The Political Parties In Europe

"The political parties in Europe"- Daniel L. Seiler The book is a study divided in two parts: -in the first one the author is trying to establish a typology of the political parties, classified in families, and which covers the entire Western Europe; -the second part deals with Central Europe countries, which emerged from the "real socialism" and built their way to a liberal democracy. The political parties represent the basis for democracy. The pluralism of the parties and their struggle for power, through the electoral process, are the key to liberal democracy. The typology of parties is founded on one of the following criteria: name, ideology, organization. The origins of parties (Lapalombara & Weiner): - institutionalist - historical and conflictual - of political development - and functionalist manner (added by the author); Seiler presents the theory of Rokkan, a Norwegian political scientist and sociologist of the 20th century, which describes the genesis of party systems in Western Europe. According to Rokkan, the political evolution of Europe was affected from a historical point of view by the three successive revolutions: the national revolution, the industrial revolution, and the international revolution. The first two revolutions defined the political system with the help of two conflictual axis : one functional, one "territorial-cultural". The Paradigm of the 4 cleavages The national revolution generates on the functional axis, the cleavage Church/State, and on the territorial-cultural axis, it generates the cleavage Center/Periphery. The industrial revolution generates on the functional axis, the cleavage Capitalists/Workers, and on the territorial-cultural axis, the cleavage Primary sector/Secondary sector (Urban/Rural). The international revolution affects the Workers side of the cleavage between Capitalists/Workers, creating a sub-cleavage, which is divided in: Communists/Neo-communists (reformists). 1

The four fundamental cleavages gave birth to the different political parties. The high number of cleavages led to the emerging of the multi-party system (pluripartidism) and the electoral system. The cleavage Capitalists/Workers can be found in all European political systems. The author describes the typology of the party families from Western Europe departing from these 4 cleavages. Each family corresponds to some political parties expressing a particular side of a cleavage.

The typology of the political families in Europe 1. Cleavage State/Church- result of the national revolution=> has

cultural origins; opposes the clericals to the anti-clericals (clericals=holders of the political and social influence of the Church; anti-clericals= supporters of the separation of the Church from the State). Two political families find their origin: for the clericals- the Christian democracy, for the anti-clericals, a laic, secular family of parties, even radical (the Radical Republican Party and the Radical Socialist Party). This cleavage has put in opposition the upholders and the opponents of the ecclesiastic control over the social life, especially in the educational field and partially, in the health care system. The alternative is the state and the laic monopole over these institutions. This is the case for the Catholic states, or for the strong Catholics minorities, and can lead to an important segmentation of the society on the whole, like the case of Belgium, Switzerland and Austria. Its importance grew and many parties re-aligned to other plans of cleavages. 2. Cleavage

Center/Periphery- result of the national revolution, cultural origins; opposes the centralists (be them unitarists or nationalists) with the regionalists, the autonomists or the federalists. In this cleavage we have 2 specific families. On the central side, we have the parties up-holding the State- central wing parties, and on the periphery side, the so called ethno-national and regionalist parties. This cleavage affected many countries the past century and was either institutionalized (and so, neutralized), or it led to independence, like in the case of Norway, Ireland, Island and Malta. In Spain, like in Italy, the cleavage Center/Periphery constitutes an important element in the political system.

3. Cleavage Primary sector/Secondary sector (Rural/Urban)- result

of the industrial revolution, socio-economical origins; opposes the 2

interests of townsmen, merchants, and manufacturers with those of the peasants. (It includes only one family); the defense of the economical interests of the rural population will form a specific political family: that of the agrarian parties. One single party will be in the urban area: The Swiss Party of the Motorists. More precisely, the cleavage opposes the peasants and the agricultural world with the industries of manufacture and distribution, with the industrial and urban society in general. It is not translated in partisan terms. Where there is no agrarian or Christian-democrat party, the conservators uphold the political will of the peasants (like in England or France). In Scandinavia and Swiss we can find 2 favored elements: Protestantism and a historical autonomy of the peasants toward the land(ed) aristocracy => agrarian parties in: Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland, and in some Swiss cantons. 4. Cleavage Capitalists (Owners)/Workers- result of the industrial

revolution, socio-economical origins; opposes the interests of the owners of capital goods with those of the workers and of other proletarians. Two important political families from Europe found their origins here. On the Owners side we have the parties acknowledging the political will of the business environment, the industrial, financial or commercial, called “the classical right wing” (like in France), or “bourgeois parties”, like in Scandinavia. The author called them patrimonial parties, because of their dominant features- the defense of the market economy and of the liberal Orthodoxy. On the Workers side we have the parties upholding the political will of the workers, especially of the trade union and of the cooperative movement (these are “left wing parties” or “socialist” parties). Can be classified as labor parties. The cleavage Owners/Workers is the most common political division in the Western Europe. With the exception of Ireland, this cleavage marks the party systems of all European countries and today holds the basis of the distinction between right and left wing. 5. Cleavages appeared from the international revolution- this

revolution has its origins outside the Western Europe countries, and manifested in 2 ways: first of all, it led to the apparition of the subcleavage reformists/communists. This sub-cleavage affected only the Workers side of the economic cleavage, and divided it between partisans and adversaries of the Russian revolution of 1917. Secondly, it deeply marked the countries of Central Europe, which had to bear for 3

40 years the ‘single party’ and the state capitalism, based on centralized planning.

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