The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (197 page)

See
party convention
.

 
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The periodic conference of a political party, used for deciding policy and/or for nominating candidates.
The policy-forming convention is characteristic especially of European socialist parties. Some, including the British
Labour Party
, have had long arguments about whether the party convention, the parliamentary party, or the leader is finally responsible for deciding party policy. Whatever the formal position may be, no party leadership in practice allows the party convention to have the final say. In right-wing parties, the party convention is typically designed to be a rally of the faithful rather than a policy-forming body.
The nominating convention is a prominent feature of politics in the United States. The Democratic and Republican parties each hold a convention in the summer preceding each Presidential election (that is, in years divisible by four). The purpose is to nominate the party's candidate for President. States have votes roughly in proportion to the number of
Electoral College
votes which they control. In recent years, nominating conventions have been foregone conclusions because one candidate has always amassed pledges from more than half of the delegates before the convention meets. However, that is a recent development. The 1880 Democratic convention went to thirty-six ballots before choosing James A. Garfield (who won the Presidency, and was assassinated shortly afterwards). State parties may give their pledges to
favourite sons
, who are not expected to win, but who may be able to use their vote as a bargaining tool. Therefore, future conventions which do real work are not ruled out.
The razzmatazz and drama (however forced) of nominating conventions has been a frequent source of inspiration to film-makers (
The Manchurian Candidate
,
Bob Roberts
) and writers such as Norman Mailer and Hunter S. Thompson .

 
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The answer a respondent gives to a question of the form ‘Generally, do you see yourself as a Republican, a Democrat, an Independent, or what?’ and its equivalent in other countries. In the 1950s the
Michigan school
of survey research argued that party identification questions tapped a stable underlying orientation which might be disturbed by current affairs without being permanently upset: thus Democrats who voted for the Republican President Eisenhower in 1952 were likely to return to Democratic voting in other times and other elections. Researchers in the UK have been lukewarm to the concept, arguing variously that the question is perceived as no different to the question ‘If there were a General Election tomorrow, for whom would you vote?’, and that the Michigan approach underrated the rationality of electors' choices. However, the two approaches are reconciled in current survey research, which accords a role both for party identification and for rational choice.

 
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Any system of
proportional representation
in which voters choose among parties, rather than among candidates, and votes are awarded to the parties in proportion to the votes they have received. Many party-list systems have supplementary provisions which enable voters to raise or lower particular candidates in their ranking ( see
panachage
), but these schemes are generally little used, an exception being Italy prior to its restriction by referendum in 1991. The Italian version had been used by party bosses to check whether voters who had been promised favours in return for voting for a particular slate had actually done so.

 
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An organizational structure which enables political parties in liberal democracies to compete for the popular vote. Also, in
one-party states
and in systems dominated by a single party the party still mobilizes popular support for its policies. The failed communist parties of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were organized around the Leninist principle of
democratic centralism
.
In competitive systems the ‘Rational Efficient’ or ‘Cadre’ party assumes a pluralistic view of society in which party is but one form of organization. The party's role is to act as a broker between many different groups, avoiding issues of internal party democracy, ideology, and even party programme. Its role is to maximize the vote for the party. Winning elections is the only test of success. The ‘Party Democracy’ or ‘Mass Membership’ model in contrast assumes a majoritarian view of society in which the party attempts to articulate and aggregate interests and principles in a clear programme and then seeks electoral support for that programme. Winning elections is important, but also important are issues of internal party democracy and the extent to which the party in government implements the party programme.
The Rational Efficient Party fulfils few functions save that of contesting elections and can rely on professional organizers, while the Party Democracy party in contrast undertakes many activities and seeks to involve members. The Rational Efficient Party has a loose concept of membership and can operate on the basis of informal cliques or cadres, unconcerned with internal processes and considerations of intraparty democracy, while the Party Democracy party has a highly organized membership and is committed to internal party democracy.
The American Republican Party and the British Conservative Party would traditionally fall close to the Rational Efficient end of the spectrum. However, the Conservatives have had a mass membership since the 1880s, originally organized through the separate Primrose League. In recent years both parties have become more ideological or programmatic and, in doing so, are confronted with issues of internal party organization and accountability. Social democratic parties in contrast would lie closer to the Party Democracy end of the spectrum, though they are certainly influenced by pragmatic issues of electoral success. Christian Democratic Parties in Western Europe, and also the French Gaullist Party, emphasize the importance of governing at the expense of a strong programmatic element, but on the other hand they have developed a stronger concept of membership and party democracy than the Republican or Conservative Parties.
The nature of party organization is also shaped by the environment in which the party operates, in other words the political system and in particular the nature of the party system.
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