Part Six, Chapter II
Michels argues that minority rule is an inescapable fact of life both within parties, and in society and government as well. Do you agree with this conclusion? If not, what has he left out of the argument?
Herbert Kitschelt The Logics of Party Formation Ecological Politics in Belgium and West Germany Cornell University Press 1989.
Chapter 6
Has weakening the formal hierarchy within ecology parties helped prevent the emergence of an elite? What groups or individuals tend to be more powerful of influential in ecology parties, and why? Was this result the goal of the party founders?
Kaare Strom "A Behavioral Theory of Competitive Political Parties" American Journal of Political Science, 34: 565-98.
Skip this reading!
Andrew Appleton "The Formal versus Informal Rules of French Political Parties" in Kay Lawson ed. How Political Parties Work: Perspectives from Within. Praeger 1994
The anecdotes recounted here make excellent reading for junkies of French political history. Others may wish to skim them. Focus on pages 22-30 and 43 - 49.
How are French parties similar (on paper). What do the informal rules identified by the author suggest about attempts to set up internal party democracy using formal rules? How to the sources of power within French parties compare to the sources of power within Ecology parties?
Abbreviation Guide
Left Wing Right Wing
PCF = French Communist Party UNR or RPR = Gaullist (right wing) party
PS or SFIO = Socialist Party CDS = Christian Democratic party
PR = Republican Party (conservative/libertarian)
Front National = far right neo fascist party
CNIP = far right National Council of Independents and Peasants