Party And Social Structure Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Political parties are the main interlocutors between citizens and government in all modern democracies, making them a central concern for political scientists. In the first half of the twentieth century, the study of the relationship between society and political parties was minimal, given the prevailing view of parties as reflections of negative factionalism or the oligarchic expression of self-interested elites. Following World War II (1939–1945), the study of parties was taken more seriously and parties were viewed through a less negative and more scientific lens. Parties became recognized as essential agents of representation that were not only functional, but also essential to the operation of democracy.

The modern study of the relationship between society and parties began with the evolving notion that parties emerged organically from deeper social divisions in society. Seymour Lipset and Stein Rokkan’s work on social cleavages is the most classic and concise elaboration of this idea. They argue that social divisions generated by early stages of national development in Europe crystallized in the form of political parties. The national revolutions that occurred with the foundation of nation-states and the industrial revolution were central to creating the social divisions that eventually underwrote European party systems. Furthermore, they went on to assert that the party reflections of these social divisions remain beyond the existence of the social divisions themselves.

Other scholars questioned the centrality of social cleavages in explaining the emergence of parties and criticized Lipset and Rokkan’s idea that cleavages become “frozen.” Some contended that cleavage literature ignored the possibility that political parties were actually independent variables that shaped the preferences of the electorate, others pointed to a good deal of electoral volatility, undermining the argument for the persistent of older cleavages, while still others contended that the freezing argument left theorists unable to explain party change. Nonetheless, cleavage analysis left a long-term imprint on the study of parties, and was employed by scholars who later analyzed value change, democratic transitions, and the existence of distinct cleavages in the developing world.

Electoral realignments in the United States and increasing volatility in Western European party systems led to a shift in the study of the society-party relations, with an increasing focus on value change. Ronald Inglehart developed a much used dichotomy that distinguished materialist from postmaterialist values, arguing that generational change combined with growing affluence led to changes in the values of the citizenry, translating into different types of divisions that could explain party change. While materialists tended to be concerned with the traditional left-right ideology and the role of the state, postmaterialists were more concerned with noneconomic social issues like the environment, abortion rights, and issues of equality of gender and sexual orientation.

While debates rage as to whether parties will continue to perform their roles as the main connections between the governed and the governing, there is a general consensus that while forms of representation are in flux, parties continue to be the main agents of democratic representation. Further, while the basic cleavages underlying what are customarily considered the right and left are subject to debate, the idea that social and value differences translate into different types of party systems remains.

Bibliography:

Inglehart, Ronald. The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Styles among Western Publics. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977.
Lipset, Seymour Martin, and Stein Rokkan. “Cleavage Structures, Party Systems and Voter Alignment: An Introduction.” In Party Systems and Voter Alignments, edited by Seymour Martin Lipset and Stein Rokkan. New York: Free Press, 1967.
Mair, Peter. “Adaptation and Control:Towards an Understanding of Party and Party System Change.” In Western European Party Systems: Continuity and Change, edited by Hans Daalder and Peter Mair. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1983.
Urwin, Derek W. “Political Parties, Societies, and Regimes in Europe: Some Reflections on the Literature.” European Journal of Political Research 1 (1973): 179–204.

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