POLI107 week 7 reading - Mazzoleni 2023 - parties and party systems

Flashcards about Party Change Beyond the Classical Models.

Legitimacy Crisis of Parties

Reflected in declining voter turnout, growing anti-party sentiment, and other forms of citizen dissatisfaction.

Party Dynamics

Should not be limited to looking only at the long-established or mainstream parties.

Electoral Democracy

Confirmed the crucial role of political parties in contemporary democracy, with new party systems proving more diverse and volatile.

Cartel Party

Party organizations became less rooted in civil society and increasingly dependent on the state.

Iron Law of Oligarchy

Parties change in the direction of a more centralized and elite-oriented organization.

Party Change

Scholars disagree over what it means to say that the party itself plays an active role in initiating change.

Exogenous Factors in Party Crisis

Include the loss of authority of traditional institutions and secularization, and the impact of globalization and European integration.

Party Adaptation vs. Decline

Party adaptation is characteristic of some countries, while party decline is characteristic of others.

Internal Party Democracy

New forms of participation are seen as an alternative way for parties to survive, differing from relying on state subsidies.

CEE Party Systems

Were expected to emulate the relatively stable, highly differentiated, and institutionalized party systems in Western Europe.

Instant Catch-All Parties

Parties effectively ‘diluted their original ideologies in order to widen their voter base’ and appeared to lack a natural constituency.

Symbiosis with the State

Engineering a ‘symbiosis with the state’ since all countries in the region have introduced public funding for political parties.

Adaptability of Parties

The adaptability of parties and the manner of active change varies widely.

New Parties

Short-lived or permanent, new parties may vary in the extent to which they are shaped by the dominant ideological or organizational characteristics of their party system.