POL224Y1 Lecture 5: Understanding Concepts of Party Systems and Their Role in Canadian Politics
18 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
Ideologies & party systems (continued from lecture 4) The formation of brand new parties in the u. s. a sparked a correspondingly signi cant transition in the party systems of britain, france and other european nation-states. Question: how do we establish a party"s political af nity: the left-right wing spectrum proves too inaccurate; a 4-axe political compass is required. There are three inescapable theories concerning the formation of party systems: social cleavages, electoral system effects, median voter theorem. Common social cleavages include: class; labour/conservative (uk, secular-clerical; bhraitya janata/inc (india, cultural-ethnic; bloc/parti quebecois (canada, rural-urban; ccf (rural canada) Note that the ccf is a predecessor to the ndp: materialist/post-materialist; greens (germany post-reformation) The working class is gradually being replaced by the middle class: as a result of this demographic shift, some left-wing parties have realigned themselves with new post-materialist values. The question of whether or not materialism/post-materialism is an established social cleavage remains undecided.
