www.cevroinstitut.cz Modern Party Politics in Europe Miloš Brunclík milos.brunclik@vsci.cz www.cevroinstitut.cz Contents ■ Modern political parties (notably in Europe) 1. New party organization ■ business-firm parties ■ cyber parties 2. New party policies ■ Left-libertarian parties ▪ Green and pirate parties ■ Populist parties ▪ Radical right-wing populist parties ■ Eurosceptic parties www.cevroinstitut.cz Course requirements 1. In-class presentation (topics + dates on google drive): case studies (40 %) a. Origins of the party b. Ideology/program/policies c. Leading figures d. Classification e. Recent electoral results 2. Review (10 %) 3. Final exam (50 %) www.cevroinstitut.cz What are political parties for? ■ Widespread and common critique of parties, but…. ■ Necessary actors of democratic politics ■ Except. Nauru, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Marshall‘s Islands ■ Backbone of democratic government ■ Government in democratic countries = party government www.cevroinstitut.cz What are political parties? ■ LaPalombara and Wiener (1966) ■ continuity in organization ■ permanent organization ■ determination to hold decision making power ■ striving for popular support ■ Sartori (1976) ■ any political group identified by an official label that presents at elections, and is capable of placing through elections (free or nonfree), candidates for public office www.cevroinstitut.cz Party functions: Klaus von Beyme (1997) 1. Identification of aims (ideology and programs) ■ X media, interest groups, opinion leaders, intellectuals… ■ X party without ideology or a coherent program, dependency on opinion polls 2. Articulation and aggregation of interests 3. Mobilization and socialization of society 4. Recruitment of political elites and government formation ■ Are parties failing? www.cevroinstitut.cz Lipset a Rokkan (1967) ■ Protection of democracy ■ Parties shield democracy from popular discontent www.cevroinstitut.cz Party failure and adaptation ■ Challenges ■ Economic crisis ■ Scandals ■ Lack of personnel ■ Few members ■ European integration www.cevroinstitut.cz “Alternatives” to party government ■ Populism ■ will of people ■ criticism of pluralism ■ critical of “elites” and “establishment” ■ parties do not care about people ■ responsiveness ■ Technocracy ■ expertise, knowledge ■ responsibility ■ criticism of parties for “electoralism” ■ technocratic cabinets www.cevroinstitut.cz Classification of parties ■ Ideology ■ Aims ■ Organizational structure ■ Origins ■ Position in the party system ■ Size ■ Relationship to democracy/establishment www.cevroinstitut.cz Aims 1. Vote-seeking 2. Policy-seeking 3. Office-seeking www.cevroinstitut.cz Success of parties (P. Lucardie 2000) ■ based on 3 key factors 1. political project - addresses problems considered urgent by substantial sections of the electorate 2. resources: members, money, management and mass media exposure; 3. political opportunity structure: positions of other relevant parties as well as institutional, socio-economic and cultural conditions www.cevroinstitut.cz Theory of political parties ■ Cadre parties (late 19th century) ■ Face to face communication, newspapers, local rallies ■ Mass parties (early 20th century) ■ Mass print media, party press, mass membership, class parties ■ Catch-all parties (20th century) ■ Mass media: TV, radio, decreasing importance of mass membership, appeal to a wider range of voters ■ Electoral-professional parties (late 20th century) ■ Privileged access to state run media, professionalization of party campaigns ■ Cyber parties (early 21st century) ■ Cyberspace, low importance of membership, politics in cyberspace ■ New media – Social media www.cevroinstitut.cz Organizational structure ■ cadre parties ■ mass parties ■ catch-all parties ■ electoral-professional parties ■ cartel parties ■ business-firm parties ■ member-less parties Traditional parties www.cevroinstitut.cz Maurice Duverger: cadre parties X mass parties ■ loosely organized ■ decentralized ■ groups of individuals ■ wealthy people, aristocrats or businessman ■ Independent MPs ■ Members were able to finance their election campaigns themselves ■ Often liberal or conservative parties ■ Prevalent in the late 19th century ■ „contagion from the left“ ■ Hierarchical strict organization ■ centralized ■ Huge number of members ■ Disciplined MPs ■ Rested mainly on ordinary people, especially poor workers ■ Membership fees – sources of party finance ■ Often socialist, farmers‘ parties ■ Late 19th century until mid 20th century