Political Parties, Pressure Groups and Social Movements

 Comparison of PG/PP/SM is one of the prominent areas of investigation in modern comparative politics 

Refer the same topic under 1B ( Party and Pressure Groups)

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Political Parties 

• Systematic study of political parties - Statistology(Behavioralists)
• Input fn - Interest Aggregation (As per struct-fun approach of Almond and Powell)
• Party System - no of parties of systemic relevance and not the number of political parties  (Sartori)
• Two approaches - Traditionalist (normative) and behaviourist(pol parties are Powerhouse)

Edmund Burke (Traditionalist)  Pol parties as a group of people with a shared ideology for the pursuit of common interest	Otto Von Kirchheimer (Kidhar bhi side mar jayenge)  Catch all parties  Ideology don’t matter Office oriented	Lenin  ToCommunist Party (in his template- what is to be done) Secret Society,cells at local level. Pyramidal Vanguards of Revolution  Democratic Centralism - demo bcz top will do what base will say. centralism bcz top will take the decision.

Robert Michels (Behavioral Theory) book - Political Parties  Functioning of socialist  Irrespective of party -Communist party too are same Party are new elites Oligarchy is the iron law	Maurice Duverger Political Parties  Duverger Law  Simple majoritarian - 2 party  Proportional - Multi party  India - exception  2 types on the ideology bases Mass party - liberal,communist Cadre party - left/right 4 structures of pol parties(BCMC) Branch - liberal Cell - communist party  Militia - Armed - Mussolini, Redguards of Communist party of china. Caucus - Rightist elites	Myron Weiner  Western or non western  Not homogenous  Constructed Ideal types  West  2 party  British - Turnover ideological  US- Turnover pragmatic  Multiparty - Continental Europe East Hegemonic non competitive - China 1 Party dominant - S.Africa 2 Party - Sri lanka Multiparty - India  not necessarily secular. Lack intra party democracy, controlled by dynasties, revolve around personality, lack transparency and financial accountability,

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Pressure Groups 

Intro- Interest groups are called invisible empires by Finer. (The empire was so finer that became invisible)

• Do not compete for formal post. yet influence government's decision.
• Play the game of hide and seek in political system.
• Study of pressure group is known as pluralism.
• Perform the role of Interest articulation.
• Robert Dahl -calls liberal democracies as Polygarchy because of great role of pressure group.

Interest Groups vs Pressure Groups-

• No difference in terminology.
• Traditionalist prefer PG, Behavioralist prefer IG
• 'PG'- focus is on group. 'IG' focus is on purpose.

Finer IE — iA  Invisible empires which perform the function of Interest Articulation  Rajni Kothari  Agents of moderation  Reservoirs of leadership C. WRIGHT Mill - USA is ruled by power elites.

Gabriel Almond (type of interest group) (he also gave Str-fun app with Powell, and Political Culture with Verba) Institutional -  Part of Gov - IAS association, Pak Army Strongest in Developing - overdeveloped states  Associational(advocay group) Purely Interest Based(Trade unions, FICCI, CII),Very strong in West Non-Associational  Community based(Gujar), Jat mahasabha. Exclusive in nature.-> prismatic society Non West countries  Anomic  Norm less,Crowd behaviour, Mob like (NSCN) Non West - as democracy is not well institutionalised  Political Decay - SP Huntington

SPH - Pol Decay - Crisis of Repn  Neera Chandhoke Focus on civil society dates to 1980s Crisis of Representation From older models of democracy - pol parties to newer models - NGOs and informal citizen groups  Jean Blondel (new classification of PG) (Improvement over Almond’s static  model ) Dynamic model : Changes with changes in societies  Trad ==> Modern society  Nature: Non ass ==> Associational  Obj: Protectionist => Devpntal

Conclusion : We can apply Political Modernisation Theory that once Urbn, indusn, Ratn, and Secularisn take place ==> Nation building ==> Less role of ethnic politics  Successful PGs Insti PG - IAS Lobby,Rich Farmers ,FICCI, CII,Tobacco, Pak Army Failed  Trade Unions - Junior partner, dilute of labour laws   Student Unions - Junior partners and divided on ideological lines Women orgns - lack solidarity as divided on religion and caste  Poor Peasant - not tolerated - UAPA Power Brokers

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Social Movements 

"Street politics" "Interface of society and politics" "Feature of left politics" "Least Institutionalized among PG and party"

Collective Behaviour - Interchangeable — INC - S M->PG->Party 

• Pol Parties,PGs , SMs 

Component of Social Movements - Generally Linked to Left ( Liberals - Institutional) politics to street politics; resource mobilisation) 

• Objective, Strategy 
• Leadership, ideology 
• Social Base 

West 

• Obj, Social base, Techniques, Ideological orientation 
• Old - Worker movements; Basic issues of life, Lower classes, Direct action (Strikes) , Materialist 
• New - Envt, Peace ; Quality of life issues, Middle classes, innovative strat- theatres, literary mode, Post materialist  

Herbert Marcuse - known as 'Father of new Left/New SM' -book- 'One dimensional man'

Current

• Developing : Coexistence of old and new
• Eg- Envt movement in India 
• Obj : Basic issues of life as well as envt protection 
• SBase: Base - tribals led by the middle class
• Techq - Direct action protests along with nukkad natal, theatre
• Orientaiotn : Mat and post mat 
• Developed Countries : New only 

New social movements in India : Corruption - Lokpal, RTI, AAP Phenomenon, Envt - Narmada Bachao 

Old Links b/w People and Govt  : PGs and Pol Parties 

New links could be Social movements  

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Electoral System - 

Intro - Since Rep demo has become inevitable, Electoral system has become part and parcel of any theory of democracy.

• Any ES should be --Free and fair and representative with minimum wastage of votes.
• Democracy means protection of minorities -> hence ES must be able to give enough minority view rep space. Real democracy is not majoritarian but consociational.
• Types- 
  

majority

• Simple majority type- In LS, Vidhansabha of India.
• - Lease representative, Max wastage of votes. (Winner takes all).It favours big parties.(Reason for INC hegemony)
• + Only merit is simplicity.
• Second Ballot system - Prez election in France and Afghanistan. Winning candidate needs absolute majority and not just the plurality of votes. Why called 2nd ballot (because possibility of 2 elections)
• + more Representative. 
• - Unnecessary expenditure and burden on electoral machinary. Electoral Fatigue.
• Alternate vote system- Member of house rep in Australia- Winner requires absolute majority. Improved version of Second ballot 
• + no need of 2nd election- Voters will write their preferences(transferable vote).
• - Still large population remains unreped.

Proportional Representation-

• + No vote wastage, Minority is reped. Not Tyranny of majority.
• Single transferable vote (STV)system - In Ireland(quota of seats, In case of Indian Prez (only single vacancy)
• List System -Mostly used in Continental Europe
• +Most representative of all, Elemination of personality factors and imp of parties. Minority reped. There is no need to give any reservation.
• -National parties get benefitted.
• Entire country is single constituency, But a multi-member constituency,