Why Regimes? Ideas, Incentives, and Policies in American Political OrdersWhy Parties? The Origin and Transformation of Political Parties in America. By John H. Aldrich Party Decline in America: Policy, Politics, and the Fiscal State. By John J. Coleman Building a Democratic Political Order: Reshaping American Liberalism in the 1930s and 1940s. By David Plotke

Polity ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 625-640 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Polsky
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Order ◽  
American Liberalism ◽  
Fiscal State ◽  
Party Decline

History, Politics, and the Constitution: Ethnic Conflict and Constitutional Adjudication in Postcommunist Bulgaria

Slavic Review ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Venelin I. Ganev
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Socialist Party ◽  
The Political ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Constitutional Adjudication

Infamously, the 1991 Bulgarian Constitution contains a provision banning political parties “formed on an ethnic basis.” In the early 1990s, the neo-communist Bulgarian Socialist Party invoked this provision when it asked the country's Constitutional Court to declare unconstitutional the political party of the beleaguered Turkish minority. In this article, Venelin I. Ganev analyzes the conflicting arguments presented in the course of the constitutional trial that ensued and shows how the justices’ anxieties about the possible effects of politicized ethnicity were interwoven into broader debates about the scope of the constitutional normative shift that marked the end of the communist era, about the relevance of historical memory to constitutional reasoning, and about the nature of democratic politics in a multiethnic society. Ganev also argues that the constitutional interpretation articulated by the Court has become an essential component of Bulgaria's emerging political order. More broadly, he illuminates the complexity of some of the major issues that frame the study of ethnopolitics in postcommunist eastern Europe: the varied dimensions of the “politics of remembrance“; the ambiguities of transitional justice; the dilemmas inherent in the construction of a rights-centered legality; and the challenges involved in establishing a forward-looking, pluralist system of governance.

Resurgent Mass Partisanship: The Role of Elite Polarization

2001 ◽  
Vol 95 (3) ◽  
pp. 619-631 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc J. Hetherington
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Partisan Polarization ◽  
Elite Level ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Mass Opinion ◽  
Party Decline ◽  
Mass Level

For the most part, scholars who study American political parties in the electorate continue to characterize them as weak and in decline. Parties on the elite level, however, have experienced a resurgence over the last two decades. Such a divergence between elite behavior and mass opinion is curious, given that most models of public opinion place the behavior of elites at their core. In fact, I find that parties in the electorate have experienced a noteworthy resurgence over the last two decades. Greater partisan polarization in Congress has clarified the parties’ ideological positions for ordinary Americans, which in turn has increased party importance and salience on the mass level. Although parties in the 1990s are not as central to Americans as they were in the 1950s, they are far more important today than in the 1970s and 1980s. The party decline thesis is in need of revision.

“Media Intrusion” and the Changing Nature of the Established Parties in Australia and Canada

1993 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Ward
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Electronic Media ◽  
Media Environments ◽  
Party Decline

AbstractMedia intrusion theory holds that the advent of electronic media, especially television, has accelerated or even precipitated party decline. This is evidently borne out by the declining membership of, and weakening support for, the two major Australian parties which each enthusiastically embraced new forms of political communication. However, “media intrusion” has arguably strengthened rather than weakened Canada's already frail brokerage parties. This different experience may be explained by the dissimilar legislative, federal and media environments in which Canadian and Australian political parties operate. Curiously, although the new forms of political communication have had different impacts, these have triggered changes in Australian political parties which have increased their resemblance to their Canadian counterparts.

Party Decline in America: Policy, Politics, and the Fiscal State.

1997 ◽  
Vol 102 (5) ◽  
pp. 1587
Author(s):  
Richard M. Valelly ◽  
John J. Coleman
Keyword(s):  
Fiscal State ◽  
Party Decline

Legitimacy Decline and Party Decline

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rudy B. Andeweg ◽  
David M. Farrell
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Support ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Choices ◽  
Party Decline ◽  
Possible Cause

This chapter discusses the decline of political parties as a possible cause of the decline of legitimacy. Political parties constitute a link between the citizens and the political system, and therefore a loss of support could delegitimize the political system. However, the decline of political parties can only cause legitimacy decline if they are indeed in decline and if there is a causal relationship between citizens’ involvement in political parties and political support. The chapter argues that empirical evidence for party decline is limited, as parties may have undergone transformation rather than decline. Using ESS data from 2002 to 2010, the chapter finds only weak relations between political support and party membership and party closeness. However, being close to a particular party is more important than being a member of a political party, and is interpreted as a sign that the party system facilitates citizens in making meaningful political choices.

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