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The Political Spectrum in Thinking Comparatively |
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Remember that one of the ways to explore political phenomena is to explore them from a comparative perspective! We can really think critically about the American party and electoral systems only when we know something about how other systems differ from our own! Daalder's article is a sophisticated exploration of parties and the political spectrum in Europe. We can use his discussion to explore some of the concepts and ideas which we have been exploring for the past several class periods. Most specifically, we can use Daalder to concretize our understanding of the following terms which we have already explored:
1) political systems (Westminster, Consensus, American and other hybrids)
2) social cleavages (Lijphart, Dalton)
3) electoral systems (formula, district magnitude, etc.)
4) party systems (one, two, two-and-a-half, multiparty)
4) the political spectrum
More importantly we can explore the interrelationships between these ideas: 1) Does social cleavage shape political systems, electoral systems, party systems, and the political spectrum? 2) Does the political system (with its attendant electoral system) shape social cleavages (curtail, reinforce, exacerbate)? 3) Does the electoral system shape social cleavage, the party system? 4) How do the electoral and party systems shape the political spectrum?
One of the hardest things for American students to understand about other systems is the degree to which there are variations in opinion about politics. Remember we have "a Tudor polity" and see
political opinion revolving solely around socio-economic interests. As
has been amply demonstrated by our exploration of Lijphart
and For Americans then, an exploration of the political spectrum (aka, the distribution of preferences in society) is easily understood and displayed as a "unimodal bell-shaped curve" (click: USDOP) Generally, the "center" is at the apex or top of the curve! But what is the "center" like in countries where opinion is more diverse, spread along a number of dimensions of social cleavage in any society? When it is multimodal? (click: distribution of preference) Perhaps, as Duverger said in 1964: "the center does not exist in politics"!!!
The Center in European Politics The notion of a political center (no matter how envisioned) is often a comforting idea. Perhaps one envisions a society in which there are no major disagreements (or at most one) and no one gets particularly upset about politics. (No need for a terrorist "left or "right"). The parties don't really disagree about policy goals or the means to achieve them! Elections revolve around who has the catchiest phrase, the best-looking candidate, the candidate "we'd most like to have a beer with" etc. Sounds like a typical American election, no? In Look at the Scandinavian and European countries in von Beyme's analysis!
OTHER
If we apply the notion of the distribution of preferences to these countries, what do we find? |
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