Abstract The paper addresses the issue of whether politicalparties continue to be an essential part of the political process today. With particular reference to the political system in Canada, the paper looks at the growing power of corporations being paralleled in developed countries of the Western world by increasing voter alienation from political life as symbolized by low turnouts at election time. The conclusion of the paper is that there is no longer a need for politicalparties.
From the Paper "The question of whether or not political parties are necessary is a complex one in our 21st century society. In large measure this is due to the changing nature of governance in our modern culture, with the growing power of corporations being paralleled, at least in developed countries of the Western world such as Canada, by increasing voter alienation from political life as symbolized by low turnouts at election time. In this context, this essay will argue, with particular reference to Canadian political history, that political parties are no longer necessary."
Abstract This paper compares government funding of politicalparties in three democratic countries: the United States, Great Britain and France. It looks at the significance of the issue of financing politicalparty electoral campaigns. It concludes that all three countries have implemented changes in campaign finance regulations, but considers the government as a necessary source of some of the funds for political candidates and parties, but differ on the issues that have an impact on electoral activity.
From the Paper "political party electoral campaigns has long been a subject of discussion and as significantly of controversy. Given ..."
Tags:politicalparties, campaign finance, France, Great Britain, United States
A discussion regarding to what extent the functioning of politicalparties can explain the crisis of representation of the 'people' in modern democracies.
Abstract This paper takes an in-depth look at politicalparties and issues that surround representation of the people in modern democracies. According to the paper, politicalparties, in their organization and their functioning, display numerous problems in terms of representation. The paper focuses particularly on two of these problems, the modes of government and the modes of funding. The paper also analyzes the aftermaths of the logic of electoral competition for the representation of the membership and the electorate.
From the Paper "Political representation is quite a hard concept to grasp. It was rejected by the French during the Revolution as an impediment to the self-government of the people. Nonetheless, I will try to show that political representation is necessary for ensuring freedom in our modern democracies.
But first let us turn back to our French Revolution and the establishment of what could be considered as a quasi-totalitarian regime. In France, traditional feudal aristocratic society was undermined by an absolutist and centralist state. When the French Revolution broke out, the remaining feudal instances were destroyed even further (loi Le Chapelier), so that in fact only the individuals and the state remained without the traditional feudal corporations to mediate between them. The question then is how a society can be held together when it has been dismembered and robbed of the intermediary associations that had given it its concrete form and reality. Most revolutionaries followed republicans like Rousseau or Sieyes. The only way for them to bring about a post-feudal democratic order was by converting particular interests to the common good. Individuals were now called upon to set aside their particular preferences and to identify fully with the common will of the people in order to establish real popular sovereignty and equality. The Jacobin revolutionaries thus assumed that a true democracy could only be established if abstract democratic principles like formal equality, popular sovereignty or the unitary will of the people were indeed completely "turned into reality" (i.e. "actualized" or "materialized"), rather than merely respected (Weymans: 263-282). This is characteristic of totalitarian regimes. More so, to Claude Lefort totalitarianism represents a society's attempt to fully "materialize" or "actualize" democratic principles by making the people really one, equal, free or sovereign. That is also what distinguishes them from democratic regimes. While the totalitarian state tries to realize the principles (by embodying them), a democratic state prevents a society from realizing these (through representation), thus remaining distinct from and dependent on society. This distinction or alienation of the state from society is indeed necessary."
Abstract This paper studies the evolution of politicalparties in Western democracies. The paper focuses on the following types of parties: cadre party, mass party, catch-all party and cartel party. The paper looks at the relationship between the party leaders and members and the electorate. The paper concludes with the author's contention that there is a trend toward less democracy.
Tags: cadre party, mass party, catch-all party, cartel party
Abstract This paper makes a case for why politicalparties have become an essential part of political campaigns, primarily because of their enormous fund-raising capabilities. The writer demonstrates that parties as they are today are essential, because of their ability to run smooth and large-scale campaigns.
From the Paper "Paul Herrnson said it best in his contention that, "American parties are primarily electoral institutions. They focus more on elections and less on initiating policy change than do parties in other Western democracies" (Maisel 47). While the influence of political parties has fluctuated greatly throughout their 150-year influence, one critical advantage of parties has seemingly guaranteed their undeniable essentialness in campaigns; their ability to raise vast sums of money. With vast sums of money came the ability to provide essential resources to candidates, and the "increased needs of candidates for greater access to technical expertise, political information and money created an opportunity for national...party organizations to become the repositories of these electoral resources" (Maisel 52). Party-run campaigns have supplanted candidate-centered campaigns, and this is a trend not likely to change as the years progress. Even with the inception of campaign finance reforms such as the Federal Election Campaigning Act of 1971 and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, parties have continually adapted to changing legal limits on various forms of campaign finance, and monies raised continues to increase. Parties have used these increased funds to do whatever it takes to win elections, such as hiring campaign consultants who seek to ensure that the party gets enough votes when Election Day comes. As demonstrated in Thomas Frank's What's the Matter with Kansas?, the unlikely transformation of Kansas from one of the most liberal states to a now overwhelming majority Republican state is a feat in itself, and happened because of shrewd campaign tactics."
