Comparative Politics

Political parties, Electoral System

Foundational classes for CUET PG and other
exams
 • Political Party- Meaning/Definition
• Political Party is an organized group, often with common ideologies, political aims and opinions, which aims to
acquire and exercise political power to influence public policy.
• As per Leon D. Epstein, Political Party is a group that “seeks to elect governmental office holders under a given
label”.
• As per Maurice Duverger, Political Party is a class, a doctrine (set of ideologies).

Concepts: Types of Parties

Party Organisation at 3 level( Richard On the basis of ideology or position on ideological
Katz and Peter Mair) spectrum
Party on the Ground, in the Central office, • Left, centre-left, centrist, Right, far Right
in public office On the basis of organization and target voters
• Cadre, Mass, Catch-all Party
Evolution of Parties: Social Cleavage Theory On the basis of Ideological attachment ( by Hitchner &
(by Stein Rokkan & Martin Lipset, 1967) Levine)
• Pragmatic parties, Doctrinal parties and Interest parties.
• Western society: church vs state, owner
Other categories
vs worker, rural vs urban, centre vs
• Constitutional vs. Revolutionary parties
periphery
• Representative and Integrative parties (by Sigmund
Neumann (1956))
• In post-colonial States: caste, religion,
• Party of Government vs Party of Opposition
language, Ethnicity, regional aspirations,
etc.
Role & functions of Political parties: What Political party don’t do?
• Political Parties articulate and aggregate
societal interests, public opinion, and policy • They do not guide or dictate Judiciary
demands. • they do not handle the daily administrative operations of
• Political socialization is mainly done by government
political parties • They don’t directly dictate the Govt, yes even Govt of their own
• They offer choice to people in choosing • They generally avoid indulging in revolutionary activities
political ideologies, policy options, and • They don’t shy away from election
governing vision. • Political parties do not directly implement policies.
• They form Government and help implement • do not typically provide direct individual services, such as social
public policies for socio-economic welfare programs or healthcare
development as per their political belief and • Do not make a profit. Instead, their primary goal is to advance
ideologies their political agenda and win elections
• Political Parties recruit, train, and nominate • While political parties may influence foreign policy through
political leaders as representatives of people. elected representatives, they do not conduct international
• Political Parties are essential channel for diplomacy or negotiate treaties.
representation in democratic politics. • Military operations and national defense are not within the
• Governments in modern era, democratic, scope of political parties.
authoritarian, or totalitarian, cannot be • Political parties do not have the authority to regulate industries
imagined without political parties. or enforce industry standards
Party System:
Factors determining types of Party System
• Party System denotes number, nature, ideological make up,
interactions, and inter-relationships among political parties in a • Electoral Rule
political system at a given time. • Duverger’s Law: FPTP- two party system
• As per Heywood, party system is a relatively stable network of • Proportional Representation - multi-party
relationships between parties that is structured by their system
number, size and ideological orientation.
• Social Cleavages (Societal fault lines)
• As per Duverger, Party systems are described by the number of
• European Societies: Rural/urban;
parties within a political system during a given time, along with
their internal structures, their ideologies, their respective sizes, center/periphery; worker/owner; church/state
alliances, and types of opposition, competitions, etc. • Asian & African post-colonial States: Caste,
ethnicity, language, Religion
• As per Sartori , party system is a system of interaction between
political parties in a political system. • Institutional structure or design of the
Thus, party system denotes: State/Government
•Number of political parties
• Federal or Unitary;
•Types of Parties: their ideologies, relative Sizes, electoral
prospects, ideological distance, • Presidential or Parliamentary
•Nature of interactions among parties- alliances &
• Time: Maturity of political system
oppositions
•Relationship between Party, Government, State and its • Larger Socio-political context; political culture;
institutions major political events- partition, Constitutional
changes, etc.
 Books- contributions
Types of party system: by Giovanni Sartori
Maurice Duverger (1917– 2014): gave Duverger law- FPTP favours two
Single party system party system. Also, types of Party System
Pseudo(false) party system
• His book ‘Political Parties(1954)’
Hegemonic- hegemony of single party
Single party dominance Giovanni Sartori (1924 –2017): gave the most widely used classification
Two Party system of party systems ;
Distinct vs Indistinct Bi-partisan system • His book ‘Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis
Two plus half party ( 3rd party) system (1976)’
Prolonged Dominance of one party Stein Rokkan (1921 –1979): with SM Lipset he postulated the theory of
Multi- party system social cleavages
Moderate Pluralism His book ‘ Party Systems and Voter Alignments(1967)’
Polarized Pluralism
SM Lipset (1922 – 2006)- a pluralist thinker; with Rokken gave social
Fragmented party system cleavages theory
Two broad coalition System
• 'effective number of parties' in a party system- Maurice Other Important books on political party:
Duverger. • ‘Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies
"effective number of parties" -calculated using a of Modern Democracy(1911)’- Robert Michels
formula that takes into account the share of the vote or • ‘Political Parties and Party Systems(2003)’- Alan J. Ware
seats each party holds, providing a weighted measure of • ‘Party politics in India(1957)’- Myron Weiner
party fragmentation or concentration • ‘Party building in a new nation(1967)’- Myron Weiner
• Political Parties and Political Development(1966)-La Palombara and
Myron Weiner
Also Remember
• Duverger Law: FPTP results into two party system
• Difference between Interest/pressure group and political
party- Interest/pressure group don’t participate in electoral
politics and contest for political power
• Catch all party coined by Otto Kirchheimer
• Cleavage theory- Rokken & Lipset
• Iron law of Oligarchy- Robert Michels in his book Political
Parties
Electoral System
Meaning
• Set of rules that structure how votes are cast at • Factors affecting choice of Electoral System:
election and how these votes are then converted into
• Historical experiences, traditions, practices,
seats (Gallagher,2014)
lesson learnt
• Institutional rules, norms, and structure by which
• Political Culture
representation are decided in democratic political
system • Types of the political system
• Electoral System includes Electoral Rules (franchise • Federal Vs Unitary
rule, eligibility rule for candidates, rules for party, • Presidential vs. Parliamentary Systems
election campaign rules, etc) , Electoral Formula(
• Nature of the party system
How votes are converted into seats),
District(Constituency) Magnitude( Numbers of seats • Social and Demographic Factors
per constituency), and Ballot rules( Ballot box or • Socio-economic context
EVM, how vote are casted, etc)
• Literacy- Democratic and political
• Legal and Constitutional Framework
• Power politics, consensus and compromise among
ruling elites
Effects of Electoral System on political system:
Proportional representation --
• Voter- representative link- clear in FPTP, not clear in PR
foster inclusiveness, multi-party
• Govt formation
systems, and coalition
• Multi-party coalition govt in PR system
governance,
• Strong single party govt in Majoritarian (FPTP)
system
majoritarian systems --stronger
• Party System format single-party governments, greater
• Duverger’s Law: Majoritarian system- two party stability, and a more polarized
system and PR system: multi-party system political environment.
• Ideological effects: FPTP: less polarization; PR: multi-polar
party system
• More political and societal consensus in PR system
• Under representation of marginalized communities
(minorities, women, indigenous people) in majoritarian
(FPTP) system
 • Alternate Vote (AV) or instant runoff (AV/IRV) or
Main types of Electoral System:
Preferential voting
Majoritarian system
• voters rank candidates in order of preference
• Also called Plurality System
• In the initial round of counting, only the first-
• Winning formula: on getting more than 50% votes or more choice votes are counted
votes than any other candidate
• If no candidate receives a majority (more than
• District magnitude: generally single member constituency 50%) of first-choice votes, the candidate with the
• Variants of Majoritarian system fewest 1st choice votes is eliminated.
• First Past the Post system ( FPTP)- simple plurality - • The votes for the eliminated candidate are
candidates winning most votes win transferred to the remaining candidates based on
the voters' next choices
• Other names of FPTP
• The process of eliminating the candidate with the
• Single member simple plurality(SMP) system
fewest votes and redistributing their votes
• Block vote system continues until one candidate achieves a majority
• Simple Majoritarian system of the votes
• Example: Majority of the Commonwealth nation as well as • Winning candidate must secure 50% of
USA adopts the FPTP system preferences
Supplementary Vote ( SV) • Single member district

