Party Systems and Elections

In SOCSTUD_109 Comparative Government and Politics

PARTIES AND ELECTIONS

• core practices of democratic politics
• affect the way that interests are represented and how political power is distributed in a
political system
• differentiation in the development of modern political system can partially be explained
by the differences in party and electoral system
Party Systems in Pacific Asia
• Political parties are primarily a platform for elections
• Transformation to electoral political parties was related to the movement of political
liberalization and democratic transition from the mid 1980’s and the reform of electoral
systems
What are the factors that shaped the development of modern political parties?
• First factor, the idea of modern political parties as the principal framework and platform
for interest articulation and representation met strong resistance from the political party
of the traditional power stucture and political practices.
• Second, the influence of the world communist movement and the Leninist party.
• Leninist party features communist ideology, secrecy, strict discipline, close membership,
party loyalty, and complete devotion.
• Third, the effect of nationalist movements across Pacific Asia seeking independence
from colonial rule.
• In Singapore, Malaysia, and Philippines, political parties were set up as organized
negotiation with the colonial government
• In Indonesia, Korea, Vietnam, and China, political parties emerged as the institutional
core of political movement, military operation, and social management.
• In the first half of the 20th century, political parties became an important platform for
ideological advocacy, mass mobilization, social revolution and nationalist movements.
• Electoral professional parties had broad grassroots support and loyal membership and
represented the interests of certain sectors of society.
• Through political parties, elites mobilized the masses in support for their political and
social agenda and integrated them into national politics.
• Political party systems in Pacific Asia in 1980 includes Communist one-party system and
Single-party dominant system.
• Communist one-party system is based on the communist ideology that the Communist
party is the sole representative of the working classes. The Communist party is
constitutionally the core leadership party. While there are other legal political parties under
the system, they are the main consultative, a legacy of the past political history and a
showcases of the party’s wide support. These parties have little substance in competitive
politics. The core leadership party governs the political system with the aid of the state
institutions.
• Includes China, Vietnam,North Korea, Laos, Cambodia
• The Communist party became the only active, effective political party. It incorporated
state institutions and turned the ruling political structure into a party-state.
• Communist parties was strong in mass integration, one of the three functions of ‘mass-
based’ political party of Otto Kirchheimer which were mass integration, policy
determination, and officeholder nomination.
• The primary function of communist parties was to serve as ‘transmission belts’ that
integrate the mass population and various political and social forces into the political order
envisaged by the communist ruling elite.
• Second, the communist parties were also heavily bureaucratized, communists took
themselves not only the task of managing the party’s large organization, but also the
challenge of running the country.
• Third, elite-centered party organization
• Single-party dominant system, one political party is legally allowed to hold effective
power. Although minor parties may sometimes be allowed, they are legally required to
accept the leadership of the dominant party. This party may not always be identical to the
government, although sometimes positions within the party may in fact be more important
than positions within the government.
• The dominant party dominates ‘the electorate, other political parties, the formation of
governments, and the public policy agenda’, these aspects are interrelated and together
create a ‘virtuous cycle of dominance.’
• Includes Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines
Catch-all Parties and Corporatist Parties
Two Significant Trends in the Development of Political Parties in Pacific Asia
• First, the transformation of mass-bureaucratic parties into electoral-professional parties
or ‘catch-all parties’ to broaden its political appeal to wider constituents
• Second, the corporatist parties in the former communist countries are experiencing their
own transformation.
• Corporatist party is a long established political party that takes mass integration as its
primary function without the ideological or any significant electoral challenge
• Pacific Asia today is dominated by two types of political parties: catch-all parties and
corporatist parties
• The catch-all parties see themselves primarily as a platform for voter mobilization. Party
activities are organized to win elections.
• Corporatist parties take the challenge of social management and political control to be
their primary function.
Party structures
Difference Between Catch-all Party and Corporatist Party
• organization of the parties
• the party’s presence at the local and grass roots levels.
• the political support base of the party.
• there are different set of political and structural constraints.
Party organization in Pacific Asia

Corporatist party Catch-all party

Leadership Institutionalized Personalized

Bureaucratization High Low
Structure Hierarchic Elitist
Membership Controlled Open
Support-bases Membership Voters
Grass-roots Organized branches Local factions and
personalized support group

Candidate Selection Procedures

• Winning elections is essential for catch-all parties
• Candidate selection is important intra-party mechanism for resource and power
distribution, trading on interests among key players within the party, and the shaping in the
party’s identity and electoral image.
• For the corporatist party, the issue of candidate selection is confined to the party’s
internal posts, as there are more than public posts in their political system.
Principal Methods of Party Candidate Selection for Highest Public Offices

Primary Primary and poll Party Candidate break to

recommendation form a new
party/coalition
Japan Taiwan China Philippines
South Korea Singapore Thailand
Malaysia South Korea
Vietnam

Membership, Recruitments, and Grassroots Organization

Corporatist parties
• Leninist party
• Attract members implicitly with significant political and social privileges
• Heavy demands on members
• An applicant would need to be sponsored by two current party members
Catch-all parties
• Very limited, consisting only of party loyalists at regional and local levels, and
professional politicians at the national level
• Party branches at the grassroots level either do not exist or exist primarily for voter
mobilization
• A vote chief system exists in various guises which serves as the primary link between
voters and their candidate, faction and party.
Factionalism and Regionalism
The two distinct features of the political party systems in Pacific Asia
• Factionalism is a phenomenon in many political parties in Pacific Asia where factions are
primary form of intra-party organization, activity, and decision-making.
• Faction is an organized interest group within a political party.
The four types of factions are:
• Factions of shared values
• Strategic conceptions
• Common material interests, origins, or functions
• Personal or local cliques

Factionalism in Political Parties

Japan’s LDP China’s CPC South Korea, Thailand

Taiwan’s DPP Singapore’s PAP Indonesia, Philippines

Legitimate, open, Prohibited, Less relevant,

Dominant underground, More inter-party coalition
informal than intra-party factionalism

• Regionalism is a phenomenon in political parties where the organization, structure and

intra-party politics are decisively affected by the geographical background of the party
leadership and supporters.
Party Funding and Money Politics
Four Models of Political Party Funding
• Mainstream model – state matching funds political donations (Japan, Taiwan, Korea)
• Corporatist model – state funding and membership dues (China CPC)
• Personal wealth model – funded primarily by leader’s personal wealth (Thaksin and his
TRC in Thailand)
• Party enterprise model – funds itself with its own enterprises (Taiwan’s KMT)