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PS247U: Electoral and Party Politics in Developed Democracies.

Professor Anne Wren, Winter 2003

Class Meeting: Monday and Wednesday 2:15 to 3:30.

Location: Building 380: Room 380W

Phone: 736-1952

Email: awren@stanford.edu

Office Hours: Slots available several days each week. Email me for an appointment.

Course Description

This is a comparative politics course which focuses on electoral and party politics in Western Europe and North America. We will begin by examining how party systems vary across countries, and investigating the role of electoral institutions and electoral cleavages in explaining these variations. Next we will adopt a more historical approach, studying the development of important “families” of parties across a range of European countries, and asking why the party system which developed in the US differed from many of its European counterparts.

In the third part of the course we will focus on the activities of modern day parties. We will learn how political scientists measure parties’ ideological positions, and how these measurements are used to predict which parties are most likely to form coalition governments, as well as the policies which parties will pursue when in office. We will study the role of parties in the policy making process. Do parties choose policies to pursue ideological goals, or do they treat policy simply as a strategic tool to achieve re-election ? How important are coalitions with societal interest groups in the formation of policy ?

Finally, we will study some important changes in the electoral landscape which have occurred in recent years. Has the significance of traditional class cleavages in the electorate diminished ? If so, what new cleavages have emerged to replace them ? Where have successful new parties (e.g. the German Green party; the extreme Right-wing National Front in France) emerged based on these cleavages, and what has been their effect on more traditional parties ? If time allows, we will finish by briefly investigating the implications of the European unification process for European parties and voters.

Please note that this is a comparative politics course focusing on Western Europe and North America. As such, we will be treating the US as one of a broad range of cases which we will be comparing in order to understand how institutional, social and cultural variations lead to different political outcomes. The goal is to learn more about general political phenomena by placing different countries’ experiences in comparative context. Those students who specifically require a more detailed treatment of the US case should opt instead for one of the many American politics courses which the Political Science department offers.

Requirements

1) Lectures and readings are designed to complement, not to substitute for each other. In order to score well on the mid-term and final it will be necessary both to attend lectures and to undertake the assigned reading on each topic. I will indicate the order of priority of readings on each topic in advance in class.

2) Exams. There will be two examinations – a mid-term and a comprehensive final. The mid-term will be held in class on Monday Feb. 10th. The final, as listed in the university time schedule, will be held from 12:15 to 3:15 p.m. on Thursday March 20th. It is expected that all students will take the examinations at the stated times. Other than for documented emergencies, no exceptions will be made.

3) Project. Students will be expected to undertake a small project based on an analysis of British political party manifestos. The project is designed to allow students to investigate analytically several important topics from the course. An information session on the structure of, and information sources for the project will be held in class on Wednesday February 5th . The final project report – expected to be between 6 and 10 pages (double-spaced) in length – is due at the last class on Wednesday March 12h. Anyone who is interested in glancing at the on-line archive of British party manifestos ahead of time can check it out at the following address

4) Section Should course numbers be too large to permit in-class discussion, weekly section meetings will be held. Section meetings are designed to aid student understanding of the substance of the course by facilitating in-depth discussion of the course material. Where sections are offered, attendance and participation records will be kept, and may be used as extra evidence of student effort in borderline grading cases.

Grading Structure: Midterm: 30%; Project: 35%; Final Exam: 35%

Text Availability

Books available for purchase at the Stanford Bookstore and On Reserve at Green:

*Michael Gallagher, Michael Laver, and Peter Mair, Representative Government in Modern Europe, (Third Edition) (McGraw Hill, 2001).

*Arend Lijphart, Patterns of Democracy (Yale University Press, 1999).

Seymour Martin Lipset and Gary Marks, It Didn’t Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States (W.W.Norton and Co., 2000)

Stathis N. Kalyvas, The Rise of Christian Democracy in Europe (Cornell University

Press, 1996).

Herbert Kitschelt, The Radical Right in Western Europe (Michigan University Press, 1997)

All additional readings will be made available on the Coursework website.

HOW TO REGISTER FOR A COURSEWORK ACCOUNT

1. Launch your Web browser, go to , and click the Register link.

NOTE: You only need to register for a CourseWork account once.

2. Once you read the registration instructions, click "Continue".

3. To register, type your first and last name in the spaces provided and click the "Continue" button.

NOTE: Your middle name, nickname and SUID information are optional. (The nickname will not display in the CourseWork system.)

4. Once you register, click the "Login" link to sign up for new courses.

LECTURE AND READING SCHEDULE

W Jan 8: Introduction to the course.

UNIT 1: EXPLAINING THE LANDSCAPE OF PARTY COMPETITION

M Jan 13: Electoral Institutions and the Party System

Gallagher, Laver, and Mair. Chapter 11, pp. 303-325 and Box 11-2 (pp. 329-330)

Lijphart. Chapter 8, pp. 143-170.

William H. Riker, “The Two-Party System and Duverger’s Law: An Essay on the History of Political Science”, American Political Science Review, 76, 4, (Dec. 1982), pp. 753-766.

W Jan 15: Electoral Cleavages and the Party System

Gallagher, Laver, and Mair. Chapter 9, pp. 234-244.

