Political Parties and Party Systems: Comparative Approaches and the British Experience

300 Pages·1997·1.51 MB·English

by  Moshe Maor

Political Parties and Party Systems
This introduction to the theme of political parties presents a wide
variety of theoretical approaches—illustrating these ideas by
applying comparative approaches to the British case.
Political Parties and Party Systems covers all the key subjects of
study, including: the classification of party definitions; change in
the party system; party institutionalisation; models of party
organisation; cohesion and dissent; intra-party conflicts and
legislative bargaining; and multi-party electoral competition.
Moshe Maor argues that the intra-party arena is the key to the
understanding of political party behaviour. Strategic decisions
made by party leaders often reflect the internal conflicts with
which they are confronted. This study addresses the ways in
which intra-party actors solve these trade-offs and in the process
how the parties’ definitions of activities and motivations are
constantly reinterpreted.
This is a clear and accessible introduction to modern political
science analysis of parties and party systems which will be
essential reading for students of politics.
Moshe Maor is a Senior Lecturer at The Hebrew University of
Jerusalem.
Theory and practice in British politics
Series editors: Desmond King and Alan Ware
This series bridges the gap between political institutions and
political theory as taught in introductory British politics courses.
While teachers and students agree that there are important
connections between theory and practice in British politics, few
textbooks systematically explore these connections. Each book in
this series takes a major area or institution and looks at the
theoretical issues which it raises. No other textbook series offers
both a lively and clear introduction to key institutions and an
understanding of how theoretical issues arise in the concrete and
practical context of politics in Britain. These innovative texts will
be essential reading for teachers and beginning students alike.
Other titles in the series
The Law
Jeremy Waldron
Electoral Systems
Andrew Reeve and Alan Ware
The Civil Service
Keith Dowding
Political Parties and
Party Systems
Comparative approaches and
the British experience
Moshe Maor
London and New York
First published 1997
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
© 1997 Moshe Maor
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Maor, Moshe.
Political parties: comparative approaches and the British
experience/Moshe Maor.
(Theory and practice in British politics)
Includes bibliographical references.
Spine title: Political parties and party systems.
1. Political parties. 2. Political parties—Great Britain.
I. Title. II. Title: Political parties and party systems
III. Series.
JF2051.M28
1997
324.241–dc20
96–36203
ISBN 0-203-99311-X Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-415-08284-6 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-08285-4 (pbk)
Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables v iii
Preface ix
1 Classifying party definitions 1
A scheme of organisation for party definitions 3
The format of the book 15
2 Party system change 18
The concept of cleavage 20
Party system as a dependent variable: the development of 23
the parts of the system
Party system as an independent variable: the development of 32
a system of interaction
Continuity and change in the British party system 40
Conclusion: party system stability? 65
3 Party institutionalisation 69
Comparative approaches of party institutionalisation 70
The development of British political parties: the formative 79
phase
Conclusions 92
4 Models of party organisation 95
The cost and benefits of party membership 98
Models of party organisation 1 00
The British political parties as membership organisations 1 18
Conclusions 1 38
vi
5 Cohesion and dissent 1 40
Party cohesion 1 41
Party factionalism 1 52
Patterns of party cohesion and factionalism in post-1945 1 56
British parties
Conclusions 1 72
6 Intra-party conflicts and legislative bargaining 1 74
The interplay between intra- and inter-party politics in 1- 75
multiparty systems
The Lib-Lab Pact (1977–78): modes of conflict manifestation, 1 86
resolution and legislative bargaining
Conclusions 2 00
7 Multi-party electoral competition 2 02
Comparative approaches of inter-party competition 2 02
Inter-party competition in Britain, 1945–95 2 18
Conclusions 2 41
8 Conclusions 2 42
Appendix: Comparative politics as a discipline 2 46
Notes 2 50
Bibliography 2 63
Index 2 83
Figures
2.1 Left-right programme trends, 1945–87 52
3.1 Typology of party institutionalisation in the British context 75
5.1 Attitudinal disparities related to organisational rank 149
5.2 Ideological map of the British Conservative Party 158
5.3 Ideological map of the British Labour Party 162
6.1 Coalition bargaining and the process of government 182
formation
7.1 Two-party competition over one dimensional issue with 206
single peaked voter preference profile
7.2 Two-party competition over one dimensional issue with 206
double peaked voter preference profile
7.3 Party competition over one dimensional issue with triple 207
peaked voter preference profile
7.4 Robertson’s map of how British parties’ policy positions 221
changed, 1924–66
Tables
1.1 Trade-offs faced by parties and their sub-units 14
2.1 Cleavages, critical junctures, issues and party families: an 24
amended version of the Lipset/Rokkan model
2.2 Patterns of discrimination for the major British parties 42
caused by the plurality election system
2.3 The salience of issue dimensions in Britain, by party 50
2.4 Social class and the vote, 1979–92 (%) 53
2.5 Party identification, 1964–92 (%) 54
2.6 Trends in volatility, 1959–92 57
4.1 Comparative models of party organisation 104
4.2 The membership of the main British parties, 1960–92 124
Preface
The orientation of this textbook is very general. As a comparativist,
I have long been convinced that the logic of comparison is the best
way to establish theoretical and empirically refutable propositions
that explain—in terms of causality—regularities in the
relationships between parties, society and political institutions.
My purpose in writing this textbook is therefore to introduce
students of politics to the study of political parties; its basic
conceptual paradigms, salient theories and sets of theoretical
hypotheses which are derived from comparative inquiries. In doing
so, I have made no effort to ‘summarise the literature’. Instead,
attention is given to those theoretical works—representing several
sub-disciplines and spanning a number of decades—that have the
most direct bearing on the theme being discussed. To illustrate
the ideas, I apply comparative approaches to the British case with
a view to their clarification. In no way, then, do I claim to present
an encyclopaedic coverage of what has become a vast and highly
diverse body of literature. Readers who expect such an
encyclopaedic coverage will, therefore, be doomed to
disappointment. In my view it is far preferable to understand why
things happen the way they happen, than to describe what
happened. This is basically what theory is all about.
In writing this book, I have received much help. I am
particularly indebted intellectually to Gordon Smith. My work has
been improved gramatically by volunteers reading chapter drafts,
particularly Sidonie Beresford-Browne, Barnie Sluman and
Rebecca Stokes. Over the years I have also gained much from the
scholarship and personal support of Gideon Doron, Patrick
Dunleavy, Desmond King, Peter Mair, Howard Machin, Jan-Erik
Lane and Gunar Sjöblom. I should like to thank the staff of the
LSE Library, in particular Ms Francis Shipsey, as well as Ms Jane
Pugh from the LSE Drawing Office, for the considerable help
which they have given me. I thank also Caroline Wintersgill,
Patrick Proctor and their colleagues in the Politics Division of