Cooperation & Conflict in

Competitive Party Systems

Classification

• Competitive party systems can be classified by the number of parties as well as by the patterns of competition or cooperation among them

Types of Competitive Party Systems

• Majoritarian Two-Party Systems – dominated by two parties or have two dominant parties & Election laws that usually create legislative majorities for one of them

• Majority-Coalition Systems – parties establish pre-electoral coalitions so voters know which parties will work together to form a government

• Multiparty Systems – election laws & party systems almost ensure no single party wins a legislative majority and no tradition of pre-election coalitions

By Degree of Polarization

• Consensual Party System – parties commanding most of the legislative seats are not too far apart on policies & have reasonable amount of trust in one anther

• Conflictual Party System – legislature is dominated by parties that are far apart on issues or are antagonistic toward each other

• Consociational System– political leaders are able to bridge intense differences between antagonistic voters through power-sharing, broad coalitions, and decentralization– Example: After WWII, Austria used consociational

understanding that made stable government possible between socialists and Catholics

Consensual and Conflictual System Examples

• Consensual Majoritarian Party Systems– United States– Great Britain– (Third parties do exist, but do not really get much representation

or power in government)

• Conflictual majoritarian Party System– Austria 1918-1934 – produced brief civil war between Socialists &

others!

• Consensual Multiparty Systems– Norway & Sweden

• Conflictual Multiparty Systems– France post-WWII– Weimar Germany– Powerful communist parties on the left & conservative parties on

the right

Consequences• Although the number of parties affects political

stability, the degree of antagonism among parties is more important

• Two-party systems are stable & effective, but may be dangerous if parties are deeply divided

• Multiparty systems consisting of relatively moderate parties can offer stability, esp. if parties work together in pre-electoral coalitions

• Pure multiparty systems without pre-electoral coalitions are prone to ineffectiveness

Activity: Designing a Democracy

• Work in a small group to decide what features your ideal democracy would have

• Create a poster advertising your democracy to attract people to live there