Types of party system

Definition: party system

• The way or manner in which political parties in a political system are grouped and structured

• Features of a political system in relation to the parties that operate within it

One party system + examples

• Only 1 party allowed to operate

  • Associated with highly authoritarian regimes

  • Not democratic

• Examples: 🇨🇳, 🇰🇵, 🇨🇺

  • All consider selves communist states

  • Communist Party only legal party

Dominant-party system - explanation

• Multiple parties allowed to operate

  • Only 1 has a realistic chance of gaining power

Dominant-party system - features

• Very stable

• Lack accountability and competition

Dominant-party system - example (outside of England)

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

  • Until recently was mainly controlled by the SNP

Dominant-party system - in the UK

• 1951-1964

  • C ruled alone during this time

Two-party system - explanation

• Multiple parties allowed to operate

  • Only 2 have a realistic chance of gaining power as they win the vast majority of votes and seats

Two-party systems - features

• Very stable

• High accountability

• Supposedly has decent choice

  • Because 2 parties can offer the electorate a simple choice between two very different manifestos and govts

Two-party system - foundations

1. Stable party loyalties

2. Class-based division in society

Two-party system - examples (outside of the UK)

• 🇺🇸

  • Republicans and Democrats

Two-party system - in the UK

• 1945-1970

  • L and C consistently gained >90% of the vote and seats

• This is because:

  • 80% of the public strongly IDed with L (W/C) or C (M/C)

    • Party loyalty was dictated by parental party ID, which was mainly founded in class

Two-and-a-half party system - explanation

• Multiple parties allowed to operate

• Mainly 2 main parties win, but there is a sizeable 3 party that are seen to hold the balance of power between the main 2 parties

Two-and-a-half-party system - example (outside of the UK)

• 🇨🇦

  • Liberal and Conservative + New Democratic Party

Two-and-a-half-party system - in the UK

• Post-1974 - began to emerge after two main party vote shares began to drop and average mid-70s until 2015

  • LibDems (formerly Liberal Party) benefitted

    • Vote share went from 7.5% to 19.3%

    • Seats went from 6 to 14

• 1974-2015

  • LibDems consistently secured a large % of votes, but never threatened the 2-party system in terms of seats

  • They did form a coalition with C in 2010 and take power for 5 years

• This has declined over the years since 2015, with LD vote share and seat share collapsing and the SNP/RUK taking over as the 3rd largest party

Multi-party system - explanation

• Multiple parties operate and have an equal-ish chance of gaining power

  • Seems less stable but actually is less volatile as many of the same parties gain power again and again

Multi-party system - examples (outside of the UK)

• 🇮🇹

  • Many parties, is remarkably unstable

• 🇩🇪

  • 4 main parties where the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats dominate but form coalitions with the Greens or Free Democrats

    • AfD does gain some seats

Multi-party systems - in the UK

• Post-1997 (aka devolution) - rise in multi-party systems at a number of levels

  • Turned nationalism into major parties (esp SNP)

  • Proportional systems in devolved bodies and European Plmtary elections has improved smaller party representation

    • Shows how FPTP maintains the two-party system!

  • New issues that transverse party-political lines (Europe, the environment, Scottish independence) have given smaller parties more impetus