Party Politics and Democracy
| Module title | Party Politics and Democracy |
|---|---|
| Module code | POL2104 |
| Academic year | 2023/4 |
| Credits | 15 |
| Module staff | Dr Lise Herman (Convenor) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 11 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 50 |
|---|
Module description
For the past two centuries, political thinkers have considered parties with suspicion. They have been pictured at best as a necessary evil for representative government, at worst as agents dividing the polity for their own political gain. Yet, the history of modern European democracy is inseparable from the gradual emergence of partisanship as a structuring fact of political life. This module will provide you with a detailed exploration of this paradox. Drawing on insights from political science, the history of political ideas, and contemporary political theory, it will allow you to investigate the place of parties in the historical development of European and American democracies.
Module aims - intentions of the module
The aims of this module are to provide you with a detailed examination of the place of parties in representative democracies. A key emphasis of the module will be to enrich your understanding of the role of political parties both in the historical development of representative democracy and in its contemporary crises, using a range of theoretical approaches and empirical studies. Through taking this course and fully participating you will leave with a grasp of key debates in party studies and theories of partisanship and knowledge of historical and contemporary trends in the relationship between democracy and party politics.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Demonstrate good knowledge of the role of partisan agency in the historical development of representative democracy and in its contemporary crises.
- 2. Assess the democratic merits of party strategies in Europe and the US from a range of theoretical perspective.
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 3. Demonstrate an understanding of contemporary debates in the field of party studies.
- 4. Display knowledge of diverse approaches to the democratic functions of political parties and a capacity to apply these theoretical tools to empirical case studies.
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 5. Conduct independent research and exercise critical reasoning in weighing academic arguments
- 6. Demonstrate analytical capacity and structure in written and oral expression
Syllabus plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics.
The first half of the module will be chronological, and provide an insight into the progressive institutionalisation of political parties in Western Europe and the United States, from the mid-19th century to post-World War Two. The first sessions will focus on political parties in early modern thought, and consider the arguments that rose both against and in favour of political parties by political thinkers and actors in the 18th and early 19th century. The module will then examine topics such as the interaction between the birth of mass parties and the extension of the voting suffrage; the role of political parties in the development of political cleavages, and the totalitarian turn of partisanship in the inter-war period.
The second part of this module will be thematical, and investigate different aspects of the evolution of party politics since the end of the Second World War. It will interrogate the relevance of political parties for contemporary democracy and critically examine the proposition that they have become obsolete. Themes studied in this second part will include:
- The gradual erosion of the mass party as an organizational form
- The rise of populist parties in Europe
- The role of transnational partisanship in the EU
- The progressive polarization of American politics.
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | 128 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | 22 | 11 x 2 hour per week seminars including small group work, presentations, and class discussion. |
| Guided Independent Study | 50 | Reading |
| Guided Independent Study | 13 | Essay outline preparation |
| Guided Independent Study | 65 | Essay writing |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essay outline | 2 x 400 words | 1-6 | Written |
| General seminar participation and engagement in group work | Throughout the module | 1-6 | Written |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay 1 | 50 | 1,400 words | 1-6 | August/September reassessment period |
| Essay 2 | 50 | 1,400 words | 1-6 | August/September reassessment period |
| 0 | ||||
| 0 | ||||
| 0 | ||||
| 0 |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essay 1 | Essay (1,400 words) | 1-6 | August/September reassessment period |
| Essay 2 | Essay (1,400 words) | 1-6 | August/September reassessment period |
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
Basic reading:
Hofstadter, Richard (1969), The Idea of a Party System: The Rise of Legitimate Opposition in the United States, 1780-1840, Berkeley: University of California Press
Katz, Richard S., and William J. Crotty, eds. 2006. Handbook of party politics. London: SAGE.
Mair, Peter. 2013. Ruling the Void, The Hollowing of Western Democracy. London: Verso.
Mudde, Cas. 2007. Populist radical right parties in Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Muirhead, Russell (2014) The Promise of Party in a Polarized Age, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
Rokkan, Stein, and Seymour Martin Lipset (1967) Party systems and voter alignments: cross-national perspectives, New York: Free Press.
Rosenblum, Nancy (2008), On the Side of the Angels: An Appreciation of Parties and Partisanship, Princeton: PUP
Sartori, Giovanni (1976), Parties and Party Systems, Cambridge: CUP
Schattschneider, Elmer Eric. 2009 [1942]. Party government, American government in action series. New Brunswick: Transaction publishers.
White, Jonathan, and Léa Ypi (2016) The meaning of partisanship, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
| Credit value | 15 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 7.5 |
| Module pre-requisites | Politics in Europe (POL1020), Introduction to Comparative Politics (POL1029) OR Power and Democracy (POL1019). |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 5 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | 09/04/2018 |
| Last revision date | 02/02/2022 |
