Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T10:06:50.825Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Promising Parties: Can Parties in Government still Deliver?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2008

Mark M. Gray
Mark M. Gray*
Affiliation:
Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, Georgetown University, 2300 Wisconsin Ave., NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20007, USA
*
E-mail: mmg34@georgetown.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The ability of political parties in advanced industrial democracies to maintain the traditional linkage between voters and their governments by making and attempting to fulfill policy promises is potentially being challenged by emerging social, political, and economic forces of the 21st century. Parties may become less meaningful to the electorate as they deal with the cross-pressures created by the forces of Europeanization, globalization, localism, and the increasing independence of central banks. These factors have the potential to make parties in government, at the national-level, marginally less able to fulfill the promises they make to voters. The review of literature presented here regarding these challenges indicates that although the risks to parties are very real, the effects of these emerging forces have yet to substantially diminish the primary roles and functioning of national parties in government. Those most at risk of being affected in the future are parties who rely strongly on economic appeals and promises.

Type
Articles
Information
European Review , Volume 16 , Issue 3: The State of the Parties– Party Democracy in the 21st Century , July 2008 , pp. 305 - 318
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 2008

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

1.Michels, R. (1968) Political Parties (New York: Free Press).Google Scholar
2.Dahl, R. (1966) Political Opposition in Western Democracies (New Haven: Yale University).Google Scholar
3.Powell, G. B. (1982) Contemporary Democracies (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.Katz, R. (1986) Party government and its alternatives. In: Katz, R. (ed.) Party Governments: European and American Experiences, Vol. 2 (Berlin: De Gruyter).Google Scholar
5.Klingemann, H.-D. and Fuchs, D. (eds) (1995) Citizens and the State (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
6.Dalton, R. J. and Wattenberg, M. P. (eds) (2000) Parties Without Partisans: Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
7.Bartolini, S. and Mair, P. (2001) Challenges to contemporary political parties. In: Diamond, L. and Gunther, R. (eds) Political Parties and Democracy (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press).Google Scholar
8.Hibbs, D. A. (1987) The Political Economy of Industrialized Democracies (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9.Taylor, A. J. (1993) Trade unions and the politics of social democratic renewal. West European Politics, 16(1), 133–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10.Pierre, J. and Widfeldt, A. (1992) Sweden. In: Katz, R. and Mair, P. (eds) Party Organizations (London: Sage).Google Scholar
11.Selle, P. (1997) Parties and voluntary organizations: strong or weak ties? In: Strom, K. and Svansand, L. (eds) Challenges to Political Parties: The Case of Norway (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press).Google Scholar
12.Thomas, C. (ed.) (2001) Political Parties and Interest Groups: Shaping Democratic Governance (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publisher).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13.Franklin, M. (1985) The Decline of Class Voting in Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
14.Franklin, M. N., Mackie, T. T. and Valen, H. (1992) Electoral Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
15.Dalton, R. J., Flanagan, S. and Beck, P. A. (1984) Electoral Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).Google Scholar
16.Crewe, I. and Denver, D. (1985) Electoral Change in Western Democracies (London: Croom Helm).Google Scholar
17.Berger, S. and Dore, R. (eds) (1996) National Diversity and Global Capitalism (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18.Keohane, R. and Milner, H. (1996) Internationalization and Domestic Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19.Castles, F. G. (1998) Comparative Public Policy: Patterns of Postwar Transformation (Cheltenham: Edward Elger).Google Scholar
20.Hicks, A. and Swank, D. H. (1992) Politics, institutions, and welfare spending in industrialized democracies, 1960–82. American Political Science Review, 86(3), 658–674.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21.Budge, I. and Keman, H. (1990) Parties and Democracy: Coalition Formation and Government Functioning in 20 States (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
22.Hibbs, D. A. (1977) Political parties and macroeconomic policy. American Political Science Review, 71, 1467–1487.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
23.Iversen, T. (2001) The dynamics of welfare state expansion: trade openness, de-industrialization, and partisan politics. In: Pierson, P. (ed.) The New Politics of the Welfare State (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
24. J. P. Allen and L. Scruggs (2004) Political partisanship and welfare state reform in advanced industrial societies. American Journal of Political Science, 48(3), 496–512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25.Garrett, G. and Mitchell, D. (2001) Globalization, government spending and taxation in the OECD. European Journal of Political Research, 39, 145–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
26. C. Boix (1998) Partisan governments and macroeconomic policies in OECD economies. Working Paper. Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Ciencias Sociales: Instituto Juan March de Estudios e Investigaciones.Google Scholar
27.Cusack, T. R. (1999) Partisan politics and fiscal policy. Comparative Political Studies, 32(4), 464–486.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
28.Garrett, G. and Lange, P. (1991) Political responses to interdependence: what’s ‘left’ for the left?. International Organization, 45, 539–564.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
29.Hofferbert, R. and Cingranelli, D. (1996) Public policy and administration: comparative policy analysis. In: Goodin, R. and Klingeman, H.-D. (eds) The New Handbook of Political Science (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
30.Huber, E. and Stephens, J. (2001) Development and Crisis of the Welfare States: Parties and Politics in Global Markets (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
