Modern democracy is impossible without political parties. They are necessary in the process of the construction of the political class and building of relations between politicians and ‘ordinary people’. So, in Poland in the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries the significance of parties is also very important. Their history is older than the history of the reborn Poland. Especially in Galicia, an autonomous province of the Hapsburg empire, we can see the activities of many politicians. A part of them in (...) 1895 declared the birth of the Popular Party which is a constant element of the Polish political scene. The second traditional current is the socialistic movement, which is also always legally active in Poland. These two camps represent, in simplification, the ‘two Polands’—the first more traditional, conservative and provincial, and the second more progressive, ‘European’ and urban. Actually, in the typical consciousness of a Polish citizen, the political representation of the ‘black’ country is the party Law and Justice of Jarosław Kaczyński, and the ‘red’ country admires the Citizen Platform with Donald Tusk as a leader. But probably the idea of a twoparty system, like in the Anglo-Saxon world, is still very distant to reality, because in the European continent, the tradition of pluralism in a policentric version is still very significant. In Poland, even in the period of the ‘real socialism’ this conception of the organization of political life was realized, though naturally in the specific version. There were three legal parties and the Polish United Workers’ Party (the PUWP) was the most important. From 1976, the PUWP in the light of the Constitution had the official hegemony in the Republic. It is possible to compare this situation with the period 1926–39, when, after the coup d’état by Marshal Piłsudski, the Government still won in the election and the official elite wanted to create a stable political force with a perspective of permanent rule. But we must remember that between the wars opposition always was legal. In our times of demoliberalism, this is quite normal (though under the Constitution, unconstitutional parties, for example, communist or fascist, are unacceptable); however, interesting is the fact that when you observe sine ira et studio the evolutional trend of the Polish political system, you easily find the tendency of the ‘stabilization’ of the party system in the way of legal operations. From 1997, the laws concerning political parties have changed the possibilities of the conquest of seats in the Seym. Actually, only the parties having 5 per cent (or 8 per cent in coalition) of votes can gain the representation in the Diet. So it is possible to claim that the little parties today are in a more complicated situation than in the first years after the ‘operation of Round Table’ in 1989. The contemporary system is maybe more stable, but less liberal. There are theoreticians who note the danger of the alienation of the political class in the situation of the renewal of the alienation of the political elite, which de facto is more connected with the state than with the society. Many theoreticians emphasize that in the future the role and the character of political structures will be profoundly different from today. Maybe they are prophets, but we can expect that the Polish political parties or ‘post-parties’ and also political structure as a whole will have many similarities with their actual equivalents, because the mentality of the Polish nation, including the politicians, is more or less enduring. (shrink)

The Belgian scientific literature dealing with political parties has four main characteristics. First it pays great attention to party doctrines and to parliamentary struggle. Indeed, in the nineteenth century political parties do not strike by their organization, which is still undeveloped, nor by their functions, which are still limited, but by the public debate they are stimulating in Parliament and in the press. Only from the end of the century, when the suffrage is extended, the organization of the parties wilt (...) get more articulated and their functions more complicated. Secondly the literature pays great attention to the legitimation of the political parties, which are still controversial particularly because they should threaten the national union. The authors exert oneselves to prove that parliamentary government is by definition a party government. They distinguish parties from factions in order to make the first acceptable. Thirdly the literature deals with the party system.The Belgian authors take the two party system which exists in Great Britain as example and try to prove that the alternation of two parties, the party of conservation and the party of progress, is necessary for the good working of the institutions. Fourthly, the literature, particularly the historica!, is rather descriptive and is characterized by a lack of comparisons, generalizations and hypothesis.Two periods can be distinguished in the literature. In the first period, 1830-1894, the suffrage is limited and the political scene is dominated by two parties.This period is marked by the publications of Emile de Laveleye, one of the most prolific writers of the second half of the nineteenth century. In the second period, 1894-1914, the advent of the socialist party disturbs the working of the classical party government. Maurice Vauthier is the main author of this period. He tries to establish the characteristics of the party government and its chances in the future. (shrink)

