Chapter 10 - Political Parties

POLI 101

Parties and Ideology

- common interests, may be controversial opinions

- interests can be regional, economic, communal or ideological (overlaps)

- eg. can operate on city councils or municipal governments

- ideology suggests a program for governing

- programmatic: governing based on political philosophy

> eg. Marxism, liberalism, etc.

- have incentives to play up/play down ideological character of the party

programmatic

be more ideological

pragmatic

be less ideological

- going where their voters are

Cadre Parties

- elite driven

- small permanent membership

- policy-setting dominated by party elites

- elected elites, or people 'behind the scenes'

- released strategically in the midst of election campaign

- use policies to target/micro-target electorates

- fewer, but bigger, donors

Mass Parties

- member driven

- can participate in the governance and direction of the party

- large, consistent, permanent membership

- policy-setting dominated by party members

- party platform might be shaped by delegates of a convention

- many smaller donors

Canada's Parties

• mix of pragmatic and programmatic approaches

• parties show more mass qualities at election and leadership times

  - most candidates for elections for major parties have to win nomination contests at the lower level

  - financing and running campaign: requires expansion of membership of party

  - cadre qualities between elections

  - mass qualities for financing (by law)

- more ideological parties tend to be more mass-based

- more pragmatic parties seem to be more cadre-dominated

High Partisanship

reasonable commitment to a set of political ideals relating to the principles of the regime

Low Partisanship

being practical in politics, actions that must be performed to achieve certain ideals

5 Functions of Political Parties

Recruit people as members or candidates, finance their organizations and election campaigns, attempt to represent/balance diverse interests of all Canadians, formulate policy, and educate people about political life

Organization/Election Campaign Financing

- private activity regulated by finance laws

- regulate fairness in political competition

- limit the size of donations, and the amount parties can spend

- banned corporate and union donations

- parties can be disbanded if candidates break financing rules, or banned from running (section 3)

- different candidates have different amount of funds for campaigns

- parties collect money from donors, donations

Interest Aggregation

balancing diverse interests of all Canadians - looking at which part of the population each party is catering to

Formulating policy

- party platforms developed based on the structure of the party

- wanna be strategic with releasing it at a certain time in their campaign, but they usually release it late because it takes a while

- lots of competition between political parties when it comes to releasing policies first

- reactive and campaign based: considering the current political state as reference

- most policy capacity is in the public service

Official Party Status

2 members or more

Leadership Power

• controls ballot (in Canada Elections Act)

• has to sign the ballot's candidates to accept them

• controls the caucus (e.g. expelling members from the party)

• advancements = salary, prestige

Leadership Selection

- initially chosen by the elected members of the caucus

- since the early 20th century done by two models

- "the convention" and "universal membership vote"

Universal Membership Vote

- all 'members' have a chance to vote

- membership a pretty open phenomenon

- most current systems are UMV or a UMV hybrid with weighted voting

Green-lighting Process

looking through potential party candidates histories/background before allowing them to be a party candidate - avoiding scandals

Classic Liberalism

- dominate ideology shared by both Liberals and Conservatives at the time of Confederation

- emphasizes importance of individual liberty (free from government interference) + free market economy, and equal opportunity

participation methods

elections, parties, or interest groups

Interest Groups

goal is to influence rather than actually be in office (might have preferred party to be in power)

interest strategies

advertising, protests, boycotts

• having consultation - 'stakeholders' to ensure that they have warnings about the types of policies that are being drafted by the public servants

• legal strategies

Interest Group Litigation

- enhanced rules of 'standing' in the Charter era

- expanded who can weigh in on those Charter cases

- proliferation of interest groups with a legal focus