Understanding Political Party Systems: Types and Factors
Understanding Political Party Systems
Party systems emerge from parties competing against each other as parts or sections of a social whole, expressing their diversity and differences. The term “party system” refers to the composition of this set and the pattern of relations that hold its components together. These systems are distinguished by the number of parties they contain and the format they adopt.
Factors Explaining the Diversity of Political Parties
- The existence of partitions or cleavages
Bureaucracy: Characteristics, Classification, and Modern Transformations
Read MoreBureaucracy
Features of Weber’s Rational-Legal Bureaucracy
- System of Rules: Requires equality in power between citizens and those who integrate the bureaucracy.
- Organizational Hierarchy: The chain of command is occupied by specific people and not by abstract structures.
- Formalized Division of Labor: Standardized procedures, free contests.
- Depersonalized Bureaucracy: Acts neutrally, without wrath or prejudice.
Historical Conditions for the Appearance of Weber’s Rational-Legal Bureaucracy
- Consolidation
Representative Office: Definition, History, and Function
Representative Office: Definition and Historical Context
A representative office is a mandate in which the representative can act and decide without being bound by the instructions of their principal. This concept is typical of constitutional courts and was prevalent in the Old Regime. The historical basis of representative offices stems from the representation of estates, where representatives often went to Parliament with specific instructions, making it difficult to reach agreements.
Evolution
Read MoreUnitary vs. Composite States: Understanding Political Power Distribution
Unitary State
In a unitary state, political power is concentrated in a single center and is projected throughout the entire territory. This does not preclude delegations for a more efficient distribution of resources and responsibilities between institutions of sub-areas (municipalities, counties, and provinces). Sometimes, the delegated powers can be quite considerable. However, they may be revoked by a unilateral decision from the central power, as it is the sole center of political power.
There
Read MoreGerman Political Parties and Lobbyists: Funding and Influence
A Hallmark of the German Party System: The Grand Coalition
A hallmark of the German party system is the idea of a grand coalition (Große Koalition) between the two main political forces, born in 1966 following a crisis to prevent ungovernability. The ideologization of parties (parties *atrapatodo*) allowed a rapprochement between the major powers. Despite this, a grand coalition is a palpable sign of crisis in party democracy and a mockery of parliamentary democracy, since it prevents the change
Read MoreRepresentative Government: Evolution from Ancient to Modern Democracy
Representative Government and the Modern State
Representative democracy was built on the political unity paradigm of modernity: the nation-state, which redefined the political institutions of the Middle Ages to adapt to new social and political conditions. It operated under two principles of the republican tradition: the primacy of law and the limitation of power. Political modernity disrupted the principle of legitimacy of the Middle Ages and replaced it with the principle of individual consent.