Factional Politics: How Dominant Parties Implode or Stabilize

by Françoise Boucek

Overview

Drawing on theories of neo-institutionalism to show how institutions shape dissident behaviour, Boucek develops new ways of measuring factionalism and explains its effects on office tenure. In each of the four cases - from Britain, Canada, Italy and Japan - intra-party dynamics are analyzed through times series and rational choice tools.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230019935
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	10/29/2012
Edition description:	2012
Pages:	273
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

FRANÇOISE BOUCEK is a Teaching Fellow in European Politics in the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary University of London, a Visiting Professor at the University of Witten Herdecke (Germany) and an Associate of the LSE Public Policy Group. Her research interests include political parties and party systems, party government and representative democracy.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures Acknowledgements Introduction 1. The Theory of One-Party Dominance 2. Why Does One-Party Dominance End in Factionalism 3. Majoritarian Democracies: Executive-Dominated Britain and Decentralised Canada 4. Case 1 - The Thatcher-Major Factional Wars Over Europe 5. Case 2 - The Demise of Canadian Liberal Hegemony 6. Non-Majoritarian Democracies: Centrifugal Italy and Consensual Japan 7. Case 3 - Italy's Christian Democrats: How Factional Capture Bred Self-Destruction 8. Case 4 - The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (1955-2009): End of Hegemony Conclusion: How Parties Succeed or Fail to Manage Factionalism and Stay in Power Notes Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

'Boucek makes an important contribution to explaining the politics of single-party dominance by integrating consideration of both inter- and

intra-party politics. By challenging the unitary actor assumption of

inter-party accounts, she offers a fuller picture of both the maintenance and the decline of single-party dominance. She highlights the importance of institutional incentives and electoral market conditions in shaping the behaviour of factions within a dominant party, and hence its ability to maintain its dominant position.'

- Professor Richard S. Katz, Department of Political Science, The John Hopkins University

'Boucek's study provides a new benchmark for the analysis of how political parties really operate. Its rich comparative analysis of the dynamic relationship between factionalism and party dominance opens new windows into understanding the importance of intra-party organization and life in structuring competitive democratic politics.'

- R. Kenneth Carty, Professor of Political Science, The University of British Columbia

'Why are dominant parties so factionalized, and with what consequences?, This is the crucial question at the core of this original study of political parties in power for extended periods. Combining elements of rational choice and historical institutionalism and investigating four major cases in Britain, Canada, Italy, and Japan, Françoise Boucek uncovers the paradoxical positive and negative functions that factionalism performs and the variables that affect stability and change in these parties. A truly creative, systematic and ground-breaking addition to the literature on political parties.'

- Professor Ellis S. Krauss, School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego

From the Publisher