Topic 8 Party Systems and Their Influence on Democracy_lecture 1

7/29/2019 Topic 8 Party Systems and Their Influence on Democracy_lecture 1

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PS 335: Democracy and Elections Lecture Series R.S. Damian 2013

TOPIC 8: PARTY SYSTEMS AND THEIR EFFECT ON DEMOCRACY

Respicius Shumbusho Damian

Department of Political Science and Public Administration

Phone: +255777428318, Email: [email protected]

INTRODUCTIONTwo factors are critical fro the healthiness of democracy and elections. The same factors

equally are the central determinants of whether elections may serve as significantinstitutions of democracy and they play an important role in facilitating or hindering

democratic consolidation. These are electoral system on the first hand, and party system

on the other. This topic interrogates the effect of party systems on democracy,particularly focusing on the key characteristics of Tanzanian party system and its

dynamics.

THE CONCEPT OF PARTY SYSTEMStudies about party systems date back to times when a single dimension was used to

categorize party systems, especially the number of political parties. Such of these wasthat of Duverger (1954), who classified polities into single party, Anlo-Saxon Two Party,and Multiparty systems. The followed Lipset and Rokkans (1967), Sartori (1967), and

then (1968). In his writings of 1960s, Sartoris conception of party system was purely

based on numerical analysis of party elements.

The concept attracted new analytical tools and became popular after 1976 from a seminal

work, Party and party Systems: A Framework for Analysis by Giovanni Sartori who

clarified the concept and attempted to provide a typology of party systems. Hisconception of party system is built on the assumption that a system must at least have two

parts, which are interconnected. He proposed that to understand the concept of party

system, we need to distinguish party as a system from party system For him, whatmakes a system different from its constituent parties is that;

The system displays properties that do not belong to a separate consideration ofits component elements

The system results from, and consists of, the patterned interaction of itscomponent parts, thereby implying that such interactions provide the boundaries

or at least boundedness, of the system (e.g. dominant may be distinguished from

competitive).According to Sartori, Parties make for a system only when they are parts (in the

plural); and a party system is precisely the system of interactions resulting from

interparty competition. That is, the system in question bears on the relatedness of partiesto each other, on how each party is a function (in a mathematical sense) of the other

parties and reacts, competitively or otherwise, to the other parties.

From Sartoris point of view, party systems could be categorized by using two main axes,

the number of political parties, and secondly, the degree of ideological polarization.

The modern theory of party systems goes beyond the two axes by Sartori (1976) and

suggests that more dimensions should be considered while studying party systems.


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Sartoris dimensions remain central. However, scholars like Lijphart (1977), Keman

(1995), and Ware (1996) have criticized Sartoris criteria as lacking both theoretical andmethodological consistence.

During the Third Wave Democracy for instance, an opposite, but equally important

dimension, party system institutionalization, which includes stability of competition,roots in society, legitimacy, and organization of parties has become of great attention

among party system analysts. According to Geyikci (2011), a party system refers topatterns of interaction among political parties in electoral, parliamentary, and

governmental arenas of a given political context.

Scott P. Mainwaring (1999), Rethinking Party Systems in the third Wave of

Democratization: The Case of Brazil looks at party systems as a set of parties that

interact in a patterned way. As patterned interaction, party systems need that there should

be known rules that shape competition between parties even if those rules are contestedor volatile (constantly changing).

DIMENSIONS FOR DESCRIBING PARTY SYSTEMTo understand the party system of a particular polity, we must look at the extent of

cooperation, competition, and opposition between political parties as well as sympathy

and antipathy towards these elements within parties rather than looking at individualpolitical parties. It must be perceived as a system of recurrent interactions between parties

How should we understand party systems? What makes party systems?

Extent of competition between political parties: This refers to the degree and extent ofcompetition between the parties that exist (mainly the major parties). In

this regard, a party system may be described as dominant or

competitive party system.

Number of political parties: It should not be confused with existence of single party or

multiparty political systems, but rather the number of political parties

commonly available in a political community and how they politicallyinteract. In the way, we may have 3 parties, but still have a two party

system. In this regard, we may have a no party system, state-party

system, two party system, and fragmented party system (above 5

parties).

Configuration of competitive powers among parties: is power shared, dominated, or

evenly distributed among political parties. Can shifts in power holding

be forecasted or predicted?

Configuration of cooperative attitudes between and within parties: this refers the

dominant attitudes of political parties and party alliances towards each

other or one another. So, we may have a party system characterized byalliances, cooperation, antagonism in all arenas of contestation, or even

a dominant party struggling to suppress the rest of political parties and

cleavages.

Party System Polarization: The extent to which political parties are ideologically

distant


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The extent of party system institutionalization: this reflects how are the elements

above forming a stable and permanent system of institutional rules andnorms including roots in society, intra party organizations, legitimacy,

and stability of the competition. Thus, the party system can be weakly

institutionalized party system and strongly institutionalized party

system.

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Topic 8 Party Systems and Their Influence on Democracy_lecture 1