lu 8

• Political party


  A political organization that seeks to attain and maintain political power within government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns
• Political parties


  • Often espouse an expressed ideology or vision bolstered by a written platform with specific goals, coalition among disparate interests
• Functions of political parties

  • A bridge between people & government
  • Aggregation of interests
  • Integration into the political system
  • Political socialisation
  • Mobilisation of voters
  • Organisation of government
• Political parties as a bridge between people & government

  So that people's needs & desires are heard by government, Citizens' impact on political decisions, Helps maintain "government legitimacy"
• Political parties aggregating interests

  The bigger the group the more influential the group is, Number matters, A coalition of interest groups sharing the same interests, Organise conflicts and finding the means how they can be properly addressed
• Political parties integrating into the political system

  Interest groups are invited into the system, Political parties help interest groups to influence political decisions on certain issues
• Political parties' role in political socialisation

  Teach members "how to play the political game", Train members to become leaders, Political parties form certain units to reach the people, invite them to become members & expose them to current issues
• Political parties' role in mobilisation of voters


  Registering new voters, Persuading potential voters to become members, Weak parties = low voter turnout?, Parties to simplify and clarify issues to ensure mass support
• Political parties' role in organisation of government

  Winning parties form the government, Party control in parliamentary system is much stronger due to party discipline - the winning party usually control both the legislative and executive branches, Party control can be weakened by strong & powerful bureaucrats
• Party system

  Interactions of parties with each other & with the overall political system
• Types of party systems

  • One-party system
  • Dominant-party system
  • Two-party system
  • Multiparty-system
  • Two-plus party system
  • Fluid party system
• One party system

  Only one "legal" controls the government, Party claims that they represent what the people want & need
• Dominant party system


  A single party holds power all the time, but other political parties are allowed to function openly and with reasonable effectiveness
• Two party system


  No one party can count on always holding power but only two parties can normally expect to have a chance at doing so
• Multi party system


  This system consists of more than two major parties
• Two-plus party system?
• Fluid party system?
• Election


  A decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold formal office
• Functions of elections

  • Elections as a mean of building support
  • Elections as a mean to hold governments accountable to the governed
  • Elections as a mean of selecting leaders and policies
• Free and fair elections

  • Must be held at regular intervals
  • Must provide electorate a meaningful choice between policies and candidates
  • Citizens should have full freedom to form political parties, to contest in elections, and to nominate candidates
  • Candidates must have equal opportunities to campaign
  • All adult citizen must have an equal opportunity to vote
  • Voters must be able to vote without fear and coercion
  • Votes must be counted accurately
• Types of elections

  • Presidential election
  • General election
  • Primary election
  • By-election
  • Local election
• Single-member-district plurality system (SMDP) also known as first past the post


  The state is divided into a set of districts, usually having roughly equal populations, One representative is elected from each district to be a member of the legislative body of the state, and whoever gets a plurality of the votes wins the seat
• Proportional representation systems (PR)


  The basic principle of PR is that political parties' representation in the legislative body is set roughly proportional to their strength in the electorate
• Three main PR systems

  • List voting
  • Mixed-member proportional voting
  • Single transferable vote
• List voting

  1. Calculate a quota, which is determined by taking the total number of valid votes in the district and dividing this by the number of seats

  2. The quota is then divided into the vote that each party receives and the party wins one seat for each whole number produced

  3. After this first allocation of seats is complete than the remainder numbers for the parties are compared and the parties with the largest remainders are allocated the remaining seats
• Mixed Member Proportional Voting

  1. Typically half of the seats in the legislature are filled through a single-member district plurality contest

  2. The other half of the seats in the legislature are filled from regional lists of candidates chosen by the parties
• Single Transferable Vote

  1. Threshold = (valid votes/1+seats) +1 vote

  2. The second step is to count all the number one choices to see if any candidates have reached the threshold

  3. The vote totals are now recalculated to see if anyone is now over the threshold. No one is, so the next transfer takes place. The candidate with the least chance to win is eliminated and his or her votes are transferred to their second choices
• Percentage of votes and seats for different parties in an election