PO101 Lecture 9: Political Parties
Document Summary
People and politics: mass participation in politics, 30% apathetic, 60% spectators, 5-7% gladiators, all in all, no more than 20% of the population regularly engages in political issues. Do voters know what they are doing: how rational are voters, according to rational choice theory, voters are rational if they, know what their priorities are, vote for those who are most likely to satisfy their preferences. Inform themselves about various candidates: paradox of voting, given that hundreds of thousands of people vote, the chance of a tie is minuscule. So the chances that an individual"s vote decides the election is equally minuscule. Hence it is almost certain that the act of voting has no consequences. Types of political parties: 19th century: caucus parties, 20th century: mass parties, 1970s: catch-all parties, both left and right : liberal party, attractive to both people on the left and the right, most common to represent in parliament.
