Foundations of Comparative Politics

1. FACTFILES Foundations of Comparative Politics by Kenneth Newton and Jan van Deth All slides © Kenneth Newton and Jan van Deth 2005

2. Summary Fact file 1.1 The Treaty of Westphalia (1648) Fact file 2.1 The Freedom House rating of states Fact file 2.1 continued Fact file 3.1 Constitutions Fact file 3.2 Heads of state and heads of government Fact file 3.2 continued Fact file 3.3 Legislatures Fact file 3.3 continued Fact file 3.4 Judiciaries Fact file 4.1Presidential and parliamentary systems Fact file 4.1 continued Fact file 4.2 Semi-presidentialism Fact file 5.1 Confederations Fact file 5.2 Federal states Fact file 5.3 Unitary states Fact file 5.4 Sub-central government: patterns of change Fact file 5.4 continued Fact file 5.4 continued Fact file 5.4 continued Fact file 7.1 Public bureaucracies

3. Summary (cont.) Fact file 7.1 continued Fact file 8.1 Political attitudes and values Fact file 8.1 continued Fact file 8.2 Political behaviour Fact file 8.2 continued Fact file 9.1 Pressure groups Fact file 9.1continued Fact file 10.1 Public service and market media Fact file 10.1 continued Fact file 11.1 Voters and elections Fact file 11.1 continued Fact file 11.1 continued Fact file 11.1 continued Fact file 11.1 continued Fact file 12.1 Party systems, government formation, coalitions and electoral systems Fact file 12.1 continued

4. Fact file 1.1The Treaty of Westphalia (1648) The first decades of the seventeenth century were characterised by a series of wars between Spain, France, Sweden, Bavaria, The Netherlands, Denmark and countries in central Europe, known as the Thirty Years War (1618–48). It destroyed about 2,000 castles, 1,600 cities and more than 18,000 villages across Europe. The population of the war-torn area declined about 50 per cent in rural areas, and up to 30 per cent in urban regions. This changed the economic, demographic and political landscape in Europe profoundly and eventually led to a settlement that, in effect, created the state system of the modern world. In a situation of continual wars and conflicts, it slowly became clear that a solution could be based on a ‘package deal’ between different sides. In 1648, delegates from the warring factions met in the cities of Osnabruck and Munster in Westphalia to negotiate an all-encompassing peace treaty. The final set of agreements is called the Treaty of Westphalia or the Peace of

5. Fact file 1.1 continued Westphalia. It had very important consequences for the division of power – and therefore for the development of states – in Europe. The agreements recognised the rights of states and their sovereignty, settled the religious disputes in Europe and provided solutions for a number of territorial claims. Most important, the Treaty established a system of states, and of diplomatic relations between them, that has lasted more or less intact until the present day. page 12

6. Fact file 2.1The Freedom House rating of states Freedom in the World is an institutional effort by Freedom House to monitor the progress and decline of political rights and civil liberties in 192 nations and in major related and disputed territories . . . The Survey assesses a country’s freedom by examining its record in two areas: political rights and civil liberties. A country grants its citizens political rights when it permits them to form political parties that represent a significant range of voter choice and whose leaders can openly compete for and be elected to positions of power in government. A country upholds its citizens’ civil liberties when it respects and protects their religious, ethnic, economic, linguistic and other rights, including gender and family rights, personal freedoms and freedoms of the press, belief and association. The Survey rates each country on a seven-point scale for both political rights and civil liberties (1 representing the most free and 7 the least free) and then divides the world into three broad categories: ‘Free’ (countries whose ratings average 1–3); ‘Partly Free’ (countries whose ratings average 3–5.5); and ‘Not Free’ (countries whose ratings average 5.5–7). The ratings are not only assessments of the conduct of

7. Fact file 2.1 continued of governments. They also reflect the reality of daily life. Thus a country with a benign government facing violent forces (for example terrorist movements or insurgencies) hostile to an open society will be graded on the basis of the on-the-ground conditions that determine whether the population is able to exercise its freedoms. (Freedom in the World 2002: The Democracy Gap, The Freedom House Survey Team; http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/freeworld/2002/about.htm) page 26

8. Fact file 3.1Constitutions • The first codified constitution was San Marino’s (1600), followed by Canada’s (1774) and the USA’s (1787). • