Download Party Systems and Government Formation

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?