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8. The Transformation of Political Parties

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Political Science and Changing Politics
This chapter is in the book Political Science and Changing Politics
8The Transformation of Political PartiesGijs Schumacher8.1IntroductionFor more than 120 years, political parties have dominated politics in demo-cratic countries. In public debate, however, they have often come in for criti-cism in recent decades. They are old-fashioned and non-representative, and have a whiff of nepotism about them. It is not for nothing that citizens say they believe political parties are among the most discredited institutions in modern democracy. This observation is certainly not new. Political thinkers such as the Florentine Machiavelli (1469-1527), the French aristocrat Mon-tesquieu (1689-1755) and the American James Madison (1751-1836) warned of the dangers posed by the emergence of factions. These factions were later referred to as political parties. The Irish-English politician Edmund Burke (1729-1797), def ined a political party as a group of men who stand for election to promote the public interest based on a shared principle. Later, the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950) formulated an alternative def inition: political parties are groups of men who stand for off ice in order to acquire political power. We will return later to this distinc-tion between engaging in politics for the sake of principles (policy-seeking) and engaging in it for the sake of power (of fice-seeking). These def initions of political parties assume a motive to engage in politics. We can also give a minimum def inition of political parties: ‘a political group, identif ied by a label, which competes in elections and puts candidates forward for public off ice’. (Sartori 1976: 63)Political parties have been so fully anchored in modern democracy that we also refer to the current system as party democracy. Political parties are the linchpin of this system, and they are supposed to perform a number of functions. This chapter considers the various criticisms of political parties in relation to the functions they are supposed to fulf il in a democratic system. The broader question is: Do parties still succeed in carrying out their functions? Finally, we will look at whether the various experiments with party organisations can f ix existing problems.
© 2018 Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam

8The Transformation of Political PartiesGijs Schumacher8.1IntroductionFor more than 120 years, political parties have dominated politics in demo-cratic countries. In public debate, however, they have often come in for criti-cism in recent decades. They are old-fashioned and non-representative, and have a whiff of nepotism about them. It is not for nothing that citizens say they believe political parties are among the most discredited institutions in modern democracy. This observation is certainly not new. Political thinkers such as the Florentine Machiavelli (1469-1527), the French aristocrat Mon-tesquieu (1689-1755) and the American James Madison (1751-1836) warned of the dangers posed by the emergence of factions. These factions were later referred to as political parties. The Irish-English politician Edmund Burke (1729-1797), def ined a political party as a group of men who stand for election to promote the public interest based on a shared principle. Later, the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950) formulated an alternative def inition: political parties are groups of men who stand for off ice in order to acquire political power. We will return later to this distinc-tion between engaging in politics for the sake of principles (policy-seeking) and engaging in it for the sake of power (of fice-seeking). These def initions of political parties assume a motive to engage in politics. We can also give a minimum def inition of political parties: ‘a political group, identif ied by a label, which competes in elections and puts candidates forward for public off ice’. (Sartori 1976: 63)Political parties have been so fully anchored in modern democracy that we also refer to the current system as party democracy. Political parties are the linchpin of this system, and they are supposed to perform a number of functions. This chapter considers the various criticisms of political parties in relation to the functions they are supposed to fulf il in a democratic system. The broader question is: Do parties still succeed in carrying out their functions? Finally, we will look at whether the various experiments with party organisations can f ix existing problems.
© 2018 Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter 1
  2. Table of Contents 5
  3. Foreword 7
  4. Part 1. Basic Themes in Political Science
  5. 1. Politics and Power 11
  6. 2. Social and Political Inequality 31
  7. 3. Nations, Nationalism and the Nation State 55
  8. 4. The Welfare State under Pressure 71
  9. 5. Consensus Democracy in the Netherlands 89
  10. Part 2. Political Actors
  11. 6. Citizens and Politics 115
  12. 7. Elections, Cleavages and Voting Behaviour 137
  13. 8. The Transformation of Political Parties 163
  14. 9. Interest Groups and Social Movements 179
  15. 10. Politics and Media 201
  16. About the Authors 225
  17. Index 229
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048539208-009

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter 1
  2. Table of Contents 5
  3. Foreword 7
  4. Part 1. Basic Themes in Political Science
  5. 1. Politics and Power 11
  6. 2. Social and Political Inequality 31
  7. 3. Nations, Nationalism and the Nation State 55
  8. 4. The Welfare State under Pressure 71
  9. 5. Consensus Democracy in the Netherlands 89
  10. Part 2. Political Actors
  11. 6. Citizens and Politics 115
  12. 7. Elections, Cleavages and Voting Behaviour 137
  13. 8. The Transformation of Political Parties 163
  14. 9. Interest Groups and Social Movements 179
  15. 10. Politics and Media 201
  16. About the Authors 225
  17. Index 229
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