Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T01:03:30.476Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Party Systems and Political System Performance: Voting Participation, Government Stability and Mass Violence in Contemporary Democracies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

G. Bingham Powell Jr.
G. Bingham Powell Jr.*
Affiliation:
University of Rochester
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines alternative visions of “strong” party systems by analyzing relationships between party systems and several dimensions of performance of the political process in 28 democracies of the 1967-1976 decade. Party system theorists agree that voting support for extremist parties manifests a weakness in the party system. They disagree, however, about the virtues or vices of party majorities and close linkages between social groups and parties. The evidence, including multivariate analysis of party system types and characteristics, with controls for environmental conditions, indicates that during this period extremist party support was associated with executive instability and mass rioting. Scholarly concern about other aspects of party system strength or weakness should focus on the desired feature of political performance. The representational, multiparty systems were most successful in limiting rioting. Aggregative majorities, responsible majorities, and representational party systems all had good executive stability in the short run, although the first two types seemed somewhat more stable over the decade. Aggregative majority party systems were associated with low citizen voting participation.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 75 , Issue 4 , December 1981 , pp. 861 - 879
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alford, Robert R. (1963). Party and Society: The Anglo-American Democracies. Chicago: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
Almond, Gabriel A. (1960). “Introduction: A Functional Approach.” In Almond, Gabriel A. and Coleman, James D. (eds.), The Politics of the Developing Areas. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Almond, Gabriel A., and Powell, G. Bingham Jr., (1966). Comparative Politics: A Developmental Approach. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Almond, Gabriel A., and Powell, G. Bingham Jr., (1978). Comparative Politics: System, Process and Policy. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
American Political Science Association, Committee on Political Parties (1950). “Toward a More Responsible Two-Party System.” American Political Science Review 64 (Sept.), Supplement.Google Scholar
Bracher, Karl Dietrich (1969). “The Problems of Parliamentary Democracy in Europe.” In Milnor, Andrew J. (ed.), Comparative Political Parties: Selected Readings. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, pp. 340–64.Google Scholar
Burns, James MacGregor (1963). The Deadlock of Democracy. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Daalder, Hans (1966). “The Netherlands: Opposition in a Segmented Society.” In Dahl, Robert A. (ed.), Political Oppositions in Western Democracies. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, pp. 188–236.Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert A., ed. (1966). Political Oppositions in Western Democracies. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert A., ed. (1971). Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Dodd, Lawrence C. (1976). Coalitions in Parliamentary Governments. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Downs, Anthony (1957). An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Duverger, Maurice (1954). Political Parties. Translated by North, Barbara and North, Robert. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Dye, Thomas, and Ziegler, Harmon (1975). The Irony of American Democracy, 4th ed. North Scituate, Mass.: Duxbury Press.Google Scholar
Eckstein, Harry (1968). “Political Parties: Party Systems.” The International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 11, pp. 436–53.Google Scholar
Epstein, Leon D. (1967). Political Parties in Western Democracies. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Gurr, Ted Robert, and McClelland, Muriel (1971. Political Performance: A Twelve-Nation Study. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Hibbs, Douglas A. (1973). Mass Political Violence. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Hoteling, Harold (1929). “Stability in Competition.” Economic Journal 39: 41–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P. (1968). Political Order in Changing Societies. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Jackman, Robert W. (1978. “The Predictability of Coups d'Etat.” American Political Science Review 72: 1262–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leiserson, Avery (1958). Parties and Politics. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Lembruch, Gerhard (1974). “A Non-Competitive Pattern of Conflict Management in Liberal Democracies.” In McRae, Kenneth D. (ed.), Consociational Democracy. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.Google Scholar
Lijphart, Arend (1971). Class and Religious Voting in the European Democracies. Occasional Paper No. 8, Survey Research Center, University of Strathclyde.Google Scholar
Lijphart, Arend (1977a). Democracy in Plural Societies. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Lijphart, Arend (1977b). “Majority Rule Versus Democracy in Deeply Divided Societies.” Politikon 4: 113–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipset, Seymour Martin (1960). Political Man. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Lipset, Seymour Martin, and Rokkan, Stein (1967). Party Systems and Voter Alignments. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Mackie, Thomas, and Rose, Richard (1974). International Almanac of Electoral History. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Martz, John, and Baloyra, Enrique (1976). The Venezuelan Election of 1973. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Neumann, Sigmund (1956). Modern Political Parties. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Nordlinger, Eric (1972). Conflict Regulation in Divided Societies. Cambridge: Center for International Studies.Google Scholar
Pennock, J. Roland (1979). Democratic Political Theory. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Powell, G. Bingham Jr., (1976). “Political Cleavage Structure, Cross-Pressure Processes and Partisan-ship.” American Journal of Political Science 20: 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, G. Bingham Jr., (1980). “Voting Turnout in Thirty Democracies: Partisan, Legal and Socio-Economic Influences.” In Rose, Richard (ed.), Electoral Participation: A Comparative Analysis. Beverly Hils, Calif.: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Powell, G. Bingham Jr., (1982). Political Performance in Contemporary Democracies. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, forthcoming.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rae, Douglas (1967). The Political Consequences of Electoral Laws. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Rokkan, Stein (1970). Citizens, Elections and Parties. New York: David McKay.Google Scholar
Rose, Richard, ed. (1974). Electoral Behavior: A Comparative Handbook. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Sartori, Giovanni (1976). Parties and Party Systems. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schattschneider, E. E. (1942). Party Government. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Steiner, Jurg (1974). Amicable Agreement versus Majority Rule: Conflict Resolution in Switzerland. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles, and Hudson, Michael (1973). World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles, and Jodice, David A. (1981). World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators: III. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Michael, and Herman, V. M. (1971). “Party Systems and Party Governments.” American Political Science Review 65: 28–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Truman, David (1951). The Governmental Process. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Nie, Norman H. and Kim, Jae-on. (1971). The Modes of Democratic Participation. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Nie, Norman H. and Kim, Jae-on. (1978). Participation and Political Equality: A Seven-Nation Comparison. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.