Political Parties, Origins,
Transformation
1 | Page
,College 2: Policial Parties and Part.........................................................................3
College 3 (11-11-2024): Party Families: part one...................................................7
College 4 (18-11-2024/21-11-2024): Party Families: part two..............................11
College 5 (21-11-2024): Party Systems: The Demand-side..................................15
College 6 (28-11-2024): Party systems: The supply side.....................................17
College 7 (28-11-2024): the new left and green parties......................................19
College 9 (09-12-2024): populism........................................................................21
College 10: the populist radical right and the populist radical left.......................22
College 11: social movements and political parties.............................................25
2 | Page
, College 2: Policial Parties and Part
What is a political party?
A political party is an institution that seeks to influence the state, identified by
the present of elections and is capable of placing through elections. The political
party is an autonomous group of citizens whose purpose is to making
nominations an contest election in the hope to gain control in the government.
So the bottom line is:
- Party have an organization role.
- There is a link between parliament, government , policy and citizens
(linkage)
Political parties and democracy
Robert Dahl was one of the most important theorist of democracy. For him true
democracy is about direct representation. But with the rise of the nation state,
representation is only possible via a representative.
Nadia Urbinati says hat political parties are about mediation. Mediation between
citizens and representation. It’s about contestation between ideas. You cant have
democracy without parties because they are about pluralism.
Anthoney downs days that social ad political issues are complex. Most citizens
don’t know what’s going on, for that we have political parties. They create order
and are information reducers.
- So as we move to nation states, parties represent linkage (Dahl),
- Parties simplify complexity (Downs)
- Parties order the political landscape
- Parties allow for political contestation (Urbinati)
Of course there is a lot of criticism (David van Reybrouck). He is not against the
idea of parties but critical of elections. Individuals are randomly chosen to
represent. His answer is sortation.
So the argument is
- Democracy isn’t possible without parties
- The type of party model you have is important for the type of democracy
you have
- It isn’t about more or less parties, but the kind of party you have
the cadre (leap) party
it was one of the first parties that were formed. They were created by a small
group, occurred when democracy was really new. Small individuals, they were
the elitest. Formed in the parliament. Representatives organised together and
formed a party together. And they were focussed around key individuals.
3 | Page
Transformation
1 | Page
,College 2: Policial Parties and Part.........................................................................3
College 3 (11-11-2024): Party Families: part one...................................................7
College 4 (18-11-2024/21-11-2024): Party Families: part two..............................11
College 5 (21-11-2024): Party Systems: The Demand-side..................................15
College 6 (28-11-2024): Party systems: The supply side.....................................17
College 7 (28-11-2024): the new left and green parties......................................19
College 9 (09-12-2024): populism........................................................................21
College 10: the populist radical right and the populist radical left.......................22
College 11: social movements and political parties.............................................25
2 | Page
, College 2: Policial Parties and Part
What is a political party?
A political party is an institution that seeks to influence the state, identified by
the present of elections and is capable of placing through elections. The political
party is an autonomous group of citizens whose purpose is to making
nominations an contest election in the hope to gain control in the government.
So the bottom line is:
- Party have an organization role.
- There is a link between parliament, government , policy and citizens
(linkage)
Political parties and democracy
Robert Dahl was one of the most important theorist of democracy. For him true
democracy is about direct representation. But with the rise of the nation state,
representation is only possible via a representative.
Nadia Urbinati says hat political parties are about mediation. Mediation between
citizens and representation. It’s about contestation between ideas. You cant have
democracy without parties because they are about pluralism.
Anthoney downs days that social ad political issues are complex. Most citizens
don’t know what’s going on, for that we have political parties. They create order
and are information reducers.
- So as we move to nation states, parties represent linkage (Dahl),
- Parties simplify complexity (Downs)
- Parties order the political landscape
- Parties allow for political contestation (Urbinati)
Of course there is a lot of criticism (David van Reybrouck). He is not against the
idea of parties but critical of elections. Individuals are randomly chosen to
represent. His answer is sortation.
So the argument is
- Democracy isn’t possible without parties
- The type of party model you have is important for the type of democracy
you have
- It isn’t about more or less parties, but the kind of party you have
the cadre (leap) party
it was one of the first parties that were formed. They were created by a small
group, occurred when democracy was really new. Small individuals, they were
the elitest. Formed in the parliament. Representatives organised together and
formed a party together. And they were focussed around key individuals.
3 | Page
