Interest Aggregation

Daily Quiz
► According to Durverger’s Law, what are the
two effects voters experience in every
electoral system?
 Interest aggregation
A. The activity in which the political demands of
individuals are combined into policy programs
• Competing demands have to be balanced (crop irrigation,
drinking water supply, food provision, lower taxes)
• Backed by resources – issues with resources become more
significant (money or votes)
B. Individual or group –
• two methods across which Interest AGGREGATION
occur (single individuals = he/she may be important
in the process – otherwise process is by groups –
some perhaps specially created for a particular
policy issue)
• Political Party the dominant group form –
Personal interest aggregation
► Patron-client networks
 a process of personal connections
 benefits in exchange for loyalty
► Problems:
 Static and difficult to mobilize for change
 Does not force moderation (elite interests
dominate)
 This tends to exist mostly in underdeveloped
countries
► Ex: China has a long history of patron-client networks. If
a politician alienates their base, they will likely lose power
 Institutional interest
aggregation
► Groups are most able to make transition
from articulation of demand to aggregation
of demands bc they have resources
► Associational groups –sometimes have
enough influence to do more than just
represent a particular interest
► Institutional groups –– sometimes are
captured by special interests – bureaucracies
like to expand and this leads them to create
client networks
► Military organization – control physical
force have power as aggregators – political
coups
Competitive versus Authoritarian
Party Systems
► Competitive: primarily seek to build electoral
support
 depends on ability of party to freely form and to
compete for citizen support – crucial for government
control (even dominant parties are competitive)
 aggregate interests through elections, participation in
government and implementation of policy
► Authoritarian: primarily seek to direct society
 develops policy proposals and mobilize support within
the ranks of the party in interaction with specific
groups; can be very responsive to social demands
 Parties and elections
What parties do:
Develop political positions
Attempt to win a majority – target the
center (in systems w/ only 2 parties) or
win a cohesive electoral base (in multiple
party systems)
 Elections and Electoral systems
► Elections
– the act of collective decision-
making via voting that allows diverse interests
to be expressed equally and comprehensively.
 selects decision makers
 Legitimize governments
► Electoralsystems – the rules by which
elections are conducted
 Types of Electoral Systems
 Single member district plurality – winner wins
with most votes, not majority
 Majority runoff – voting happens in two stages,
need 50+1
 Proportional representation (multimember
districts)- country is divided into districts,
number of reps a party wins depends on the
overall proportion of votes.
 Plural versus proportional
representation
Electoral system – how vote choice is
translated into outcomes
In US, Britain, Jamaica, India, Canada –
legislative election rules divide country into
election districts; in each district “first past
the post” or candidate with the most votes
is the rule. Simple single member district
PLURALITY ELECTION RULE
 PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION

-country divided into few large districts (or single

national district) and competing parties offer lists of
candidates.
-Number of legislative seats a party wins depends on
the percentage of the vote the party receives
-PR with threshold rules: party winning 5% of the vote
could win 5% of the seats in the national legislature
(this would be an example of an electoral rule for a
national district and would have been developed
ahead of the election)
 Benefits/ Setbacks?
► What do you think are the benefits to a
plurality system?
► What do you think are the benefits of a
proportional representation system?
 Do rules matter?
► Duverger’s Law – systematic relationship between
electoral systems and political party systems
 Plurality single member districts electoral systems
create two party dominant party systems.
 Proportional representation electoral systems create
multiple party political party systems
**This is a consequence of the mechanical effect of how
the rule assigns seats and the psychological effect in
that voters anticipate the outcomes and adjust voting
behavior.
 Competitive Party Systems
► Majoritarian – two party dominant system (either
because the parties dominate or because election
laws help them win)
► Multiparty-narrowly based parties that negotiate
and create alliances to achieve goals (exist
because a variety of circumstances make party
domination difficult)
► Consensual or conflictual – are the parties
relatively close on policies? Do they generally trust
one another and the political system? OR are the
parties far apart
 Consociational Party Systems
► Mixed – both conflictual and consensual
elements
► Society has diverse ethnic or religious
groups
► Leadership works to bridge the gap
(relatively intense gaps) between different
voter groups.
► Power sharing is necessary
 Military Interest Aggregation
► Military rule seems illegitimate
► Able to aggregate interests due to monopoly
of coercive resources
► Difficulty with bureaucratic
professionalization issues and with military
professionalization issues
► Responsive to demands to leave or are
overthown (typically transient rulers)
 Trends in Aggregation
► Internationallyinterest aggregation appears
to be moving toward the democratic model
► Explanation for this trend?
 Decline of ideology
 Change in public acceptance of unpopular
regimes
 International efforts to support democratization
 Illegitimate nature of autocratic regimes