The Two-Party System’s Effect on Democracy.

By: Katherine Szetu, Paul Ji, John Mark Shorack, and Ibis Almada

 

After a heated discussion about whether or not a two-party system harms democracy, we came to a conclusion that it does indeed harm democracy.  However, the catch here is that the multi-party system is also deleterious to democracy.

As we looked into our countries and their political parties, the ones that had the bipartisan system faced political monopoly by the two major parties and none of the minor parties got much say.  It restricted that choices that people got to have and left the people unheard in the dark.  Many minority parties have tried to overcome the difference, but with those two in power, they find it very difficult to to do, resulting in loss of support both in the number of followers and finance.

However, in the multi-party countries, the people are able to choose the party that best represents them and support them accordingly.  They have a plethora of options to choose from, thus they are able to find one that is most suitable to their beliefs.  This gives a fair chance to any political party with the right platform.

In synthesis, it seems as if the multi-party system has more benefits when it comes to advocating democracy because the bipartisan system is restricting and binding to a certain extent.  People can express themselves more freely and equally through a poly-partisan system.

French Political Parties.

By: Ibis Almada

 

France has a total of thirteen different political parties, of which only four are the most dominant in the country. The parties are the Rally for the Republic (RPR), the Union for A Popular Movement (UMP), the French Communist Party (PCF), and the Socialist Party (PS). France’s political parties are divided into left, extreme left, right, extreme right and sectorial.

The Socialist Party (PS) was funded by François Mitterrand in 1971, and it is the principal opposition party in France (About-France.com), believing in nationalization, a strong welfare state, and participative democracy; which lead François Mitterrand to be elected. They started by nationalizing sectors of the economy, then doing a U-turn and creating policies of privatizations (About-France.com). The second, and still main, left party has been the French Communist Party, (PCF) which was founded by Georges Marchais. This party stayed the same after the fall of the soviet communism in 1990, which cause the party to split into different pieces, now only attracting less than 5% of the people. (About-France.com). The Union for A Popular Movement, (UMP) is one of the largest political parties, because it has achieved so much, do to the party’s involvement in a broad range of political opinion like conservatives and social liberals (About-France.com). Lastly, the Rally for the Republic (RPR) which was founded by Chirac in 1976. The party is considered Gaullist, because of its ideologies in conservatism, conservative Liberalism and Gaullism.

The reason why these parties have lasted is because of their right and left different and the amount of time they have been around. Another big influence is the fifth republic, which drastically decreased the amount of political parties, because the small ones were joining with the stronger and financially stable ones. Many of them united to the socialist program because it promoted closer economic and political cooperation with the Soviet Union.

The parties advance the cause of democracy because it gives the voters the options to choose which party they like best. They are not putting them between the spear and the wall but actually giving them options to decide which one thy really want. This also helps the government of a country to be constantly changing which is what people prefer. I would judge the level of democracy of France as more than competent but not quite outstanding. They have a big variety of parties, but having so many parties may trouble the people and could also cause no one party to hold office for more than once, every election and that is not enough time to accomplish everything any party wants.

Work Cited:

-“The Main French Political Parties.” France Diplomatie. http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/france/institutions-and-politics/the-french-political-system/article/the-main-french-political-parties (accessed October 23, 2012)

-“Political Parties in France.” About-France.com. http://about-france.com/political-parties.htm
(accessed October 23, 2012)

-“Government, Political Parties” Countries Quest. http://www.countriesquest.com/europe/france/government/political_parties.htm (accessed October 23, 2012)

Italian Political Parties.

By: John Mark Shorack

 

Italy is a multi-party system. Most parties have a decent chance to win and have a favorable amount of citizens voting for them. They are the Italian Popular Party, Forza Italia (Go Italy), and the Democratic Party of the Left. The Italian Popular Party represents the views of the church, free enterprise, and social reform; the Forza Italia represents the conservative Italians, and was a coalition of several parties like the Northern League and the National Alliance (Britannica).

In Italy, previous to the Italian Popular Party was the Democratic Christian party  they had the support of the Roman Catholic (Britannica). This gave them a big advantage.  Now, they have become the Italian Popular Party so they do not have as much influence. Today, in Italy most parties are more powerful than others because they have a majority in Parliament. Many times they are required to create a coalition increasing the democracy of Italy. When parties create a coalition than they have a majority and the power.

The variety of parties in Italy does advance democracy. It allows the people to pick a party that truly follows their beliefs. They have a wide range variety of parties, and this way everyone and every belief has a chance of winning and helping the country. At the same time, many times it requires a coalition in Parliament which means the majority will have to listen to more than just their own side. I would give Italy’s democracy a 9 out of 10.  I believe it is very democratic because everyone can vote and have different beliefs to choose from, but it also means some people will not get the policies they fought for, because the coalition did not include them.