Abstract The paper discusses how politicalparty development originally met with strong opposition in the United States. The paper then explains that political competition and a need for organization, mobilization and expansion allowed politicalparties to attain a stronghold in U.S. politics. The paper also shows how changing views of acceptable political culture, generational replacement and the election of 1800 were events that allowed the political community to accept the American politicalparty system and eventually embrace it.
From the Paper "Today political parties in the United States play an integral role in political elections, local, state and national. Parties have become a vehicle for exerting the ideas and agenda of large and collective groups of citizens. However, political parties in colonial American and the early Republic were viewed negatively, by both early politicians and philosophers. Even the founding fathers had issues with political parties. Parties were thought to divide Americans. Also, thinkers of the time thought that forming parties would result in spawning a winning side and a losing side in elections, which would further split Americans."
Tags: opposition, election, presidency, constitution, politics, government
Abstract This paper examines the evolving policy positions of America's two major politicalparties. The paper contends that over the past twenty years, and especially over the last four years, they have created a political environment in which traditional party labels don't mean as much as they used to. The paper explains that under such conditions, accurately identifying an individual citizen as a member of one of these ten basic groups is much more of a challenge than it used to be.
From the Paper "Upon completing the activities at the assigned political party selector website, I found that I was classified as a socially conservative Democrat. I don't consider this a completely valid assessment of my political views, for I believe that I also met most of the criteria of the moderate Republican group and some of the criteria of many of the other groups. As I examined the criteria this website used and the phrasing of the questions, it became evident that accurately defining someone's political affiliation is not an exact science. Essentially, this process is complicated by a variety of social, economic, political, religious and cultural factors which confuse political identification instead of clarifying it."
Abstract This essay discusses the influence of the American politicalparties upon the U.S. Congress. For content, the author draws appropriately upon reading and contemporary political events such as recent elections.
Abstract This article examines the use of communications and information technology in the modernization of a politicalparty, both internally and externally. The writer discusses internal operations such as the development of voter lists. In addition, the writer looks at related external operations such as blogs.
From the Paper "The spread of new communications and information technologies, associated with computers and the Internet has opened new possibilities for the modernization of political parties. These possibilities apply both internally in the operations and electoral planning of a political party and externally in its communication with its broad membership as distinct from party officials and regulars and with the larger public among whom it competes for votes. Because the United States is the most extensively ... "
Abstract This eight page paper examines the present position of the Liberal Party of Canada. It should be noted first of all that the Liberal Party is Canada's largest politicalparty and is currently led by Prime Minister Paul Martin, who succeeded Jean Chretien in 2003. Further the writer points out that the Liberal Party has been in power for most of the past century and is one of only two parties that have governed Canada since confederation.
From the Paper "In analyzing the present position of the Liberal Party of Canada, it should be noted first of all that the Liberal Party is Canada's largest political party and is currently led by Prime Minister Paul Martin, who succeeded Jean Chretien in 2003. The Liberal Party has been in power for most of the past century and is one of only two parties that have governed Canada since confederation. In an ideological context, the present position of the Liberal Party of Canada is defined by its traditional commitment to upholding the dignity of each individual citizen and to protect their rights."
Abstract This paper discusses the political make-up in Canada, focusing on the politicalparties that make up the government. The paper examines the role within government of the non-Canadian un-elected monarch, who is currently the Queen of England. The paper looks at the ongoing discussion in Canada about ways to make the country more a democracy and to protect the democratic institutions that have been created.
From the Paper "The system for both domestic and foreign policy issues tends to be a pluralist democracy even as leaders promote the idea of a representative democracy. The system is unjust because it ignores or devalues millions of people, perhaps the majority of the citizenry, while responding to the loudest groups either in terms of those spending more money or those making their views heard most clearly. At the same time, it is difficult to see how it could be otherwise at the federal level, the sheer size of which reduces the link between elected representatives and the people they serve. Leaders will always respond more readily to the constituents they hear than to those who do not make their views known, and this necessarily means public interest groups and elites that make their views known will have more power."
Abstract The paper relates that in the last few years, the Canadian election system has been revised to reflect the changing and developing nature of Canadian politics. The paper discusses the goal of ensuring that the electoral process retains its plurality and untainted representative character. The paper looks at legislation that ensures equal and fair media access to all officially registered politicalparties and their candidates. The paper concludes that Canada's electorate appears to be one of the most forward thinking electorates in the developed world.
