The Dynamics of Two-Party Politics: Party Structures and the Management of Competition
- ISBN-10
- 0191570052
- ISBN-13
- 9780191570056
- Category
- Political Science
- Pages
- 176
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2009-06-11
- Publisher
- OUP Oxford
- Author
- Alan Ware
Description
This book examines the role played by the parties themselves in two-party systems. It rejects the argument that the behaviour of the parties is determined largely by social forces or by the supposed logic of the electoral market. Instead, it shows that both structure and agency can matter. It focuses on three major aspects of change in two-party systems: (i) why occasionally major parties ( such as the British Liberals) collapse; (ii) why collapsed parties sometimes survive as minor parties, and sometimes do not; and (iii) what determines why, and how, major parties will ally themselves with minor parties in order to maximize their chances of winning. With respect to the first aspect it is argued that major parties are advantaged by two factors: the resources they have accumulated already, and their occupying role similar to that called by Thomas Schelling a "focal arbiter". Consequently, party collapse is rare. When it has occurred in nation states it is the result of a major party having to fight opposition on "two separate fronts". The survival of a collapsed party depends largely on its internal structure; when a party has linked closely the ambitions of politicians at different levels of office, party elimination is more likely. The main arena in which agency is significant - that is, when leadership is possible, including the politician acting as heresthetician - is in the re-building of coalitions. This is necessary for maximizing the chances of a party winning, but, for various reasons, coalitions between major and minor parties are usually difficult to construct. Comparative Politics is a series for scholars and students of political science that deals with contemporary issues in comparative government and politics. The General Editor is David M. Farrell, Jean Monnet Chair in European Politics and Head of School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2009-06-11
- 164 pages
- Paperback
- Oxford University Press
Similar books
-
Dynamics of the Party System: Alignment and Realignment of Political Parties in the United States
By James L. SundquistThey found McCarthy too crude and ambitious to be admitted to the leadership circle, but still they sought to make use of him and his following. So Robert A. Taft, ... William S. White, The Taft Story: Biography of Robert ...
-
Dynamics of American Political Parties
By Jeffrey M. Stonecash, Mark D. BrewerGerald Ford, Nixon's vice president became president and decided that the only way to put Nixon and Watergate behind the nation and avoid a lengthy and acrimonious trial was to pardon Nixon. He did so, saying, “Our long national ...
-
Three's a Crowd: The Dynamic of Third Parties, Ross Perot, and Republican Resurgence
By Walter J. Stone, Ronald B. RapoportBut in appropriating the third party's constituents, the major parties open themselves up to change. This is what the authors call the "dynamic of third parties." The Perot campaign exemplified this effect in 1992 and 1996.
-
The Dynamics of Public Opinion
By Frank R. Baumgartner, James A. Stimson, Mary Layton AtkinsonA central question in political representation is whether government responds to the people.
-
Dynamics of American Democracy: Partisan Polarization, Political Competition, and Government Performance
By Wendy J. Schiller, Eric M. PatashnikDynamics of American Democracy brings together leading scholars and practitioners to consider the performance of the two-party system, the operations of Congress and the presidency.
-
Party Dynamics: The Democratic Coalition and the Politics of Change
By Richard L. RubinParty Dynamics: The Democratic Coalition and the Politics of Change
-
Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America
By Lee DrutmanRichard R. Lau, Lee Sigelman, and Ivy Brown Rovner, “The Effects of Negative Political Campaigns: A Meta-Analytic Reassessment,” Journal of Politics 69, no. 4 (November 2007): 1184. 23. 24. 2S. 26. 27. 28. Lau, Sigelman, and Rovner, ...
-
Duverger's Law of Plurality Voting: The Logic of Party Competition in Canada, India, the United Kingdom and the United States
By Shaun Bowler, André Blais, Bernard GrofmanThe chapters in this volume consider national-level evidence for the operation of Duverger’s law in the world’s largest, longest-lived and most successful democracies of Britain, Canada, India and the United States.
-
Two Parties--or More?: The American Party System, Second Edition
By John F BibbyShould our two-party system continue as we enter the new millennium? This newly revised and updated edition of Two Parties-Or More? answers these questions by
-
Why Parties?: A Second Look
By John H. Aldrich... 147 Voting Rights Act of 1965, 260 Vrdolyak,Ed, 196 Wade, Benjamin F., 156, 157, 339– 40n31 Wallace, George, 12, ... 279; responsible party thesis and, 11 Wittman, Donald, 186 World War II, 168 Wright, Gerald C., 186, 193 Wright, ...