Work Cited:

-“Italy” Encyclopedia Britannica. n.d. Web. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/297474/Italy/258800/Political-parties (accessed October, 23 2012)

-“Italian Popular Party” Encyclopedia Britannica. n.d. Web. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/297317/Italian-Popular-Party (accessed October, 23 2012)

 

Mexican Political Parties.

By: Katherine Szetu

Mexico is a multi-party system rule mainly by three large political parties: The Institutional revolutionary Party (PRI), the National Action Party (PAN) and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). However, there are other political parties officially recognize by congress such as the Labor Party (PT), and Convergence, but they do not have chances of winning.

The PAN is a conservative Christian Democratic Party founded in 1939 in order to look after the interests of the Roman Catholic Church and businesses. They wanted to bring change into the country and eliminate the chaos that the Mexican Revolution had caused. Some of their policies are to reduced taxes, advocate free enterprise and privatization. Regarding,  its followers, they get their support mainly from urban middle class citizens and from the northern parts of the country (Britannica). On the other hand, PAN’s greatest opposing party the PRI was founded during a time of conflict with the Roman Catholic Church and the United States. It gained it’s support from the military and peasants. They were supposedly working towards making a stable country; however it was becoming a monopoly government. It used violent repression, bribed the people and committed fraud in order to win elections. They privatized some states firms, did some economic reforms, control employment and the students had to join the various chambers of commerce by the government. They never held an election until 2000, which they lost against the PAN. The third dominant party the PRD was founded in the 1989 to promote a more democratic party, since they thought the PRI had become hierarchical. Their main focus was to improve the economy by increasing trade and foreign investment.

Even though Mexico has a multi-party system , they do not encourage democracy or practice it as they should. In many cases political parties have committed fraud during the elections by voting manipulation. In addition, Mexico has been ruled by authoritarian parties such as the PRI, which fortunately no longer possessed the same amount of power as before. Mexico declares itself democratic; however, is extremely corrupted.

Work Cited:

-“Mexico” Encyclopedia Britannica.n.d. Web
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/289313/Institutional-Revolutionary-Party-PRI
-“Mexico” Encyclopedia Britannica.n.d. Web
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/404268/National-Action-Party-PAN
-“Council on Hemispheric Affairs” Coha.org
http://www.coha.org/democracy-in-mexico-the-past-present-and-future/

Australian Political Parties.

By: Paul Ji

 

Australia has numerous political parties, but only two political groups have an actual chance of forming a government in Australia (LDP). The two major political parties are the Australian Labor Party and the other one is the Liberal Party of Australia.  Although there are three other parties with federal representation in the national Senate, they do not have much power to make any significant changes.

With that stated, the Australian Labor Party was formed by trade unions seeking a political voice in the late 1800’s (Parliament@Work).  They developed into an organisation that represents the interests of paid labor.  Its strongest electoral support originates from inner city and industrial suburbs that are populated with lower incomes and blue-collar occupations.  The Labor Party traditionally advocates the improved working and living conditions for the wage-earning population (Parliament@Work).    However, the Liberal Party of Australia developed from an alliance of various free enterprise parties in hopes to represent the “forgotten people,” also known as minorities.  Albeit their supporters are wide in range, their strongest support comes from metropolitan residential suburbs and districts with high levels of income and property ownership.  They like to promote free enterprise and individual liberty.

One of the major reasons that these two parties have been able to stay as the major political force is because both have a strong support, both in number and finance.  The ALP (Australian Labor Party) has been one of the oldest and first political parties formed in Australia.  Their traditional beliefs gained strong support from the beginning, allowing them to stay in power.  The Liberal Party of Australia was formed by rich businessmen or companies, thus they had a strong financial support that aided them in campaigning and gaining followers.  Ever since both of these two parties gained their political influence, they have been making laws and such to prevent any opposing minor political party to take a shot.

The two party system advances the cause of democracy because it puts things into perspective between black and white.  Had there been a plethora of parties to choose from, it might be hard for the actual “majority” to be formed.  Some might argue that having many political parties would provide a wide array of beliefs to choose from, but it is harder to come to a certain conclusion from a small amount of people voting for each party.  In order for there to be progress as a government, there shan’t be more than two.  Australia reaps benefits by having two major political parties and a few minor parties that help them set up certain guidelines.

 Works Cited:

-“The Liberal Party of Australia.” Parliament@Work. http://www.parliament.curriculum.edu.au/parties_lib.htm (accessed October 23, 2012).
-“Austrlian Labor Party (ALP).” Parliament@Work. http://www.parliament.curriculum.edu.au/parties_alp.htm (accessed October 23, 2012).
-“A Quick Guide to Australian Political Parties.” LDP. http://ldp.org.au/quiz/ozparties.html (accessed October 23, 2012).