From the Paper "Canadian electoral processes are contained in a series of laws that span canonist topics from elections themselves to media, but all combine to form a comprehensive set electoral policies codified through law: Canada Elections Act, Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act, the Criminal Code, Income Tax Act, and the Broadcasting Act ("Electoral"). This series of comprehensive laws has been in development since the 1860s following the founding of Canada. As evidence of Canadian election law's ever expanding plurality one need only examine the severe constraints upon who could vote early in the country's history. Initially, only male Caucasians were allowed to vote even this early white male suffrage was limited by certain property restrictions (Studlar pars.4-10). Eventually all adult males were added to the voting eligibility roster with women later being included."
Abstract Even before the adoption of the Constitution, politicalparties were beginning to form in American. The paper shows that those who favored the Constitution were called Federalists and were led by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. Another group, led by Thomas Jefferson, opposed the adoption of the Constitution and was known as Anti-federalists. The paper describes how the Anti-federalists broke up after the Constitution was ratified, but they set the stage for the development of other politicalparties, resulting in the two party system that we have today.
Table of Contents:
I. Introduction
II. The Development of PoliticalParties III. The Constitution and PoliticalParties IV. The Changing Ideology of PoliticalParties V. Conclusion
From the Paper "Political parties realign their ideologies to meet changing times and sentiments. For example, the Antifederalists and their successors favored an agrarian economy and a strict interpretation of the Constitution. But, once Jefferson became President, he had to change his philosophy because the Louisiana Purchase could only be justified by a broad interpretation of the Constitution. He also saw that the future of the country was tied to manufacturing and trade, so he dropped his opposition to these activities. Today, Democrats, who started out as states rights advocates and who preferred limited federal power now generally favor bigger government, federal involvement, and social intervention."
Abstract This paper attempts to explain the use and implementation of human rights and the EU discourse amongst Islamist politicalparties and how this change is directly related with the Kemalist establishment of Turkey and domestic policies. It also argues that the rising visibility of Islam in society and politics is interlinked with democratization in Turkey and is a vital departure from the traditional secularism.
Outline:
1. Introduction
2. Historical Framework
2.1. Kemalism and Turkish Modernization Project
2.2. Secularism - Freedom from Religion
2.2. A. The Role of the Presidency of Religious Affairs
2.3. The Headscarf Issue
2.4. The Imam-Hatip Schools
2.5. The Military-The Guardian of Secularism
3. Political Islamist Parties 3.1. 1980 Military Coup and De-Politicization of the Society through Islam
3.2. Welfare Party 3.2. A. RP and Human Rights
3.3. February 28 Process
4. The Change in Milli Goru
4.1. The Effects of February 28 on Milli Goru Hareketi
4.2. Virtue Party (Fazilet)
4.3. Felicity Party (Saadet)
4.3. A. Human Rights Approach of Sp
4.3. B. The Return to Anti-EU Discourse
5. Justice and Development Party 5.1. The Party Program
5.2. After 2002 Elections
5.3. The Reform Process
5.3. A. The Headscarf and the IHLS
5.4. 2007 General Elections and the Election of the President
From the Paper "The Turkish Modernization project based on Westernization, Secularism and Kemalism constitutes the base of current socio-political crisis of nation-state in Turkey. The Westernization project in Turkey began two centuries ago, when Ottomans introduced reforms in military, education and social life. From the establishment of Turkey a modern Westernization project was intensified and Islam was excluded from the legitimate centers of political and intellectual activities by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and the military-bureaucratic elite. The project aimed putting Islam in the private sphere and making it invisible in the public sphere. The Kemalist elite presented themselves as secular, progressive and in opposition to Islam. Turkey's perception of the West resulted in the exclusion of Islamists and marginalized them in social, political and intellectual representation. "
Abstract This paper explores the history of the two main political groups in the United States and then compares them to interest groups. The paper examines the history and make-up of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. It then looks at the ways that interest groups help to support them. It concludes by analyzing the differences between interest groups and politicalparties.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Democratic Party Republican Party Interest Groups
Interest Groups versus PoliticalParties
From the Paper "The Republican Party did not come into existence until 1850. It was formed by activists working against the institution of slavery. The first meeting of the Republican Party took place in Wisconsin and the members believed that the government should give land grants to those settling in the west (Republican Party http://www.mcgop.net/History.htm)."
"Once the party became official a formal meeting was help in 1854 in Michigan at which time the name Republican was adopted. The name was chosen because the members believed that it mean equality (Republican Party http://www.mcgop.net/History.htm)."
