Electoral System And Party Behaviour

Certainly electoral systems impact on party systems and party behaviour. The main ways in which electoral systems impact on party systems and on party behaviour is by having a significant impact on the degree of multipartism in a country. Electoral systems also impact on party systems and party behaviour as electoral systems have led to a catch-all thesis emerging in party systems and to a change in party alignments. The manner in which electoral systems affect party systems and party behaviour in relation to the mechanical effect and the psychological effect will also be examined. This essay shall examine in detail the main ways in which electoral systems impact on party systems and party behaviour. However, in order to gain a comprehensive

Due to electoral systems, former class and denominational parties of mass integration have transformed into ideologically bland catch-all type parties. These catch-all type parties have more interest in winning the next election than in the defence of principle or the pursuit of more distant ideological beliefs. (Mair, 1990, pp. 218-219) This occurred due to the advent of an affluent and more consumer-orientated society which had loosened the bonds between parties of mass integration and their supporters as ideology became a no longer prevalent motive explain voter behaviour. (Mair, 1990, pp. 218-219) Party systems became aware and afraid of the diminishing support and responded by minimizing ideological baggage and began to stress the qualities of their political leaders, avoiding controversy and negative press and courting the support of interest groups. Electoral systems thus facilitated the transformation of both the role and the function of political parties as the need for parties to achieve maximum results in elections led to a shift away from class and denominational parties to a more catch-all type party system. (Mair, 1990, pp. 218-219) Parties are transformed and operate largely as electoral agencies, bidding for votes from anywhere that they can be found. As a

The most important difference among democratic party systems is the difference between two-party and multi-party systems. In parliamentary types of government, two party systems make one-party majority cabinets possible. By contrast, in multi-party systems such cabinets while possible are less likely to occur. In presidential forms of government, two-arty systems may have two quite different but equally significant results. That is the president will either enjoy the support of the majority from the legislature or he or she will be faced by a hostile legislative majority. (Lijphart, 1994, p. 67) An additional distinction must also be made in this scenario between moderate and extreme multi-party systems with commensurate consequences for cabinet formation in parliamentary systems and legislative support for presidents in presidential systems. The variable that underlies both of the distinctions is the number of parties. (Lijphart, 1994, pp. 66-67) There are several methods to measure the number of parties in a political system such as the measures proposed by John K. Wildgen who gave special wright to small parties and by Juan Molinar who gives special weight to the largest party. (Lijphart, 1994, p. 69) However, the most effective way to measure the number of parties is to measure the number