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2020 | Buch

Continuity and Change of Party Democracies in Europe

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This special issue of the German Political Science Quarterly addresses the transformation and the sustainability of European party democracies, both at the level of party organization as well as party systems and competition. The contributions in this volume are dedicated to these areas of change of European party democracies from different perspectives. It shows which new dynamics of change can be stated and how they can be explained.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter
Party Democracies in Europe Under Threat?
Abstract
This paper focuses on new competitive dynamics in European party democracies. Based on theoretical thoughts on party competition it addresses the transformation and the sustainability of European party democracies, both at the level of voters and party organisations and at the level of party systems and party competition. It focuses on growing deficiences in representation of the established parties in the eyes of many voters and tries to analyse the consequences for party systems and party competition. One result is the rise of dealignment from the traditional party families of the liberal, conservative, Christian democratic and in particular social democratic parties. Reasons for processes of fragmentation and polarisation and the increased rise of populist parties with its implication for government building will be analysed. These substantial changes on structures of competition between parties and on competition for government through the decline of traditional parties on one side and strengthening of populist parties on the other might lead to erosions of the classical model of party democracy in Europe.
Uwe Jun, Sebastian Bukow
Why Parties Narrow Their Representative Profile: Evidence from Six European Democracies
Abstract
In this paper, we analyse the conditions under which political parties narrow their representative profile (defined by the scope of the issues or the constituencies they represent). This strategy has been neglected in the party literature, which is mainly focused on the adoption of catch-all strategies among mainstream parties or the tendency to stick to core issues among niche parties. In this paper, we develop a theoretical framework that includes central external and internal drivers of party change and we empirically test this framework using novel survey data covering 121 parties across six European democracies: The United Kingdom, Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Ireland.
Nicole Bolleyer, Patricia Correa
The Origins of Party System Polarisation: How Parties and Voters Shape the Ideological Spread in Party Systems
Abstract
Party system polarisation is an essential concept to describe the quality of party competition in comparative politics. Both a very high and a very low level of polarisation are associated with dysfunctional party systems. Polarised competition results in political conflicts, while the opposite dynamic leads to a lack of alternatives for the voter and reduces parties’ accountability. Because of its key role in characterising democratic systems, party system polarisation is a frequently used independent variable in comparative politics. Nevertheless, there are relatively few studies of its causes; in particular, we see a research gap in the analyses of direct effects due to parties and voters. We therefore ask in the following contribution: How do interactions within the party system and the electorate affect polarisation? We argue that current explanations are complementary, and we integrate them into a single theoretical framework. Applying time-series cross-section analyses to manifesto data and survey data, we show that — besides the well-known fragmentation effect, especially the patterns of government — opposition and party identification matter. We conclude that, for the long-term stability of a party system, the strength of the opposition is as important as the stability of the government.
Johannes Schmitt, Simon T. Franzmann
The Limits of Cartelization: Can Parties Cope with Vulnerability?
Abstract
Popular support for political parties has become a fragile commodity. More volatile, more fragmented and more polarized party systems have created a social and political environment in which access to vital resources is no longer safe. In this contribution, I will use the perspectives offered by the cartel party thesis for gaining insights into recent developments in party politics. Has party adaptation rescued parties from the threats of vulnerability? Looking at comparative empirical evidence, it seems that there has been neither a cartelization of public privileges among the mainstream parties nor successful processes of politicization in party competition. Moreover, the ascendancy of the party in public office has been checked by a stronger plebiscitary input of the party membership. Thus, the results of comparative studies do not support the view that cartel mechanisms has helped parties to reduce their vulnerabilities.
Klaus Detterbeck
What ‘Moves’ Party Systems in Times of Crisis?
Economic Conditions, Public Opinion and Party Competition on European Integration
Abstract
The Euro crisis has considerably altered party competition across Europe. By adopting a party-system perspective this contribution analyses to what extent the Euro crisis has ‘moved’ party systems to more Eurosceptic positions and whether it has affected the systemic salience of the European integration issue. We argue that worsening economic conditions have directly affected party competition on European integration, but that party systems have additionally adapted to a more Eurosceptic public opinion in many EU member states. Connecting national parties’ election manifestos for European Parliament elections to survey data and macro-economic indicators, our empirical analysis shows that changes in party competition on European integration in EU member states between 2009 and 2014 can be explained by both factors. In the economically most affected countries, party systems have become more Eurosceptic—both as a direct reaction to economic hardship and as an indirect response to an increased public dissatisfaction with the regime of the EU. Moreover, an increase in the systemic salience of the European integration issue has occurred mainly in creditor countries, where the public has become more Eurosceptic regarding the idea and the continuing process of European unification.
Martin Gross, Constantin Schäfer
From Brussels to the Capital: New Parties’ Paths into National Parliaments
Abstract
New political parties are an important source of change in the party systems of modern democracies, but these parties often struggle to gain and retain parliamentary representation. This article addresses the question of which of the parties that were successful in European Parliament elections also enter national parliaments, and why. FsQCA analysis show that a combination of experienced leadership, membership in a European Parliament political group and an electoral system without high barriers for new entrants explains most cases of parties that are successful in entering the parliament at the national level. It does not, however, explain why others are not successful, indicating that the causation is asymmetrical.
Sofie Blombäck
More or Less Vulnerable?
