Parties Versus Democracy: Addressing Today’S Political-Party threats to Democratic Rule (original) (raw)
2019, SSRN Electronic Journal
The growing threat to liberal democracy worldwide is, in many ways, a political-party threat. Recent years have witnessed the rise of a range of authoritarian populist, illiberal, far-right, nativist, and extremist parties. Some have entered government in countries including Hungary, Poland, Austria and Italy. Germany's Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD) is now the main parliamentary opposition. Beyond Europe we see democratic structures threatened or incrementally dismantled through the subversion of an established democratic party by an outsider (e.g., Donald Trump in the U.S., or Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines) or ascendance of the extremist wing of a right-wing party (e.g., India's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)). Parties and party leaders occupying an ill-defined space on the political spectrum-a form of "farright lite"today generally present a much greater threat to democratic governance than overtly anti-democratic fringe outfits, such as the National Democratic Party (NPD) of Germany. The ambiguity of such parties, their growing size, their entry into government, the subversion of "good" democratic parties by a "bad" leadership, and the rise of the 'shadow party' and intensifying external control mean that contemporary political-party threats seriously frustrate the possibility of remedial action afforded by existing public law and policy mechanisms. They also require us to reflect anew on crafting novel remedies and to revisit our deep assumptions about parties as creatures of central constitutional importance.
Related papers
Political parties and democracy: A mutual murder?
European Journal of Political Research, 1996
Democracy is good at generating demands and bad at satisfying them. Autocracy, on the other hand, is in a position to stifle demands and is better placed to meet them.
The rise of Alternative for Germany (AfD) and its impact on the German party system
2019
This thesis mainly aims to bridge the gap in the literature and provide a unified explanation of the rise of AfD (generally considered as a far-right party), its effects on the German party system and the Bundestag. Research about this is important from a European point of view because AfD is threatening the stability and existence of the European Common Currency, the European Union, its principles of solidarity and unity and the benefits which these bring with them for their members. This thesis evaluates the necessary theories in order for AfD and the context in which it operates to be understood within the framework of far-right associated ideologies, voting models and electoral systems. Then this thesis goes on to explain the more practical side of AfD's context. This is done through an evaluation of the Federal Republic of Germany, the German electoral system, the role of the parties as derived from the German Constitution, its self-defence mechanism, a historical insight into the German party system, the reasons behind the absence of earlier far-right party successes and today's party positions over some of the most relevant issues in the context of the rise of AfD. Then this thesis goes on to identify the most fitting description of AfD's ideology, the issues which triggered its creation, the scope behind its creation, the backgrounds of the founders and early leaders, its internal conflicts, the changes which occurred as a result of these rifts, the issues which led it to become the main opposition party, its effect in the Bundestag, its effect on the policies of other parties and other controversies which some of its exponents and members led it into.
German Politics and Society, 2018
In the 2017 German Federal Election. The Left Party (Die Linke, or LP) saw its vote share in eastern Germany seriously erode. The main culprit behind the LP’s losses was the Alternative for Germany (AfD): 430,000 voters who cast their ballots for the LP in 2013 voted for the AfD in 2017. Why was this the case? This article suggests that the AfD in 2017 was able to attract protest voters, largely in eastern Germany, dissatisfied with the state of democracy and the political establishment in Germany who once voted for the LP. The LP and AfD have become eastern German populist competitors.
On Political Parties in Contemporary Democracies: From the classic perspective to the current debate
The crisis of political parties in contemporary societies and democracies is composed of different points of views, that require a joint effort for social and political science to try to understand the changing relationship between citizens and parties. Compared to the political mass models, which are typical of the second half of the twentieth century, parties undergo deep processes of transformation. The beginning of a critical season for the traditional forms of political organization goes back to those years; and this critical season can be configured as ideological, organizational and institutional. Between the twentieth and twenty-first century, the political parties has strengthened the structure of their political organization and the weight of their parliamentary activities within the institutions, becoming more and more «state-centered parties», characterized by the progressive reduction of the forms of territorial settlement and the growth of the importance of central organisms and the representatives of the assemblies, especially those elected in national parliaments. This results in significant changes of the organizational model and their political functions. In the face of these changes, will the parties still remain a key player for the functioning of contemporary democracy? We will focus on three fundamental steps: the analysis of the creation process of parties and of their function; the description of the most recent perspectives in political parties; the analysis of the relationship between the personalisation of politics and the passage to leader democracy.
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.