As the restructuration of municipalities could bring along new local political alliances, one would have thought about the possibility of a relevant modification of the political map of Wallonie after the «elections communales» of October 10th, 1976.Some experts had even conceived that the reorganization of the local authority was a manoeuvre of the central government, made in order to neutralize a region in which the «Parti Socialiste Belge» had the majority. Others thought that the national political strategy would prevail.On (...) the contrary, the results of the election have proved, that the «Parti Socialiste Belge» has kept its predominance in Wallonie. The other political parties have kept their position.The national strategy didn't appear neither in the program, nor in the constitution of the voting lists.The national political «variables», haven't brought modifications to the local objectives for which the main reason remains either to keep the power or to make its conquest. (shrink)

The political year of 1977 was essentially marked by the organizing of an anticipated parliamentary election and by the forming of a new government coalition. The aftermath of these elections and the reactions to the forming of the Tindemans Vcoalition cabinet were the main factors which conditioned the evolution of partie in the course of that year.

The prospect of European elections has begun to alter the conditions under which national poli tical parties exercise their functions. It has brought parties to negociate common platforms and to strengthen transnational organizations. How these organizations wilt be structured, what functions they wilt assume, will be determined largely by the issue of a conflict-solving process between existing national structures, by the ability of national parties to accomplish new functions in a European system, and by the demands of that system.This study (...) presents a tentative framework of analysis for the examination of European groupings of political parties. It may help to interpret current negotiations and future actions of these organizations with reference to the criteria, structures and functions that are classically those of political parties. It suggests how new situations in the European field may be met by existing organizations or give rise to original political answers. (shrink)

This article is concerned with the epistemological and methodological problems related to the taxonomy of political parties whett based on noorganizational criteria.The study of parties represents a starting point for modern Political Science : i.e. the seminal researches of Bryce, Ostrogorski and Michels. However this important field of knowledge hasn't known that much progress since the classical Duverger's Political Parties. Why?Two kind of approaches are used in order to classify parties: individualistic versus holistic. «Individualistic classifications» often suffer from a lack (...) of theoretical background. Same of them use a spurious criterium like party names : i.e. Radical means extreme-left in the USA and conservatism in Switzerland, secularist activism in Italy and evangelical left in the Netherlands etc.Some classifications are based on political platforms which is a meaningless criterium: «A general election campaign is about a choice between organizations, not ideas.» The third criterium is far better: policies really implemented by political parties. However when properly used it gives a typology of countries, not parties.«Holistic classifications» either functionnalist or marxist opposed each other : the first stressed on equilibrium, the latter on class warfare. One suggests Rokkan's four cleavages paradigm to classify parties : each side of a cleavage should correspond to a definite «Political Family».Which items to use in order to assess a party to a permanent cleavage line? The historical function performed by the party at its creation. The sociological structure of the party's : electorate, membership and inner group; The linkage structure between the party and a given network of pressure groups, movements and associations. (shrink)

On October 8th 2000 municipal elections were held in Belgium to renew the local councils which had been elected in 1994. In the Walloon region and in Flanders in addition provincial elections were organised. The aim of the article is to try and measure globally where the political forces stand after these elections and among others to assess whether significant swings have take place since june 13th, 1999, when the latest parliamentary and regional elections took place. On the basis of (...) an estimation of the global results in the municipal elections of the various parties in the Walloon region, in Flanders and in Brussels, backed up by the actual results of the provincial elections, one can say that the liberal group bas strengthened its first position.The Christian democrats, who make up the second most important political group and the Socialists, who rank third, have regained a large part of the losses they incurred onjune 13th, 1999.Although improving their results in comparison with 1994, the Green parties lost again part of their advance they registered in the parliamentary and regional elections and which had probably been boosted by the dioxin crisis.The frenchspeaking far right practically disappears, whereas the Vlaams Blok obtained an average of 15 % of the Flemish electorate in the municipal and provincial elections, a level which it had reached in the 1999 parliamentary elections. (shrink)

