Parties develop out of our differences about
how to achieve common goals. They are a
natural product of a democratic and free
society.

Purpose of Parties
According to the text, the purpose is to put
forward proposed leaders whom they
support for official positions in government.
Also, parties want to have an impact on
public policy. They dont simply want to win
office; they want to win office so that they
can affect what decisions are made.

Purpose of Parties
Even when they lose office, parties perform
a useful role in a democracy, by organizing
the opposition and offering alternatives.

Parties create important links between the

voter, groups & government. To succeed,
they must build consensus.

Party Functions
1. they mobilize ordinary citizens, either to
vote or to achieve some other political goal.
2. they recruit and socialize leaders, even
in one-party states.
3. they provide a long-lasting sense of party
identification.

Party Functions
4. they can provide a means for party
leaders to control rank and file members.
5. they provide links between:
Branches of government in a separation of
powers system.
Levels of government in a federal system.
Citizens and government in all systems.

Parties in Non-democracies
Functions may differ. They:
* mobilize support for the regime.
* recruit and train potential leaders.
* oversee the bureaucracy.
* spy on population (in totalitarian systems)
Not a link between the bottom and top, but a
means of social control by the top over the
bottom.

Types of Party Systems

One-Party Authoritarian.
Government & party closely linked. No
opposition parties permitted.
Example:
Communist Party in North Korea

Kim Il Sung
of North
Korea

Types of Party Systems

Dominant Party System; one-party dominates for
long periods of time. No legal ban on other
parties, but only one party has chance to win
office, and there may be informal harassment of
opposition parties.
Examples:

PRI in Mexico until the 1990s

Japan until the 1990s
Singapore

Types of Party Systems

Two Party System. Either party has genuine
chance to win office; elections truly competitive.
Additional parties not outlawed but have serious
difficulty winning because of electoral system.
Tend to be umbrella parties; tend to be stable.
Disadvantage: Voters limited to two choices.
Examples:
United States, Canada, Britain, New Zealand

Types of Party Systems

Multi-Party System. Competitive elections
with multiple parties ensure that no one
party can dominate for long. Parties tend to
be more doctrinaire and distinctive, giving
voters more choice.
By far the most common; see examples in
text.

Types of Party Systems

In Multi-party states, its difficult for any one

party to win a majority. Coalitions with

similar parties become necessary. But
coalition partners may resign over particular
government policies, so this system is less
stable.
Example of government instability:
Italy, from 1945 to 1995, had 44 different
coalition governments.

Example: Israeli Elections 2006

March 2006
Election outcome:
Kadima Party
wins the most with
28 seats in the
Knesset. The new
Prime Minister Olmert
must form a coalition government.

Example: Israeli Elections 2006

Winning party: Kadima: 28 seats, centrist
Probable partners:
2. Labour: 20 seats, centre-left

Possible partners:

3. Shas: 13 seats, ultra-orthodox

4. Pensioners: 7 seats, single-issue
5. Torah Judaism: 6 seats, ultra-orthodox
6. Meretz: 4 seats, left-wing

Unlikely partners:

7. Israel Beitenu: 12 seats, Russian emigres, far-right

8. Likud: 11 seats, right-wing
9. Arab parties: 10 seats
10. National Union/Religious: 9 seats, far-right, settlers

Elections & parties

Grigsby: Election strategies are influenced
heavily by election rules concerning the
counting of votes.
Election rules include: how votes are
counted; if some seats are set aside for
certain groups of voters, if any consideration
is given to a candidate who places a close
second.
The rules determine the party system.

Types of Election Systems

Single Member Plurality (SMP)
The candidate who wins a plurality of the
vote prevails; a majority is not needed. Only
one seat per district. No way for voters to
designate their 2nd choice. Tends to produce
a two-party system unless a small partys
voters are concentrated in a district.
Used in the U.S., Canada, India, Britain, New
Zealand, Germany.

Major U.S. Political Parties

Republican National Party
http://www.rnc.org/

Democratic National Party

http://www.democrats.org/

Minor U.S. Political Parties

Scores of minor parties, among them:
Green Party
http://www.gp.org/

Democratic Socialists of America

http://www.dsausa.org/dsa.html

Libertarian Party
http://www.lp.org/

Minor U.S. Political Parties

Chance of winning statewide or national
office low. Why?
SMP system
Electoral College
Presidential candidates must win 270 electors
(out of 538) to win office.
Example: Ross Perot & Reform Party in 1992 won
19% of the popular vote but not one elector.

Multi-Party Election Systems

Proportional Representation (PR).
Each district has multiple seats. Each
political party wins the same proportion of
seats as the vote it wins.
Favors the development of multiple political
parties.

Sample
ballot if
we used
PR for
Congress

Multi-Party Election Systems Example

Assume the following vote distribution in
a district with 10 parliamentary seats:
Quisenberry Party wins 50%
Wiggins Party wins 30%
Baker Party wins 20%
How many seats does each party win?

Multi-Party Election Systems Example

Wiggins Party wins 50%
Quisenberry Party wins 30%
Baker Party wins 20%
SO:
Wigginistas gain 5 seats
Quisenberries win 3 seats
Bakerites gain 2 seats