Chapter 10 Parties, Party
Systems and Interest Groups
This Week…
• Political Parties
• Interest Groups
• Party Systems
• The impact of party systems on political parties
Single Party Systems, Multiparty
Systems and Interest Groups
• Differences in understanding of legitimacy
▫ Multiparty systems in Europe
▫ Two Party system in the USA
▫ Single Party system in the USSR or China
• Interest groups in the decision making processes
What are Political Parties
• Political organizations
▫ Seek to affect/influence policy
▫ Primarily seek election or appointment to public
office
▫ Responsive to what the electorate wants
▫ Broad set of principles
▫ Provide platforms designed to appeal to broad
collection of society
▫ “articulate and aggregate ideas”
Interest Groups
• An organization that seeks to change the political
system, policies or behaviours to fit own view
▫ May endorse politicians
▫ May advocate against politicians (or seek to influence
them)
 CTF, NRA, AAA
• Civil society
▫ A broader set of interests across society, not always
political, but usually seeking to improve the
community
• Articulation and aggregation of ideas
Party Types
• Many kinds of parties – 3 we will note here
• Elite parties
▫ Small number of political elite dominate
• Mass Parties
▫ Large memberships, seek to engage the population in a
massive movement to change the status quo (associated
with extreme left and right)
• Catch all parties
▫ Limited ideology, want broad based support
▫ Generally reflects the will of voters
What are Party Systems
• Defined by patterns of party politics in a state
• Generally associated with the number of parties
involved in the political system
▫ Electable parties more important than unelectable
ones
Kinds of Party Systems
• Single party dominant systems
▫ Often associated with authoritarian regime
▫ Viewed positively as a system in states with focus
on community, rather than individual rights
▫ More effective economic policies
▫ Multiple parties divisive?
▫ Some democratic states have strong single parties
 Japan, South Africa, Mexico (from the 1930s-2000)
 Canada in the 20th C?
 Africa and independence
Two Party Systems
• Surprisingly, two major parties
▫ Two parties dominate over numerous elections
▫ Noticeably different platforms
 Right vs Left
▫ Tend to emerge in single-member district systems
▫ Larger parties tend to dominate in SMDs, so fewer
parties survive
Multiparty Systems
• More than two competitive parties
▫ Larger parties with more broad appeal
▫ Smaller, sometimes, single issue parties are
competitive
▫ Usually associated with PR
▫ Some advocates would argue that this better
reflects voter preferences
Party Systems and Political Outcomes
• Two party systems collapse to the middle
▫ Median voters
▫ The swing vote
▫ Playing to the base
• What happens if the distribution of preferences isn’t
regular, but bi-modal?
▫ Multiparty system will emerge
• What happens if people aren’t universally left or
right, but concerned in different ways about
different issues?
Interest Groups and Representation
• Pluralism:
▫ How should government work?
▫ Many voices of different groups, when they
disagree it is up to the politicians to determine the
wider public’s preference
▫ What about special interests (too many voices?)
 Inefficiency
▫ The collective action and free riders in interest
groups
▫ Variety of voices may drown out the most
important
Interest Groups and Representation 2
• Corporatism:
▫ Most important voices are government, business
and labour
 Empirical evidence in growth of Japan and South
Korea
▫ Consensus based decisions
 Less disagreement and tensions in society
 Harmony in relationships between business and
labour
But…
• Corporatism isn’t inherently positive:
▫ Who gets to participate in this arrangements (how
are they chosen and held accountable)
▫ Crony capitalism?
▫ “Calcifying” relationships (which industry is THE
industry that should have a say?)
▫ Elite dominant
▫ More groups ensure that the largest groups can
never get too powerful.