Party Systems: NDP

  • Voters choices which are based on political parties become electoral rules which decide legislative seats and political parties

Political Parties: Key to democratic development

  • Adam Przeworski: “Democracy is a system in which parties lose elections.”

  • Quality of a democracy is linked to the development of competitive party systems

  • How do party systems change?

    • Change in electoral rules

    • Change in underlying bases of party support

    • Need to understand the voter

    • Cleavage structures

  • Central questions for parties: What do we stand for? Do we want to win?

The Lure of the Median Voter

• Assumptions:– Two alternatives– One dimension– Single-peaked voter preferences

• Prediction: Convergence to the “moderate middle”

• But…life is more complicated!

Brokerage/Cadre Parties…

• Two dominant parties:

– Duopoly of Liberal Party and the (Progressive) Conservative Party

– Electoral Pragmatism: build broadest possible support base

– Aversion to coalition politics in House of Commons

– Leader dominated/fixated

– Parliamentary caucus=policy;

Local riding associations = local

autonomy

• Stable instability?– Dominant Liberals with

Boom/Bust Conservatives

Insurgents and the CCF/NDP

• Volatile protest/anti-system

politics, West and Quebec, (“Insurgents”)

– United Farmers of Alberta

– Progressives (1920s)

– Union nationale

– Ralliement Creditiste

– Social Credit (AB, BC)

– Reform Party

– Bloc Québécois

– Wildrose

– Saskatchewan Party

• …and the CCF/NDP– Distinct party of the Left/Labour

A Distinctive Party System

Dominant Liberals at the centre, CCF/NDP holding on left flank

• Liberals:

– Occupy the centre on two core dimensions: left/right, and the “national question”

– Quebec pivot, Catholics until 1970s…

• CCF/NDP:– Regional base: western, southern Ontario– Success in provincial politics

– Weak class voting Conservatives, harried by Insurgents (nationalists, right)

• Conservatives:– Spectacular wins with spectacular fails

• Wins come when Quebec nationalists coordinate on non-Liberal alternative: Cons or BQ (insurgent)

• No insurgents in the West

– Exhibit A: Mulroney majorities 1984-1993

• West plus QC Canadian party systems

• Blows up in 1993 (BQ and Reform)

A Class-less Politics? NDP and Labour

• Canada: Classes, but no class politics?

– What of the “modernity” thesis?

• Consistent finding: region, language, and religion (?) more important than class

-Catholicism (used to be) strongly correlated with Liberal support

• NDP: Strong enough party of the working class to hang on, but not strong enough to take over as one of the duopoly

From the CCF to the NDP

• Canadian Commonwealth Federation (CCF) founded 1933: socialist, populist, agrarian, social gospel

– Tommy Douglas: CCF MP 1935-1944, then CCF Premier of Saskatchewan, 1944-1961

• 1958 federal election: CCF routed

– How to become a competitive party of the left in Canada? Cement a political relationship with labour unionism

• 1961: NDP founding convention

– Relationship with the Canadian Labour Congress

– Individual members and affiliate members through union locals

– Douglas: NDP leader 1961-1971