The Political Theory of Parties and Partisanship: Catching Up

Abstract

Despite their centrality to modern democracy, until recently political parties were relegated to the margins of normative democratic theory, taking a back seat to social movements, civil society associations, deliberative experiments, spaces for local participatory government, and direct popular participation. Yet, in the past 15 years, a burgeoning literature has emerged in democratic theory focused directly on parties and partisanship; that is our focus in this review. We locate three main normative defenses of parties: one centered in the special role parties can play in political justification as agents of public reason, a second that looks to the way parties contribute to deliberation, and a third that focuses on the partisan commitment to regulated political rivalry and peaceful rotation in office. In this last connection, we survey work on the constitutional status of parties and reasons for banning parties. We then consider the relation of partisanship to citizenship, and in a fourth section we turn to the ethics of partisanship. Parties and partisanship are interwoven but separable: If partisans are necessary to realize the value of parties, the reverse holds as well, and parties are necessary to realize the value of partisanship.

Deinstitutionalization of the Congress ‘party system’ in Indian competitive politics

“…include the forces of conspiracy and disinformation. Parties are creating an epistemic chasm among citizens as significant as partisan polarization, making it impossible not only to compromise and negotiate but even to disagree gracefully (Muirhead and Rosenblum, 2020). The Congress continues to be the largest opposition party, with two out every 10 Indian voters supporting it, but the current political dispensation in power, the BJP, does not accord it the norm of a legitimate opposition.…”

Political Oppositions in Democratic and Authoritarian Regimes: A State-of-the-Field(s) Review

“…Take, for example, personalization or polarization, which have figured prominently in both contemporary democratic and authoritarian politics, and the political study thereof (see e.g. Arbatli and Rosenberg 2021; Frantz et al 2021; McCoy and Somer 2019; Muirhead and Rosenblum 2020). The realization that personalization and polarization may take rather different forms in democratic and authoritarian settings, and affect political oppositions in categorically different ways, could well become the source of a deeper understanding of key issues on either subdiscipline's agenda.…”

Beyond Presidentialism and Parliamentarism

“…However, whether this is desirable is itself controversial. While many authors highlight the importance of programmatically principled and responsible parties, others worry about their negative effects (Muirhead 2006;Muirhead and Rosenblum 2020). Semi-parliamentarism can balance these different perspectives by electing the chamber of confidence in a party-based manner and the chamber of legislation in ways that strengthen the role of independents.…”