Parties’ Responses to Economic GlobalizationHaupt, Andrea B.
doi: 10.1177/1354068809339535pmid: N/A
Do parties adjust their economic policy positions in response to the international economy? I explore how international economic conditions affect Western Europe’s welfare states by quantitatively analysing parties’ ideological dynamics over time. Considering the convergence—divergence argument of the globalization literature, I evaluate the hypothesis that economic openness motivates parties to adjust their economic policies. My empirical analyses reveal that both left-wing and right-wing parties do indeed systematically adjust their positions in response to economic changes associated with globalization. However, the results contradict the neoliberal convergence argument, as parties shift in varying directions in response to different indicators of openness. Importantly, the differences between left-wing and right-wing parties’ responses are not statistically significant, pointing to the importance of including right-wing parties in the globalization literature.
Where Are the Disgruntled Voters?Birnir, Jóhanna Kristín
doi: 10.1177/1354068809339540pmid: N/A
Katz and Mair’s provocative Cartel Party argument continues to create fertile ground for debate. This article contributes to under-explored areas of this debate by enhancing the theoretical and empirical understanding of the change in the relationship between parties and voters resulting from the introduction of the cartelizing condition of public funding. To this end, the article examines vote stability empirically, changes in turnout and individual public opinion data, before and after public funding was instituted. By disconfirming the hypothesized expectations of deteriorating voter—party relationships as a result of funding, the empirical analysis pinpoints a number of contradictions in current understanding of party system change. The article concludes by suggesting that still bound financially to voters at large, parties provide a good that is valued by constituents. If, however, these last ties are severed, rather than being at the cusp of a post-cartel system, the future of party systems is more akin to the elite systems of old.
Party DirectionPelizzo, Riccardo
doi: 10.1177/1354068809339537pmid: N/A
The purpose of this article is to further our understanding of the directional nature of left—right scores. I suggest that a party’s ability to modify its perceived position is conditional on whether parties adopt their manifestos to alter their perceived position and on whether voters are persuaded by parties’ attempts to relocate in political space. As voters’ knowledge of political parties is a major determinant of where parties are perceived to be located, new parties or parties with weak identities are more likely than old parties to modify their perceived positions, and for two reasons: they are neither willing nor able to adopt an identity-based platform and their freedom to move in political space is not constrained by what voters know about them. The results of statistical analyses show that while Italian voters modified their perception of party positions in the light of party manifestos, this was not the case in the other countries under study, where parties had longer histories than their Italian counterparts.
The Moderation Theory RevisitedTezcür, Günes Murat
doi: 10.1177/1354068809339536pmid: N/A
An influential political science literature argues that integration of radical political parties within the political system leads to their moderation. These parties trade off their ideological platforms for electoral viability and political legality. Radicals become moderates through strategic interests. In this article, I revisit this thesis and apply it to the Islamic political actors in Iran and Turkey by employing the comparative method of agreement. Three conclusions are reached. First, moderation helps explain the evolution of Islamists into Muslim reformers. Second, moderation is a double-edged sword, especially in regimes with strong un-democratic characteristics. Moderation of radicals may result in their domestication — a situation that does not contribute to democratic transition or consolidation. Finally, change in the ideologies of political elites is central in our understanding behavioural change. The data sources include ethnography, primary language sources and historical narratives.
Get the Party StartedSircar, Indraneel; Høyland, Bjørn
doi: 10.1177/1354068809341056pmid: N/A
In this article, we investigate the effect of political parties on legislative behaviour. We compile and analyse a unique dataset of all roll-call votes for all the sessions of the Irish Free State Seanad (the Upper Chamber in the legislature, 1922—36). The development of legislative parties inside the Irish Seanad led to the formation of cohesive voting blocs after 1928. This caused dramatic shifts in the rank-ordering of members and changed the coalition pattern. The establishment of disciplined parties also sealed the fate of the legislature when the Fianna Fáil party, hostile to the Free State Seanad, became an organized force inside the institution.