Samuel H. Barnes

Continuities in political action : a longitudinal study of political orientations in three western democracies

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The Dominant Party System: A Neglected Model of Democratic Stability

POLITICAL PARTIES have long been central to the field of political science. As the most common linkage between the formal governmental structure and the social world, parties are a natural focus for students of political institutions, political behavior, political psychology, and political theory. The variety of the literature on parties reflects their multifaceted nature and the range of questions that can be asked about them. Although the taxonomic is one of the least rewarding approaches to the study of parties, much of the analysis existing in the literature reflects our concern with the differences between one, two, and multi-party systems. Underlying this concern is the realization that the number of parties has significance. The party is a major link between political elites and the mass and an important instrument of governing in most political systems, but the ways in which these functions are performed vary widely. The number of parties in a system and the ways in which they relate to one another are associated with radically different styles of politics. The dominant party system is sometimes recognized as having a separate identity, though more often than not it is seen as a particular mutant of one of the other systems that results from idiosyncratic features of a specific historical tradition. It is our contention that the dominant party system is sui generis. It should not be con-

The Growth of Democratic Legitimacy in Spain

The political transition in Spain provides a rare opportunity to monitor popular attitudes toward alternative regimes. Through the analysis of national surveys conducted in 1978, 1979–80, and 1984, we first establish that the Spanish public distinguishes not only between successive governments—the Franquist and the center-right and socialist governments of the post-Franco period—but also between Francoism and democracy as political systems. Second, we show that during the post-Franco era the criteria of legitimacy have begun to shift from formal political to social democratic values. These analytical results are achieved by comparing standard with less orthodox measures of political legitimacy and performance, and by revising conventional theories of system support. Third, we estimate the determinants of support for and opposition to the two regimes. The Franquist system remains more polarizing than does the democratic system; the constituencies of the democratic regime are considerably broader and more heterogeneous. However, while the new democratic state is comparatively inclusive and autonomous, low rates of political participation and changes in traditional socialist ideology have made the institutional bases of legitimacy ambiguous.

Left, Right, and the Italian Voter

he great payoff for empirical research is an excellent fit between theory and data. The pleasure of the accomplishment is intensified by its rarity. Social science has been much better at criticism than validation, at revealing that what we think we know is in fact not so than in constructing useful models of behavior. It is even more unusual for research to demonstrate the empirical foundation of conventional wisdom. Hence one of the rarest experiences of all is to have theory and data confirm the essential verisimilitude of political folklore. And yet to report such esoteric findings is the pleasant task of the present paper. Spatial models of party competition are among those that have not fared well when juxtaposed to data. Nevertheless, it is commonplace for scholars, politicians, journalists, and others to analyze politics in spatial terms. The assumption that parties, policies, and politicians can be located at a particular point in a space that extends from left to right has long been current in the idiom of politics. It is not at all strange that the terms

PARTY IDENTIFICATION AND PARTY CLOSENESS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

The present analysis uses data from 1974 and 1981 U. S. cross sections, which incorporate a panel, to compare the standard NES measure of party identification (ID) with a measure of partisanship derived from a party closeness question widely employed in cross-national research. Important features of the two scales are examined by transforming the closeness measure into a scale of very close, fairly close, not very close, and no preference corresponding to the seven-point ID scale. The scales are highly correlated and are similar in their reliability. More than 75% of the “independents” in the ID scale choose a party in the closeness version, and over half of these select the “fairly close” category. Respondents do not volunteer that they are independents when that alternative is not stated in the question.

Political Action in Europe and the USA

The theory and measurement of political action the social background of political action ideology and political action values and political action dissatisfaction and political action the general model of political action generations and families in conclusion - the future of political action in Western democracies.

Ideology and the Organization of Conflict: On the Relationship Between Political Thought and Behavior

IDEOLOGY iS one of the most frequently cited and inadequately understood subjects of empirical political inquiry. It easily lends itself to diverse and conflicting usages and, with a few notable exceptions, research on it has been inconclusive and non-cumulative. If the theorist of ideology consequently faces many pitfalls, he also thereby gains considerable freedom of interpretation. I will take advantage of this freedom in order to criticize the utility of most usages of ideology and to suggest an alternative approach. I assume that the most important problems facing the student of ideology are empirical; that is, they do not involve the analysis of the merits and shortcomings of particular ideologies or the historical origins of contemporary ideological disagreements, though these important topics also merit attention. Rather, the most pressing problems concern how ideologies affect the structure of political conflict on the macro level and individual action on the micro level. They involve the relationship between political thought and behavior, and this relationship is primarily a problem of linkage. I maintain that this linkage takes place largely in the organizations in which elites and masses come together for political action, and that political organization is consequently the most promising focus for research on ideology. There is mounting evidence that mass publics do not react in ideological terms. It seems equally true that much contemporary political conflict has an ideological dimension. This paper seeks to contribute towards the resolution of this seeming contradiction: It is presented not as a solution but as a beginning. In it, I (1) suggest a restricted usage of the term ideology; (2) review and criticize methods of operationalizing and measuring ideology and its disper-

The Spanish Public in Political Transition

Once again, Spain is in political transition. The death of Franco in 1975 provided the opportunity for rationalizing an awkward political system. The objective of the politicians who gathered to draft a new constitution was twofold: to organize a state that was to be both modern and legitimate in a society that is still in many ways ‘pre-civic’ but, at the same time, increasingly tied to the industrial and post-industrial West.

Economic Policy and Public Opinion in Spain

The socialist party has come to power in Spain just as socialist orthodoxy has fallen out of fashion, at a time of widespread unemployment, and in the wake of memories of prosperity during the last years of Francoism. Drawing on data from a national sample, we examine the preferences of Spaniards with regard to economic policy and the effects of these preferences on support for the government. Economic opinions are relatively uncrystallized, although it is possible to discern a progressive-conservative split. An equally important feature of public opinion is the high level of expectations surrounding government responsibility for economic affairs. These characteristics reflect the disjuncture between economic ideology and actual practice during past decades as well as an older legacy of statist values. Despite the inchoate nature of attitudes on certain economic issues, and because of the high level of expectations regarding economic policy, perceptions of collective economic conditions-that is, sociotropic considerationstend to have a greater impact than traditional cleavages, such as religion, on support for the government.

Social Identity and Mass Politics in Spain

Social identities based on class, religion, and region underpin political cleavages in Spain. This article examines the salience of divisions based on these identities and estimates changes in the conflict-potential of the cleavages over time. The political consequences as well as the origins of the dimensions of conflict are analyzed. While some of the social identities remain fairly strong—religion, for example, more evidently than class—the direct effects of the cleavages on both within-and extra-system politics at the mass level appear to have weakened. Data are drawn from the third in a series of national surveys conducted in 1978, 1980, and 1984.