Making Sense of Party systems

Getting oriented

Party systems:

• System: any regular, recurring pattern of interaction

• Party system: the context in which parties operate and interact with each other.

• `Systemness’ – a party’s strategy, tactics, and behaviour affected (among other things) by what other parties do– what one party does influences others – they need to

take account of its behaviour, strategies, the support which it can win

Getting oriented:

A look at some party systems• Canada• UK• Germany• Sweden• Netherlands

The Canadian Party System

• How would you describe it?• Number of parties?• Who competes with whom?• Dimensions• How important is the systemic element?

Some answers:

• Two, three, four or 4+ parties?• Incomplete competition:

– not everyone competes with everyone else• One dimensional or multi-dimensional?• Relations between provincial party

systems and the federal party system?

The UK Party System• The 19th c party system

Liberals Liberal Unionists Conservatives_____________________________________

Irish Nationalists

• The 20th c party system

Labour Liberals Conservatives

The Federal Republic of Germany

1957-1983: SPD FPD CDU/CSU _______________________________ 1983-1989: G SPD FDP CDU/CSU _______________________________1990-present PDS G SPD CDU/CSU FDP__________________________________

Sweden

pre-1990:Left SD Centre Liberal Conservative__________________________________From the 1990s:

Left SD Centre Lib Cons New Democ.___________________________________