Seymour Martin Lipset and Stein Rokkan, “Cleavage Structures, Party Systems and Voter Alignments”, in Peter Mair (Ed.) The West European Party System (Oxford University Press, 1990) pp. 91-138.

Lijphart. Chapter 5, pp. 78-89

M Jan 20: Martin Luther King Day. No Class.

UNIT 2: THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRADITIONAL PARTY FAMILIES

W Jan 22: Traditional Parties of the Left: Social Democracy

Gallagher, Laver, and Mair. Chapter 8, pp. 203-209 and Box 8-1.

Adam Przeworski and John Sprague, Paper Stones: A History of Electoral Socialism. Prologue and Chapters 1 & 2. (University of Chicago Press, 1986) (pp. 1-56).

M Jan 27: Traditional Parties of the Right: Christian Democracy, Conservatism, and the Rise of Neo-Liberalism.

Gallagher, Laver, and Mair. Chapter 8, pp. 214-224 and Box 8-2.

Stathis N. Kalvas, The Rise of Christian Democracy in Europe. Chapters 2 & 5. (pp. 58-113 & 222-256).

Desmond S. King, The New Right: Politics, Markets, and Citizenship, (MacMillan Education, 1987). Selected readings.

W Jan 29: US Exceptionalism

Seymour Martin Lipset and Gary Marks, It Didn’t Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States. (W.W.Norton and Co., 2000). Selected readings.

UNIT 3: PARTIES, GOVERNMENTS AND PUBLIC POLICY

M Feb 3: Locating Parties: Measuring Ideological Differences

Michael Laver and Norman Schofield, Multiparty Government: The Politics of Coalition in Europe. Appendix B. ( University of Michigan Press, 1998) pp. 245-252 & Review Tables B.1-B.18.

W Feb 5: Information Session on Party Manifesto Analysis Project

In-class discussion of requirements and source materials for the project.

Hard copy of the project is due at the last class on Wednesday March 12th.

M Feb 10: Creating Governments: The Politics of Coalition Formation

Lijphart. Chapter 8, pp. 90-115.

Gallagher, Laver, and Mair. Chapter 12, pp. 339-372.

Michael Laver and Norman Schofield, Multiparty Government: The Politics of Coalition in Europe. Chapter 3. ( University of Michigan Press, 1998) pp. 36-61

W Feb 12: Midterm Exam

M Feb 17: President’s Day. No class.

W Feb 19: Governments in Office I: Strategic and Partisan Policymaking

Morrow, James D., Game Theory for Political Scientists. Chapter 4, pp. 104-109. (Princeton University Press, 1994)

Gallagher, Laver, and Mair. Chapter 13, pp. 375-195.

Torben Iversen and Anne Wren, “Equality, Employment and Budgetary Restraint: The Trilemma of the Service Economy,” World Politics (July 1998).

Carles Boix, Chapter 8 “The Political and Electoral Dimensions of the Conservative Economic Strategy”, in Political Parties, Growth and Equality (Cambridge University Press, 1998)

M Feb 24: Governments in Office 2: Coalitions with Societal Interest Groups

Lijphart. Chapter 9, pp. 171-184.

Gallagher, Laver, and Mair. Chapter 14, pp. 398-420.

UNIT 4: RECENT CHANGES IN THE ELECTORAL LANDSCAPE

W Feb 26: Changes in the Structure of the Electorate

Gallagher, Laver, and Mair. Chapter 9, pp. 244-267.

Ronald Inglehart and Scott C. Flanagan, “Value Change in Industrial Societies,” American Political Science Review, (81, 4, Dec. 1987) (pp. 1289- 1303) (i.e. Inglehart’s contribution only).

Gøsta Esping Andersen , “Politics without Class: Postindustrial Cleavages in Europe and America”, in Kischelt, Lange, Marks and Stephens (Eds.) Continuity and Change in Contemporary Capitalism Chapter 10 pp. 293-316. (Cambridge University Press, 1999).

M Mar 3: The Emergence of Green and Left-libertarian Parties

Selected Green and Left-libertarian party manifestos, web-links will be posted on the Courseworks web-site.

Gallagher, Laver, and Mair. Chapter 8, pp. 209-213.

Jens Alber, “Modernization, Changing Cleavage Structures and the Rise of the Green Party in West Germany,” in Müller-Rommel (Ed.) New Politics in Western Europe: The Rise and Success of the Green Parties and Alternative Lists (Westview Press, 1989).

Herbert Kitschelt, “European Social Democracy between Political Economy and Electoral Competition” in Kitschelt, Lange, Marks and Stephens (Eds. ) Continuity and Change in Contemporary Capitalism Chapter 11 pp. 317-345. (Cambridge University Press, 1999).

W Mar 5: New Parties of the Radical Right

Selected Radical Right-wing party manifestos, web-links will be posted on the Courseworks web-site.

Gallagher, Laver, and Mair. Chapter 8, pp. 224-227.

Herbert Kitschelt, The Radical Right in Western Europe Chapter 2 pp. 47-78; Chapter 3 (France); Chapter 5 (Austria and Italy) (Michigan University Press, 1997).

M Mar 10: Political Parties and Voters in a Unified Europe

Gallagher, Laver, and Mair. Chapter 5, pp. 96-132.

W Mar 12: Course Review

Thursday Mar 20 12:15 to 3:15 PM: Final Exam

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