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Party systems: What difference does the number and kind of parties make? Political Science Honours Essay Information Meeting For Political Science Honours students entering final year, but others welcome 1:00pm to 1:50pm Wednesday, March 25 Room SN-2064 Topics Overview of Honours essay guidelines Picking an Honours essay topic Selecting possible supervisors Approaching a preferred Honours essay supervisor Questions and answers New Political Science Curriculum Information Meeting 1:00-1:50pm Wednesday, April 1 Room SN-2105 For returning Political Science Honours, Majors and Minors Topics Course renumbering New courses New requirements New prerequisite policy "Grandfathered" status Sample course patterns Questions and answers The Dept. of Political Science presents Change will come but will change last? The American Party System after Obama Dr. Mike Hannahan Director of the Civil Initiative Project and Member, Department of Political Science University of Massachusetts at Amherst Thursday, March 19, 2009 3:30 -4:45pm SN2033 2 points toward participation grade for attending Stereotypes Multiparty systems are inherently unstable: The more parties you have the greater likelihood that either Cabinets will be short-lived Or Regimes themselves will be susceptible to collapse (regime instability) instability Problem: is this valid? Available evidence suggests that is not: The governments and regimes of most countries with multiparty systems are relatively stable But some countries have not Problem: what accounts for the difference? Polarized pluralism Moderate v. polarized pluralism (Sartori) Historically, certain countries with a large number of parties have suffered from chronic cabinet and sometimes regime instability: Weimar Germany (1918-33) 3rd Republic France (1875-1940) Spain, 2nd Republic, 1931-1936 4th Republic France (1946-1958) Italy, 1rst Republic (1945-1993) Explanations All had not only a large number of parties, but were sharply polarized as well Three of these had rather fluid, poorly disciplined parties Spain, 2nd Republic France, 3rd and 4th Republics Only two, Weimar Germany and 2nd Rep Spain suffered regime collapse Many Italian specialists doubt that Italy, despite frequent cabinet changes, was unstable Explaining stability Depends on more than number of parties Countries with multiparty systems find ways to cope: Duty of heads of state (presidents or monarchs) to ensure that there is a government Formal procedures ‘Facilitators’ involved? Formateurs and informateurs in the Netherlands Forming governments Sweden and Scandinavia – role of parties themselves Germany Getting a government in the Netherlands Role of the monarch Informateurs Formateurs Getting a government in Belgium… 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 (Left party) __________________________________ Sweden pre-1990: Left SD Centre Liberal Conservative __________________________________ From the 1990s: Left SD Centre Lib Cons New Democ. ___________________________________ Netherlands: Pre-2000 SP GL PvdA D66 CDA VVD CU SGP __________________________________ Netherlands: from 2002 2002 SP GL PvdA D66 CDA VVD LPF CU SGP __________________________________ 2009 PvdD SP GL PvdA D66 CU CDA VVD TON SGP PVV _______________________________________ Italy: 1945-1993 DP PCI PR PSI PSDI PRI DC PLI Lega MSI _______________________________________________________________________ Predominant position of DC (Democrazia Cristiana) DC penchant for broad coalitions Exclusion of Communists Willingness not only to colonize state apparatus to generate patronage Willingness to share that patronage with coalition partners (e.g. PSI) Shifting coalitions: Pentapartito in 1980s Italy after 1993/4 Collapse of the pre-1993 party system Impact of tangentopoli End of Cold War Changes in electoral law New party system: two ‘poles’ or clusters competing with each other: Polo (Casa) del liberta Forza Italia (Berlusconi) Allianza Nationale (AN) – former neo-fascists Lega Norte Ulive (Olive) DS Democratic Left = ex-Communists Populare (left Christian Democrats Margerita… Others (recently, up to 9) Post-1993 Party System DS+ 8 others FI AN Lega ______________________________________________________________ Ref. Ulive Liberta Bottom lines: Multiparty competition is the norm in most European liberal democracies In many, party system change has increased the number of political parties winning seats in national parliaments Few countries beset with problems of cabinet instability Why not? Two party competition relatively rare Most are enmeshed in networks of international organizations Parties in some countries operate in clusters Few countries are as polarized as Weimar Germany, 2nd Republic Spain or 3rd or 4th Republic France Greater problems today with reach of parties – their ability to attract support & ground themselves in society -- than with the number of parties?