• Variant of AV/IRV, voters rank only two candidates

2nd Ballot system or Two-Round System or Runoff
Voting
• 1st Round- FPTP
• If a candidate receives more than 50% of the
votes in this round, they are declared the
winner.
• If no one gets 50 % 2nd round of voting , 2nd
round of voting (FPTP) between top two
candidates
• Only a single Winner
• Examples: Adopted for presidential election
in France, Brazil Argentina, Turkey etc
Proportional Representation (PR) System
• Open Party List System
• Seats allotted to parties in proportion of votes obtained using
complex mathematical formula • Parties submit a list of candidates, but the order of
candidates is not fixed
• District magnitude: Multi-member districts/constituency
Variants of PR system • Voters can vote for a party and/or express preferences
for individual candidates within the party list.
• Party List System:
• Seats are allocated to parties based on the proportion
• Voters chose party which nominate representative on seats won by
of votes they receive. Within each party, the
it. Seats allotted to party in proportion to votes obtained by it.
candidates who receive the most votes or preferences
Closed vs Open Party List are elected.
• Closed Party List • Examples: Sweden, Finland, Netherlands,
• Parties present a list of nominated candidates in a predetermined Denmark, etc. adopt Open Party List System
order. Each party’s list is fixed, and the order of candidates is set by
the party. Voters have no choice to change the order.
Single-Transferable-Vote ( STV) system
• Voters cast their votes for a party rather than individual candidates • STV is different from AV/IRV on 2 counts 1.
• Seats are allocated to parties based on the proportion of votes they Single member Constituency and 2.
receive. The number of seats each party gets determines which Requirement of more than 50% votes to win the
candidates from the party’s list are elected/nominated, according to seat in AV
the order of the list
• Examples: Ireland, Scotland, Malta, Wales uses
• Examples: Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland adopt STV
closed Party List System
Mixed Member Representation System (MMP)
• Additional Member (AM) system
• Hybrid system mixing FPTP and PR
• Total seats divided in 2 parts
• One part elected as per FPTP another part through
Party List PR system
• Voters cast 2 votes- one for candidate as per FPTP
for their constituency and 2nd for party as per
party list PR
• District magnitude: Single member constituency
(FPTP) and Multi-member districts/constituency
for Party List PR
• Germany, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea,
Russia, etc. adopt MMP