www.cevroinstitut.cz Alternative distinction ■Sigmund Neumann ■parties of individual representation ■parties of social integration www.cevroinstitut.cz Otto von Kirchheimer 1966:Catch-all parties 1. drastic reduction of the party’s ideological baggage 2. strengthening of top leadership groups 3. downgrading of the role of the individual party member 4. deemphasis of the classe gardée, specific social-class or denominational clientele 5. securing access to a variety of interest groups www.cevroinstitut.cz Reasons for the rise of catch-all parties 1. rise of affluent advanced industrial democracies 2. change in social structures, education, communication, media 3. intensity of class conflicts was attenuated 4. Collective identitiesreplaced with greater individualisation of voting » greater openness of the electoral market = a challenge to parties ■ increasing number of voters became de-aligned vis-à-vis parties ■ partisan identification meant no longer a significant link »parties forced to react and respond to these changes www.cevroinstitut.cz Electoral-professional party: 1988 Angelo Panebianco ■ linked with socio-economic changes ■ rise of education ■ Secularization ■ heterogeneous electorates ■ Mass media are driving parties towards ■ personalized campaigns ■ candidate-centred and issue oriented strategies ■ TV and interest groups : ■ far more important links between parties and electorates than traditional collateral organizations, bureaucracy and party members www.cevroinstitut.cz Electoral-professional party ■ Parties hire out professionals to run election campaigns ■ TV specialist ■ Marketing ■ P.R. ■ Rhetoric ■ Professionals: important in certain spheres of party work ■ fund rising ■ political marketing ■ media presentation ■ helpful as opinion pollsters and advertising consultants www.cevroinstitut.cz Cartel Party: Richard Katz and Peter Mair (1995) ■ Parties threatened by ■ uncertain electoral gains ■ significant drops in membership ■ → parties pursue strategies that aimed at provision and regulation of state subventions to political parties ■ Key difference ■ Closer link to state ■ increasingly dependent on state (state finance) www.cevroinstitut.cz Cartel Parties ■ “characterised by the interpenetration of party and state, and also by a pattern of inter-party collusion” ■ Cartel parties try to prevent other (non-parliamentary) parties to reach state subsidies and parliamentary representation ■ Laws that provide finance assistance only to parliamentary parties ■ Access to public media is restricted only to parliamentary parties ■ Electoral laws that increase legal threshold for small non-parliamentary parties www.cevroinstitut.cz Memberless parties ■ Oscar Mazzoleni and Gerrit Voerman (2016) ■ Maximizing centralization of decision-making process ■ Promoting party unity ■ Enhancing electoral effectiveness ■ Flexibility and quick decision making ■ Examples: ■ The Freedom Party ■ The Lega dei Tiscinesi ■ Dawn of Direct Democracy www.cevroinstitut.cz Cyber party ■ Theory by Helen Margetts (2001) ■ Cyber party = a conceptual model ■ Real parties may only approximate the concept ■ Modern political parties – some traits of the concept “virtual parties”: “Die Digitalen” in Germany ■ ran in the 1999 local government election in Berlin ■ operated only on the on-line basis www.cevroinstitut.cz Cyberparties - reaction to: 1. Increasing use of ICT ■ Citizens, organizations, government, NGOs… ■ New apps ■ Mass usage of the Internet = key platform for political communication ■ More and more activities shift on-line ■ Cyberspace = major battlefield of politics 2. Changing patterns of relationship between parties and voters ■ Single-issue political activities ■ Declining party membership ■ Increasing reluctance of citizens to join organizations of any kind (especially parties) ■ Dealignment www.cevroinstitut.cz Dealignment 1. Decreasing partisan identification 2. Greater alienation of voters from parties → links connecting parties and voters are weakening → more „free“ voters available on electoral market → electorates are less stable and more volatile (changeable) 3. Decreasing partisan membership 4. Decreasing trust in political parties ■ Anti-party sentiment ■ Lowering turnout ■ decreasing shares of old parties ■ →Favourable conditions for the emergence of new parties www.cevroinstitut.cz Single issue political activity ■ Anti-capitalism ■ Fox-hunting ■ Animal rights ■ Environmental issues ■ Human rights issues ■ Pirate issues ■ … ■ → technologies allow target at the respective