Federal Political Parties Research Articles

The Institutionalization of U.S. Political Parties: Patronage Newspapers

There is general agreement that mass political parties emerged during the Jacksonian era, but there is no consensus about their precise origins. Institutional theorists within political science contend that political parties trace their beginnings to elite who nurtured them within the civil service bureaucracy, whereas theorists in political science who rely on microlevel explanations consider that parties developed to solve problems of social choice and collective action. Historians, in contrast, indicate that newspaper patronage in Washington, DC, beginning with Jefferson, was critical for the emergence of federal political parties. This study systematically examines the empirical implications of that assumption and considers both the organizational and political processes that underlie establishment of newspapers in the Capital, contributing to the understanding that newspapers provided a model both for the civil service and for political parties.

Political Competition and Fiscal Equalisation

Most federations, including Australia, have systems of fiscal equalisation which transfer income between States. Economists have long studied the economic efficiency and equity arguments for and against such transfers. This paper concentrates instead on the political aspect; namely, it asks whether federal political parties wishing to maximise their expected votes at election time would ever support a system of equalisation, particularly one which mandates efficient transfers of the type studied by economists. The answer, found using a two-State model of a federation in which voters are mobile, is in the affirmative: the political process delivers an efficient and equitable system of equalisation. However, the result depends on certain assumptions. The implications of these assumptions are explored.

Evaluations and Evolution: Public Attitudes toward Canada's Federal Political Parties, 1965–1991

AbstractThis article employs national survey data gathered over the past quarter century to analyze the evolution and present state of public attitudes toward Canada's federal political parties. A 1991 survey employing new questions on evaluations of party performance reveals that these evaluations are structured in terms of two dimensions, and that negative judgments on both dimensions are pervasive. The significance of the current negativism is assessed using 1965–1991 data on Canadians' feelings about and identifications with the federal parties. Although for a long time party affect has been lukewarm at best, and partisanship has been weak and unstable, negative trends have magnified the disaffection and dealignment. The discontent has accelerated in recent years, as the percentage of Liberal and Progressive Conservative identifiers has plummeted, and the non-identifier group has swelled to record levels, particularly in Quebec. The article concludes by considering the implications of these findings for the future of the federal party system.

Ideology and Unstable Party Identification in Canada: Limited Rationality in a Brokerage Party System

AbstractThis article examines changes in individuals' identification with Canadian federal political parties in the period 1977 to 1981. The analysis suggests that differences in class and ideology have a significant, if not very large effect on shifts in partisan identity. There was a slight bias toward more upper-class identification with the Progressive Conservative party and more lower-class identification with the Liberal party. Unstable partisans were at least as ideologically constrained as stable partisans, and partisan instability was more pronounced amongst the more left-wing individuals. Changes in partisanship were more likely among younger respondents, particularly lower-class and more left-wing youth. The largest bloc of unstable partisans was closest ideologically to the more left-wing stable New Democratic party partisans, and shifted only between the New Democratic and Liberal parties. A smaller bloc moved to the Progressive Conservative party and was ideologically closest to its more right-wing stable partisans.

Ideology and Public Policy in Canada

This article examines the political ideology of Canadian elites on the basis of a sample survey conducted in 1977. The six hundred respondents include business executives, politicians, government bureaucrats, labour leaders, lawyers, media executives, and academics. Our purposes are, first, to make comparisons among and examine variation within these sectoral groups; second, to relate ideological cleavages to differences in support for the federal political parties; and, third, to examine the correspondence between more general ideological principles and elite opinions on a variety of specific public policy issues.

Social stratification, voting behaviour, and the images of Canadian federal political parties*

Nous servant des sondages faits sur les élections nationales canadiennes de 1965 et 1968, nous développons l'analyse d'ogmundson sur l'esprit de vote des différentes classes sociales, dans l'enquête de 1965. Dans son étude, il comparait les résultats obtenus quand les orientations de classes des partis politiques étaient formulées de trois façons possibles: d'après les jugements des experts, d'après la moyenne des évaluations données par les répondants du sondage de 1965, et d'après les estimations idiosyncratiques de chaque répondant. Les deux derniers critères étaient pris des évaluations de chaque parti, selon une échelle sémantique à sept points, qui avait, comme points axiaux: “pour la classe moyenne” opposéà“pour la classe ouvrière.” Notre analyse répond à trois questions: premièrement, si les découvertes de base d'Ogmundson pour 1965 tiennent pour 1968; deuxièmernent, si les évaluations sur les partis par les répondants, d'aprés une deuxième échelle établie parles points “de gauche” opposées à“de droite,” donnent des résultats comparables, aussi bien sur les échelles que dans les sondages. Finalement, en utilisant une analyse de facteur, s'il y a, sur l'ensemble de treize échelles employées dans chaque enquête, quelque évidence d'un facteur de classe dans les évaluations données aux partis. La réponse est affirmative pour la première question et négative pour la seconde. Dans le cas de la troisième, un seul facteur fixe apparaît pour chaque parti, comme décrit par ses électeurs. La structure de ce facteur est commune à tous les partis dans les deux élections, et cela n'a pas grand chose à faire avec les orientations de classe perçues par les répondants. On explore toujours les implications théoriques de ces données.Using the 1965 and 1968 Canadian national election surveys, we extend Ogmundson's analysis of the “class” vote in the 1965 survey. He compared the results obtained when the class orientations of political parties were defined in three alternative ways: according to the judgments of experts: according to the mean ratings given by respondents in the 1965 survey; and according to each respondent's idiosyncratic ratings. The latter two criteria were taken from ratings of each party along a 7–point semantic differential‐type scale which had as its end points “for the middle class” v. “for the working class.” Our analysis answers three questions: first, whether Ogrnundson's basic findings for 1965 hold also for 1968: second, whether respondents' ratings of the parties along a second scale anchored by “left‐wing” v. “right‐wing” yield comparable results across scales and Surveys; third, using factor analysis, whether there is any evidence for a class‐based theme in the ratings given parties on the set of thirteen scales employed in each survey. The answer is affirmative to the first question and negative to the second question. In the case of the third question, a single unrotated factor emerged for each party as described by its voters. The structure of this factor was common to all parties in both elections, and it appeared to have very little to do with their perceived class orientations. Theoretical implications of these findings are explored.