Variation in the Extent to Which Mainstream Political Parties’ Voters Consider Voting for Radical Right Populist Parties
Abstract
West European party systems have undergone profound changes, one of the most obvious being a marked decrease in vote share going to the mainstream parties whose domination of electoral politics used to be taken for granted, along with an increase in votes going to more radical, populist contenders—most (but not all) of them on the anti-immigrant right. These two changes are widely assumed to be linked. Yet the potential impact of the populist radical right on the electoral performance of (western) Europe’s other party families may well be uneven. We use European Election Study survey data to explore which parties (and party families) might be most vulnerable to seeing their voters defect to the populist radical right. We find that, although it has become commonplace to observe that it is the social democratic centre-left which is most vulnerable in this respect, it is actually centre-right parties which, at this point anyway, would seem to have most to lose. But they are not alone: interestingly, the voters of radical left parties are also vulnerable to the appeal of the radical right.
André Krouwel, Tim Bale, Lucas Tremlett
Democracy Reform as a Populist Policy Supply
Abstract
The criticism of the political establishment and the representative power structure unites left- and right-wing populism and is superordinate to other issues. However, there has not been any research so far on what policies populist parties suggest to improve allegedly flawed democracy. This article tries to fill that gap, using an explorative approach. Dimensions of a populist democracy reform agenda are extracted from the literature, and policies gathered from the latest election manifestos of 22 populist parties from 15 Western European countries are assigned to these dimensions. The analysis shows the existence of a common populist democracy reform agenda, although generally pursued more extensively by left-wing populists.
Volker Best
Populist Politicians: Populism, Democratic Dissatisfaction and the Perception of Representation. The Case of Greece
Abstract
This article investigates populism as an attitude of political elites. Based on an extensive discussion of research on populism, it develops a concept that harmonizes the role perceptions of political elites in representative democracies with dissatisfaction as an evaluative and populism as a specific normative orientation towards democracy. Based on candidate data of the 2015 Greek parliamentary election, this contribution offers an empirical analysis of the linkage between dissatisfaction with democracy, role perceptions and populism. Finally, implications for further research are discussed in detail.
Marcel Lewandowsky
No Need for Wider Selectorates? Party Members’ Preferences for Reforming the Nomination of District and List Candidates for the German Bundestag
Abstract
While there is plenty of research investigating the methods for choosing parliamentary candidates and their consequences, only a few studies have explored the preferences of party members for various selection modes. This article focuses on those party members actively involved in candidate nominations, separated in leaders, delegates and rank-and-file. As it is well known, party activities are pivotal when it comes to procedural reforms. Our data base is a representative survey in the run-up of the 2017 national election within all current Bundestag parties that includes selections at the distict level and for party lists. The data show that there is very limited reform support for open primaries. Moreover, party members frequently opt for the procedures with which they are long familiar. Evidence for assuptions that party elites prefer inclusive procedures to circumvent mid-level activists could not be found. Looking at context factors, general meetings are more strongly supported in competitive settings. Regarding list selections, a strong membership base and a large territorial size of a federal state lead to favoring the delegate principle which points to organizational and practical considerations.
Danny Schindler, Benjamin Höhne
Oppositional Strategies Between Cooperation and Conflict: An Analysis of Opposition Party Voting in the German Bundestag, 1949–2013
Abstract
Electoral competition with opposition parties is a crucial aspect in most theories of representative democracy. Nevertheless, political science research has paid less attention to oppositions than to governments. This paper attempts to fill this gap by investigating the factors driving the strategy of opposition parties in parliamentary votes. Our core question is when, and why, opposition parties pursue cooperative or competitive strategies vis-à-vis the government in plenary voting. Policy concerns may motivate an opposition party to cooperate with the government and support its position in voting. However, this effect is conditioned by the desire to send signals to voters because opposition parties also try to distinguish themselves from the government. Using data on all roll-call votes in the German Bundestag from 1949–2013, we show that spatial variables affect opposition voting only in electorally salient policy areas, whereas ideological distance has no discernible effect in less salient policy areas. Furthermore, we find that on average different opposition parties are more likely to act as a cohesive block instead of being divided. We also show that opposition parties behave more competitive in their own motions and that they become more cooperative the longer they have been represented in the Bundestag. Overall, these findings suggest that simple spatial arguments based on policy preferences alone are insufficient for explaining opposition behaviour in parliament and that signaling plays a major role.
Lukas Hohendorf, Thomas Saalfeld, Ulrich Sieberer
Friends and Foes: How Coalition Formats Shape Voters’ Perceptions of the Party System
Abstract
This study looks at the effect of coalitions between parties on how similar citizens perceive the parties that participate in these coalitions to be. We build on different strands of literature to argue that citizens use information on which parties coalesce with each other as a heuristic to make judgments about the similarity of these parties, and that partisan identifiers of the parties in question should be especially sensitive to this signal. We test these claims using panel survey data from the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, collected between 2011 and 2016, a phase in which the party system went through profound changes in government composition, especially with the Green-Christian Democrat coalition formed in 2016. We find that while coalitions do indeed make the parties involved appear more similar, how this effect plays out depends largely on the structure of the party system.
Holger Reinermann, Thorsten Faas
Metadaten
Titel
Continuity and Change of Party Democracies in Europe
herausgegeben von
Dr. Sebastian Bukow
Prof. Dr. Uwe Jun
Copyright-Jahr
2020
Electronic ISBN
978-3-658-28988-1
Print ISBN
978-3-658-28987-4
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-28988-1