Unit 7: Political Institutions and Political Power

Political Parties

The term ‘political party’ means a group with a unified goal to fill political jobs and support particular ideas. For most parties, there are three main goals: developing a party message, getting members in government leadership, and running the government.

Types of Parties

Cadre and mass are two main types of parties. Cadre parties were the first modern political parties formed in the late 18 ^th and early 19 ^th centuries. They were small organizations and dominated by politically elite groups. They are mostly founded by wealthy people. On the other hand, mass parties started in the 20 ^th century. They have millions of members and they appeal to a large number of people.

While in the USA, there are only two political parties, in most of the other countries there are more than two political parties. The number of members of a party is far more important than the number of the parties in democracies.

Electoral Systems and Elections

Electoral system is used by voters to select people for a political position and voters choose their candidates using a ballot. There are generally two types of democratic electoral systems for a selection of a legislature: Proportional Representation (PR) and Single-member Plurality (SMP)

Overview of Types of Electoral Systems

Proportional Representation (PR) is the most common type of electoral system in democracies. Under PR, the person or the party gets a share of the available offices based on the percentage of votes. Some countries use a PR system that includes minimum percentage of votes so that the party can have seats in the legislature. Turkey, Germany, and Hungary are some examples to the countries using PR.

Another commonly used type of electoral system is singlemember plurality (SMP). In SMP, the candidate who gets the most votes wins the elections. Egypt, Canada and the United States are some examples to the countries using SMP.

Besides PR and SMP, there are still some democracies using parallel systems. In these systems, voters elect the candidate and the party separately. Armenia, Japan, and Korea are some examples to the countries using PR.

Electoral Systems in Non-Democracies: In nondemocracies although there are elections, people have no influence on the government policy. The elections are carried out only to strengthen image of the leader and keep the other potential candidates away from trying to get power.

Elections : Elections has a lot of functions. Firstly, it provides the voters a chance to choose the government leaders. Also, since the candidates have to communicate with the citizens about his/her ideas of social and political issues, it educates the citizens. Elections also let the citizens be a part of their government.

Some of the factors affecting voter participation to elections around the world are population size, demographics, political socialization, economic development, the political importance of the issues, the candidate, the number of the parties.

Public Opinion

Individuals opinions about social, political and environmental issues play a key role in defining public opinion. Public opinion is usually measured through polls or surveys.

Public Opinion Polls: How Public Opinion is Measured

The most common pole used to measure the public opinion is opinion poll. Before elections, candidates use opinion polls to understand their popularity and to show their strength. The mass media turn the results of these polls into news story about the politics and the government.

Public Opinion Polls: Accuracy of Measurement

Public opinion polling is based on the laws of probability. It is giving the same chance of being selected to each object in the group as long as they are treated equally. Thus, it is very important for the poll that everyone in the population has the same chance of being the questions about the policy. Hence, a randomly selected sample is necessary. Otherwise, it would be too expensive to administer the questionnaire to the entire population.

How Public Opinion is Guided: The Media

Media has a great influence on public opinion in terms of political and social issues. The way the media covers an issue shapes the way people feel about it. This is known as framing.

Other Influencers of Public Opinion

Other influencers of public opinion are elites, political parties, interest groups, political figures, social and spiritual or religious institutions.

Pressure Groups and Interest Groups

Pressure Groups:

Pressure groups and political parties differ in terms of their main goals. Political parties have always a desire to control the government; however, pressure groups tend to focus on social and political issues and not only to influence the government but also different various phases of public policy. They try to do it through media and mass communication.

Types of Pressure Groups

There are four types of pressure groups: promotional, sectional, insider and outsider. Promotional groups promote one specific cause. Sectional groups represent specific types of individuals. They are only open to the members of one profession, organization, or trade. The other two types are categorized by their relationship to the government. The difference is that while insider groups have close relationship with the government, outsider groups do not work closely with the

Government but put a pressure on it.

Interest Groups

An interest group is an organization of people who share the same philosophies and attitudes.

Types of Interest Groups

The interest groups fall into two categories: institutional and membership. Institutional interest groups generally represent major businesses or industries. On the contrary, membership interest groups have individuals as members rather than corporations.

Goals and Tactics of Interest Groups

The main goal of all types of interest groups is public policy issues of interest to the members.

Interest Groups in New Democracies: A Look at Latin America

Having various stages of development makes Latin America a good case for developing interest group systems. Cultural and historical factors have shaped interest group systems in Latin America. There is an elitist control of the government in many Latin American countries because of their long past of authoritarian system. Even in the countries which have effective interest group system, there are still challenges of history and culture that affect their respective political systems.

Legislative, Executive, Judiciary Relations

In most democracies there are three distinct branches: the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judiciary branch. The legislative branch establishes the law of the country. The executive branch ensures that all of the laws are obeyed. The judiciary branch ensures that all laws are acceptable or constitutional.

Legislators Around the World

The legislators all around the world are elected people who represent the people voting for them. Legislative bodies are usually either unicameral or bicameral. In unicameral legislations, all of the members discuss and vote together as a single chamber. In contrary, in bicameral legislature each chamber will discuss and vote separately. Chambers fall into two categories: lower and upper chambers. Lower chambers represent a smaller area.

The Executive Branch of Government

In parliamentary systems with presidents, the president symbolically is the head of the nation. In monarchies, the head of the state is king or queen. In presidential systems the head of state and the head of government are the same person, the president.

Variations in Legislative-Executive Relations

The presidential system has a distinct separation in the roles administration and legislation. The president is selected by voters and serves as both head of the government and the state. Under the presidential system legislative, executive and judiciary branches have their own power.

Judicial Review Defined

In all governmental systems, laws must be made, laws must be upheld, and there needs to be a mechanism to ensure that the process is fair, impartial and just.

Judiciary Review: Norms and Practices:

According to some political scientists, Supreme Court actions can indirectly impact the legislative process. On the contrary, there is no way for legislators to ignore or change the Court’s decision. In some systems, judicial review is a part of the law-making process.

Legal Systems and Countries with Judiciary Review

The legal systems of nearly all countries are generally modeled on five elements: civil law, common law, customary law mixed or pluralistic law, and religious law.

Bureaucracy and Public Administration

Bureaucracy has six fundamental characteristics: a well- defined hierarchy of authority, a partitioning of work based on specialization, a structure of rules regarding the rights and responsibilities of the employee, a structure of rules and procedures for providing services to citizens equally and fairly, a focus on events or facts rather than personal attributes for interpersonal relationships and employment and promotion based on knowledge, skills and abilities.

How the Bureaucracy Differs from the Legislature and the Executive

Bureaucracies ensure that the laws and the policies are carried out in a fair way, but they are the non-political part of the government. The hired bureaucrats are knowledgeable people in their expertise ad they should be stable in the government regardless of the change in the political climate.

Representation and the Bureaucracy

Since the bureaucrats are the reflections of the citizens in terms of race, ethnic identity, education level, and so on, they are more likely to bring a wide range of thoughts and ideas to political process. Thus, to achieve wider population representation, officials are elected to represent different sections of an area.

According to some studies, women tend to be well represented in government positions, but they are under represented in higher-level positions.