Political Parties in the Modern Democracies

Georgetown University, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

This conference brings together scholars studying party politics from a variety of intellectual perspectives who study many different countries. Many democracies have recently experienced similar developments, including populist challenges to political elites and concerns about immigration and globalization. At the same time, political science research on political parties tends to view United States in isolation. This conference would help to bridge that division, bringing knowledge from other democracies to bear on our understanding of the United States, and knowledge about the United States into the thinking of those who study other democracies. The United States has a two-party party system and a presidential governmental system. Many other democracies have multiple parties, a parliamentary system, or both. These differences may obscure the similarities of populist, anti-elite political movements. If we want to learn from the common experience of many democracies, we need to understand better how these different institutions and their related different political cultures affect party politics in each country. The conference brings together political parties scholars from the United States with those from other countries. Theories of political parties in the United States have been concerned with the role of policy-motivated actors versus the role of office-seeking actors. Scholars studying parties in most parliamentary democracies have had less trouble considering the importance of policy, as parties in those countries tend to be viewed as more programmatic. Many now see U.S. parties as increasingly programmatic, and many also see this as a problem from democracy. A more unified theory of what a political party is will help us see similarities and differences in how parties respond to movements, such as recent populist or anti-globalist movements. Given that we think there are common shocks to the political systems of many western democracies, it makes sense to try to learn from those examples. To do that, we need a more effective common framework. This conference will help steer research toward such a framework.