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Ethnic and Regionalist Parties in Western Europe (The Party Family Notion,…
Ethnic and Regionalist Parties in Western Europe
Introduction
There are the main points presented in three parts
The Party Family Notion
Non-Statewide Parties in Europe
Ethnic and Regionalist Parties
The Party Family Notion
Today, party scholars tend to recognize nine main party families: communist, social democratic, green, agrarian, liberal,
Christian democratic, conservative, radical-right, and, finally, a family consisting of non-statewide parties
The first of these brings together parties with a similar origin and sociology.
The second strategy, in turn, investigate transnational linkages between parties, that is, memberships in, for example, political internationals, Europarties, or regional party networks.
Thirdly, it is possible to group together parties with similar policies and ideologies.
Finally, parties can be grouped together on the basis of party names.
Ethnic and Regionalist Parties
International Cooperation
Regarding international cooperation, focus on the most consolidated and most important transnational networks; Europarties and parliamentary groups in the European Parliament.
Origins and Sociologies
Party origins, firstly, it has been said that ‘parties that mobilized in similar historical circumstances’ should be regarded as members of the same family. Sociological composition, secondly, it is argued that parties with the intention of representing similar interests’ should be seen as belonging to the same party family.
Party Names
The parties also give the party name in the
language or dialect of the represented region or group.
Ideologies and Policy Orientations
The general expectation here is that members of the same family are reasonably unanimous about certain political and ideological matters.
Non-Statewide Parties in Europe
Regionalist parties are often, but not always, also ethnic parties.
A regionalist party, in turn, is defined as a subtype of a regional party.
The commonly used terms ‘regional(ist) parties’ and ‘ethnic
parties’, the literature on non-statewide parties recognize a number of additional terms and designations
The research on non-statewide parties stems largely from the work by Rokkan and his colleagues.
Discussion and Conclusions
First,this study is restricted to Western Europe and that, as a consequence, nothing can be said about the numerous ethnic and regionalist parties
outside this area
Second, a word of caution is necessary when using party names as a
criterion for family membership, especially when dealing with new and more diverse families.
These observations, a few more general conclusions are in order.