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The European Party Landscape

PSC 2330 Final Paper
Professor Feigenbaum

The European party landscape is among the most diversified of any region. Parties range from far left to far right, and party systems range from the two party system exhibited by the United States, and to a lesser degree the United Kingdom, to the multiparty systems of France and Germany. Both the two party systems of the United States and United Kingdom and the multiparty systems of France and Germany possess intrinsic strengths and fallibilities. The multiparty systems of France and Germany are more democratic than the two party systems of the United States and United Kingdom, as they offer greater choice and are more responsive to the wills of the people. However, a two party system is preferable to a multiparty system because it makes government more effective by filtering out extremists and following the majority as opposed to possible minority control over the majority. Characterizing the United Kingdom’s party system as a “two-party system” is somewhat deceiving. The idea of the British system as a two-party system stems from the fact that since 1922, when the Liberal party leader David Lloyd George served as prime minister from 1916-1922, only leaders of the Labour or Conservative parties have served as prime ministers. Furthermore, throughout the postwar period these two parties have routinely divided at least 85 percent of the seats in the House of Commons. However since the 1980s center parties assumed a greater role in British electoral politics. The Liberal Democrats emerged as a viable third party alternative and, at times, as a potential coalition partner for the two major parties. The United Kingdom can still be described as a two party system though, albeit to a lesser degree than the United States for example, because of the overwhelming significance of the two major parties, Labour and Conservative, over the party system and government. France has a clear multiparty system. Recently, there has been a decline in the ideological distance between the major parties on the center-left and center-right. This led to the rise of many fringe parties at the ideological margins. This development led to two rounds of competition in electoral politics in modern France. The first “round” involves competition between two major governmental parties, a center-left party and a center-right party, in presidential and parliamentary elections. The second “round” pits the two major governing parties against a large number of small parties that often represent the extremes of the political spectrum. Major cleavages also classify the party system of France. Among the most significant of these cleavages is between the church and the state. In particular, the church and state cleavage splintered the left into the old left, concerned with 19th century ideas involving the role of the church and republicanism, and the new left, concerned with socialism and workers’ issues. The inability of some of the new left to work with the old left further splintered the Left, and became a major factor in the establishment of multiple political parties. Perhaps to no other European country is the role of parties more important in shaping state policy than to Germany. In the post World War II period, parties reemerged after years of single-party Nazi rule. The Allies licensed parties and the first, and therefore, oldest became the Social Democratic Party. The Christian Democratic Union, a moderate-right party, formed in reaction. Along with the small centrist Free Democratic Party, these parties comprised the “two-and-a-half” major parties of German politics. During the 1980s and 1990s, two new parties emerged and challenged the “two-and-a-half: the Bundis ‘90/Greens and the Left Party. The German multiparty system has a stabilizing factor and is able to keep out smaller parties by including a rule that parties must receive at least five percent in order to be seated. Furthermore, parties on the ballot must be democratic or otherwise are not eligible. The multiparty systems of France and Germany are more democratic than the two-party systems of the United States and United Kingdom. The multiparty systems offer more choice to the voter, with multiple parties that range along the ideological spectrum. Multiple parties allow citizens to find the party that most directly fits their beliefs and best represents their ideology. In a two-party system, this choice is restricted to just the two major parties. In Germany, for example, where the five percent rule ensures that small parties are at least somewhat viable options, citizens have legitimate alternatives to the major parties, the Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party. The German parties range from the far right (National Democratic Party) to the left (The Left Party), ensuring that citizens all along the political spectrum have a party that represents them. Also a multiparty system is more responsive to change than a two-party system. If public opinion suddenly changes, or if events should lead to a rapid mood swing in the voting public, more parties would allow government to reflect this change with more fidelity. While a multiparty system is more democratic, a two-party system is preferable because it makes the government more effective. The first way a two-party system makes a government more effective than a multiparty system is by filtering out extremists and moderating the parties. In order to garner enough support to rule, each major party must shift toward the political center and attract those with moderate views. Shifting to the extremes does not help because there are less people with extreme views than moderate views, and those with extreme views are likely supportive of the party on the their side of the spectrum as it is. While in Germany it is illegal for a party to be undemocratic, in France the Communist Party had a great voice and was the largest party on the left. Having extremist views in parties, views like replacing democracy with a new system, acts as a roadblock for the government as it attempts to conduct its business. Another way the two-party system makes a government more effective is by ensuring that the majority is followed, as opposed to the minority being able to dominate and restrict the majority. With multiple parties, it is entirely feasible for a party, or collection of parties, to represent much less than the majority of people’s views and hold overwhelming relative power. Furthermore, because there are multiple parties to appeal to people in various ways, people are splintered into smaller groups. This makes coalition building more difficult in Germany than in the United Kingdom, for instance, because more groups have to be consolidated into one coalition and these groups tend to have start differences in views amongst them. The two-party system possesses many risks inherent to the system. First, it is less democratic than the multiparty system. Because of this, it poses the risk of leading to dissatisfaction with the populace who may feel the two parties do not accurately represent their views. Also, because the parties must moderate in order to garner enough support, those on the far side of each side of the ideological spectrum may feel alienated. This can, in turn, lead to voter apathy to increase and turnout to decrease. Citizens may feel that they are choosing the lesser of two evils because they happen to be further left or right than the centrist, moderate two major parties. Another risk inherent to the two-party system is the risk of downplaying debate. Because two parties dominate the politics, issues that are not addressed by either party do not gain attention and debate on such an issue is stymied before it even begins. Whereas multiparty systems permit wider and more diverse viewpoints in government, and encourage dominant parties to make deals with weaker parties to form winning coalitions, the two-party system relies on the status quo of the two major parties, effectively neglecting parties outside of the two dominant ones. No party system is perfect; therefore one must make certain sacrifices in deciding on the best party system. In terms of democracy, the multiparty system is more democratic than the two-party system. However, this does not mean that the multiparty system is better than the two-party system. A two-party system is more effective for governing, and while it may have several inherent risks, so too does the multiparty system. The two-party system’s ability to make governing more effective trumps the multiparty system’s ability to be more democratic, and therefore makes it the preferable party system.

--------------------------------------------
[ 1 ]. Ibid., p. 151
[ 2 ]. Harvey Feigenbaum, “The French Party System,” Lecture, Oct. 25, 2011.
[ 3 ]. Harvey Feigenbaum, “The German Party System,” Lecture, Oct. 27, 2011.
[ 4 ]. Kesselman, p. 229
[ 5 ]. Harvey Feigenbaum, “The French Party System,” Lecture, Oct. 25, 2011.
[ 6 ]. Kesselman, p. 232

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