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 Nondemocracies
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.
4.
5.
6.

Shas: 13 seats, ultra-orthodox

Pensioners: 7 seats, single-issue
Torah Judaism: 6 seats, ultra-orthodox
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