Market Economy or Social Welfare Policy?-The Programmatic Responses of Political Parties to the Global Recession

Hans-Dieter Klingemann

《Taiwan Journal of Democracy》 11卷1期 (2015/07) Pp. 79-109

並列摘要

Political parties are important actors in representative democracy. They are expected to be responsive to the demands of citizens and propose policies to deal with issues on the political agenda. As a rule, political parties present their goals and policy positions to the electorate by issuing programs for which they seek support in competitive elections. If they participate in government, political parties are assumed to base their policies on governmental propositions. These considerations are core elements of theories of representative democracy. A severe recession hit most countries around the globe in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007-2008. This recession had a strong impact on economies, and, as a consequence, on the well-being and political attitudes of citizens. In a situation such as this, it is expected that government and opposition parties develop policies designed to solve or ease the economic and social problems. The recession came as an external shock to most countries and their party systems. The event presented the possibility to study changes in the programmatic behavior of political parties by comparing programmatic profiles of election programs issued in the pre- and post-recession elections, a constellation that comes close to a quasi-experimental ＂before and after＂ design.

並列關鍵字

Financial crisis ； programmatic behavior of political parties ； party Responsiveness ； party election programs ； market economy ； social welfare politics ； policy change

參考文獻

Fuchs, Dieter(1993).A Metatheory of the Political Process.Discussion Paper FS III.(Discussion Paper FS III).,::Social Science Research Center Berlin.

Mueller, Wolfgang C.(2000).Political Parties in Parliamentary Democracies: Making Delegation and Accountability Work.European Journal of Political Research.37(3),309-333.

Dalton, Russell J.,Farrell, David M.,McAllister, Ian(2011).Political Parties and Democratic Linkage: How Parties Organize Democracy.Oxford:Oxford University Press.

Wessels, Bernhard(2015).Political Culture, Political Satisfaction and the Rollback of Democracy.Global Policy.6(Supplement 1),93-105.

Giebler, Heiko(ed.),Wagner, Aiko(ed.)(2015).Krise und Wahlverhalten.Baden Baden:Nomos.