The main point developed in this paper is the demonstration of the attitudes characterizing the major Belgian political parties. This is achieved through a factorial analysis applied to a set of data resulting from the answers given by the major parties leaders to various specific questions regarding bath the prevailing economie as well as institutional issues at the eve of the election of December 17th, 1978. From that point it has been possible to compare those results with the one obtained (...) from the data concerning the 1974 programmes.The results of the statistical analysis show that white in 1974 the strongest positive associations between parties corresponded to tht traditional ethical and socioeconomic cleavages, four years later the linguistic dimension was predominant with a stronger homogeneity characterizing the Dutchspeaking group than what could be observed for the Frenchspeaking one.The factorial analysis allows for a graphical representation of the respective positioning of the parties along the statistically significant factorial axes. Applied to two sets of data, the first one on purely institutional matters, the second one on both institutional and economic policies, the analysis reveals clearly through the various graphs presented the linguistic cleavage as well as the divergences about the extent of regional competences and minorities protection, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the degrees of regional economic autonomy and of public intervention in the business life. (shrink)

Pierre Bourdieu a longuement analysé ce qu'il qualifiait de "champ politique". Mais pour penser la politique politiquement, il convient de la penser "hors-champ". Politique hors-champ se présente comme une contribution à la critique de la politique considérée comme un champ particulier et séparé de la vie sociale. Limiter la politique à ses moments institutionnels, alors qu'elle est tout à la fois une pratique sociale, est un appauvrissement de ses potentialités, incompatible avec toute politique d'émancipation (...) - c'est à dire de politique communiste. Il en résulte une critique de certains des concepts les plus habituels de la théorie politique, comme la "société civile", qui suppose une "société politique" distincte et refermée sur elle-même, comme les "partis", qui tendent à s'approprier l'action politique au détriment de la masse des citoyens, et même comme la "démocratie", considérée comme un type d'institutions distinctes de la société elle-même et dès lors insensibles à ses contradictions. Un long chapitre propose de suivre le parcours de l'idée de la politique dans le travail d'un certain nombre d'auteurs classiques, de Machiavel à Marx, montrant comment s'enracinent les thèses proposées dans l'analyse de certaines intuitions, certains développements, voire certaines impasses de ces auteurs. S'ensuivent des critiques détaillées des conceptions classiques de la démocratie et de la notion de parti politique. Pour illustrer les thèses soutenues dans l'ouvrage, différentes époques de l'histoire et différentes disciplines du savoir sont mobilisées, de l'Antiquité classique à la Révolution française ou la Révolution russe, et de l'anthropologie à la sociologie ou la philosophie. L'ensemble constitue un tout à la fois cohérent et ouvert au terme duquel la politique, dont l'enjeu est l'hégémonie, apparaît comme le véritable levain de l'histoire. (shrink)

L'ethique à Nicomaque s'ouvre par une introduction qui fait problème. Et peut-être le fait-elle davantage de ce que nous sommes habitués d'entendre que pour correspondre à la distinction entre individu, société domestique et société civile, la philosophie morale doit se diviser en trois sciences distinctes qui, à transposer simplement les dénominations anciennes, sont: la Monastique, l'Economique et la Politique. Cette division des sciences morales aurait pour fondement de droit que si l'homme est animal sociable, toute société à laquelle il (...) appartient ne comporte pas plus qu'une unité d'ordre, c'est-à-dire que toutes les opérations que l'homme pose ne sont pas nécessairement des opérations de ces sociétés mêmes, des opérations de l'homme en tant qu'il est formellement partie de ces sociétés. On est ainsi conduit à présumer qu'il ne saurait y avoir de confusion possible entre ces trois sciences: chacune a son nom propre pour se tailler dans l'agir humain un domaine tout à fait spécifique. (shrink)