31.Keman, H. (1984) Politics, policies, and consequences: a cross-national analysis of public policy formation in advanced capitalist democracies. European Journal of Political Research, 12, 147–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
32.Schmidt, M. G. (1982) The role of the parties in shaping macroeconomic policy. In: Castles, F. G. (ed.) The Impact of Parties (London: Sage).Google Scholar
33.Caul, M. and Gray, M. (2000) From platform declarations to policy outcomes: changing party profiles and partisan influence over policy. In: Dalton, R. J. and Wattenberg, M. P. (eds) Parties Without Partisans: Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
34.Mcdonald, B. D., Budge, I. and Pennings, P. (2004) Choice versus sensitivity: party reactions to public concerns. European Journal of Political Research, 43, 845–868.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
35.Mair, P., Müller, W. and Plasser, F. (2004) Conclusion: political parties in changing electoral markets. In: Mair, P., Müller, W. and Plasser, F. (eds) Political Parties and Electoral Change (London: Sage Publications).Google Scholar
36.Mair, P. (2000) The limited impact of Europe on national party systems. West European Politics, 23, 27–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
37. A. Hurrelmann, Z. Krell-Laluhova, R. Lhotta, F. Nullmeier and S. Schneider (year?) The democratic nation state: erosion, or transformation, of legitimacy: is there a legitimation crisis of the nationstate? European Review, 13(1), 119–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
38.Ladrech, R. (2002) Europeanization and political parties: towards a framework for analysis. Party Politics, 8(4), 389–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
39.Ray, L. (2003) When parties matter: the conditional influence of party positions on voter opinions about European integration. The Journal of Politics, 65(4), 978–994.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
40.König, T. (2007) Divergence or convergence? From ever-growing to ever-slowing European legislative decision making. European Journal of Political Research, 46, 417–444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
41.Marks, G. and Wilson, C. J. (2000) The past in the present: a cleavage theory of party response to European integration. British Journal of Political Science, 30(3), 433–459.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
42.Brzinski, J. B. (1999) Changing forms of federalism and party electoral strategies: Belgium and the European Union. Publius, 29(1), 45–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
43.van Biezen, I. (2003) Political Parties in New Democracies: Party organization in Southern and East-Central Europe (New York: Palgrave Macmillan).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
44.Delsoldato, G. (2002) Eastward enlargement by the European Union and transnational parties. International Political Science Review, 23(3), 269–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
45.Poguntke, T., Aylott, N., Ladrech, R. and Luther, K. R. (2007) The Europeanisation of national party organisations: a conceptual analysis. European Journal of Political Research, 46, 747–771.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
46.Drezner, D. W. (2001) Globalization and policy convergence. International Studies Review, 3(1), 53–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
47.Kriesi, H., Grande, E., Lachat, R., Dolezal, M., Bornschier, S. and Frey, T. (2006) Globalization and the transformation of the national political space: six European countries compared. European Journal of Political Research, 45, 921–956.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
48.Bohrer, R. E. II and Tan, A. C. (2000) Left turn in Europe? Reactions to austerity and the EMU. Political Research Quarterly, 53(3), 575–595.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
49.Genschel, P. (2005) Globalization and the transformation of the tax state. European Review, 13(1), 53–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
50.Obinger, H., Leibfried, S., Bogedan, C., Gindulis, E., Moser, J. and Starke, P. (2005) The intervention state: the shifting welfare component. European Review, 13(1), 161–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
51.Zürn, M. (2003) Globalization and global governance: from societal to political denationalization. European Review, 11(3), 341–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
52.Clark, W. R., Reichert, U. N., Lomas, S. L. and Parker, K. L. (1998) International and domestic constraints on political business cycles in OECD economies. International Organization, 52(1), 87–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
53.Mosley, L. (2000) Room to move: international financial markets and national welfare states. International Organization, 54(4), 737–773.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
54.Dalton, R. J. and Gray, M. M. (2003) Expanding the electoral marketplace. In: Cain, B. E., Dalton, R. J. and Scarrow, S. E. (eds) Democracy Transformed? (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
55.Thorlakson, L. (2007) An institutional explanation of party system congruence: evidence from six federations. European Journal of Political Research, 46, 69–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
56.Boyne, G. (1998) Party competition and local spending decisions. British Journal of Political Science, 28(1), 210–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
57.Lijphart, A. (1999) Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries (New Haven: Yale University Press).Google Scholar
58.Strøm, K. (2000) Parties at the core of government. In: Dalton, R. J. and Wattenberg, M. P. (eds) Parties Without Partisans: Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
59.Bernhard, W. (1998) A political explanation of variations in central bank independence. American Political Science Review, 92(1), 311–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
60.Bernhard, W. and Leblang, D. (2002) Political parties and monetary commitments. International Organization, 56(4), 803–830.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
61.Sakamoto, T. (2005) Economic performance of ‘weak’ governments and their interaction with central banks and labour: deficits, economic growth, unemployment and inflation, 1961–1998. European Journal of Political Research, 44, 801–836.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
62.Oatley, T. (1999) How constraining is capital mobility? The partisan hypothesis in an open economy. American Journal of Political Science, 43(4), 1003–1027.CrossRefGoogle Scholar