groups www.cevroinstitut.cz Further examples of single-issue activities www.cevroinstitut.cz Party Responses: Cyberparties (summary) ■ Origins: ■ Changing patterns of political participation ■ Web-based technologies ■ Claim to support ■ Direct linkages to voters ■ Membership ■ No or little membership ■ Loose definition of supporters ■ Channels of communication ■ Web-based www.cevroinstitut.cz Cyberparties - membership ■ Membership recruitment – low priority ■ Supporters and voters more important ■ Channels for supporter and voters to influence party manifesto ■ On-line discussion forums ■ 2000 Conservative Party in UK – organized first e-petition www.cevroinstitut.cz Cyberparties and democracy ■ Traditional functions of political parties ■ Elite recruitment ■ Interest articulation and aggregation ■ Mobilization and socialization ■ Identification of goals, formulating policies ■ → move on-line www.cevroinstitut.cz Elite recruitment ■ Recently- trend towards more business-like matter ■ Politics – more and more professionalized ■ Party activities - outsourced ■ Selection of party leaders – emphasis on the ability of candidates to reach out to larger audience through media and Internet ■ Media skills matter ■ Campaign, competition is moving on-line ■ 2000 USA – Democratic Party – on-line primaries ■ 2008 and 2012 Obama‘s election campaigns ■ Large reliance on the Internet www.cevroinstitut.cz Interest articulation and aggregation and mobilization ■ Internet – ideal forum for interest articulation ■ Numerous political protests organized vie e-mail, social networks… ■ Quick channeling of ideas, voices from below ■ Quick surveys – on-line surveys among voters ■ Parties can target specific voters on-line ■ Advertising ■ Banners ■ E-mails ■ 2000 USA democratic primaries in Arizona ■ „digital hit squad“ (grassroots internet community) to connect black people ■ Targeting black voters in the primaries held on the Internet ■ Claimed to increase turnout by more than 1000 % www.cevroinstitut.cz Cyberparties and their weaknesses ■ Social exclusion of off-line voters ■ Digital divide ■ Strategic penetration („carpet baggers“) ■ On-line participation (no formal members) ■ Danger of party enemies to influence party candidate selection ■ Especially local level ■ Low number of participants ■ Low turnout ■ →→ Small group of well-organized strategic voters are more likely to influence the result www.cevroinstitut.cz Cyberparties and their weaknesses ■ „preaching to the converted“ (Pippa Norris) ■ On-line messages can not reach out other people ■ Lack of organizational capacity and weaknesses ■ Lack of people: grassroots activity is vital for local campaigns ■ Campaign can not be done solely on-line ■ Lack of membership fees paying members ■ X Internet – cost saving device ■ X absence of membership does not preclude donations www.cevroinstitut.cz New parties ■ cut across existing issue conflicts and cleavages ■ 2 major streams ■ Left-libertarian parties ▪ Green parties ▪ Pirate parties ■ Radical-right wing populist parties ■ + others www.cevroinstitut.cz Traditional parties ■ Result form the cleavage theory ■ What is a cleavage? www.cevroinstitut.cz Cleavage ■ A long-term deep division in society that translates into politics and party systems 1. Empirical element (community) 2. Normative element (sense of identity) 3. Organizational element (party organization) www.cevroinstitut.cz Territorial dimension Functional dimension National revolution Periphery X center State x church Industrial revolution Countryside X city Workers x owners International revolution x Communists x social democrats Cleavage theory www.cevroinstitut.cz New cleavages ■ Postmaterialism ■ Inglehart 1977 ■ Transnational cleavage ■ Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks 2018 ■ left right distinction prevails Economic left Economic right Authoritarianism and nationalism Liberalism and globalization www.cevroinstitut.cz What is “left” and “right”? www.cevroinstitut.cz Left and right ■ various criteria ■ relationship to democratisation (1900s Europe) ■ tradition X progress ■ secular x religious ■ question of equality ■ relationship to differentiation: Norberto BOBBIO www.cevroinstitut.cz Norberto Bobbio ■ left ■ people are rather equal ■ inequalities are unfair and conditioned by wrong government policies ■ inequality is underserved ■ Right ■ people are rather unequal ■ inequalities are fair and natural and reflect different competences, skills, knowledge, intelligence etc. 1. Economic dimension 2. Cultural dimension