Hume economiste, Hume historien, Hume penseur politique. Hume fut un grand analyste de l'actualite de son epoque, en meme temps qu'un homme de culture. Le commerce, les impots, la dette publique, la population etc. ce sont des questions urgentes sur lesquelles il faut se prononcer, C'est une autre image du philosophe ecossais: sceptique, certes; mais aussi positif quant il s'agit de la conduite humaine, puisque, dans la vie, il faut savoir se conduire et se donner pour cela des regles (...) d'action. On comprend ainsi pourquoi les Discours politiques qui constituent cette deuxieme partie des Essais moraux politiques et litteraires firent le succes de l'auteur aupres du public anglais et francais. (shrink)

Le politique et le chanteur : deux figures qui semblent bien éloignées mais que l’auteur rassemble en partant de la scène kinoise. Stratégie de subversion, culte de la personnalité, culture du clash, soutien de supporters, fonctionnement en factions : avec humour, l’auteur dresse des parallèles entre les univers musicaux et politiques pour, d’une part, souligner combien la musique porte une large part de politique et pour, d’autre part, déconstruire l’autorité du champ politique par la dérision. La dictature (...) est ainsi lue comme le plébiscite, par les masses, d’hommes de scènes, passés maîtres dans la gestion des slogans et des bonnes répliques. Les stars de la chanson, de leur côté, sont partie prenante des campagnes électorales et participent aux stratégies de marketing de la scène politique. Au-delà des jeux de rapprochement, l’article interroge la fabrication des élites, l’espace médiatique, la création des « stars » et l’usage de la parole politique. (shrink)

L'auteur réalise une relecture du corpus théorique postmoderne afin d'en dégager une grammaire politique nouvelle. C'est le parti pris de cet ouvrage que de lier la pensée politique de la postmodernité à l'analyse de la société actuelle et à sa transformation. L'objet théorique qu'il nous propose permet d'envisager et d'éclairer une série de faits sociaux et d'idées nouvelles dans notre contemporanéité mouvante.

Dans un régime comme celui de la République populaire de Chine, où prévaut la suprématie d’un Parti-État unique, la politique et le politique constituent, a fortiori plus qu’ailleurs, la chasse gardée de l’élite dirigeante du pays, à savoir les cadres du Parti communiste. Cet article tente de saisir qui sont les élites politiques aux commandes de la Chine d’aujourd’hui à travers l’analyse du modus operandi de l’École des cadres du Parti de Shanghai. L’étude de cette (...) institution, qui participe à la régulation de la circulation des élites et constitue l’un des lieux privilégiés de la transmission et de l’exercice du pouvoir, permet, par-delà son propre fonctionnement, d’éclairer la nature et le devenir même du régime. S’il apparaît que les forces modernisatrices, en assimilant davantage l’École du Parti à un institut d’administration publique, œuvrent à la professionnalisation du métier de cadre, c’est également et avant tout afin de mieux perpétuer l’hégémonie du Parti-État unique.In a regime where the one Party-State rule still prevails, as is the case in the People’s Republic of China, the polity and politics constitute – here more than anywhere else – the private ground of the country’s ruling elite, i.e. the cadres of the Communist Party. This article attempts to grasp who the political elites in control of contemporary China are, by analyzing the modus operandi of the Shanghai Party School for Cadres. The study of an institution that takes part in the circulation of the elites and hence constitutes one of the privileged playing fields for the transmission and the exercise of power, allows, beyond the understanding of its own working, to shed light on the very nature and evolution of the regime. If the modernizing forces appear to work towards the professionalization of the cadres’ craft by equating the Party School to an institute of public administration, they ultimately do so in order to better perpetuate the supremacy ofthe one-Party system. (shrink)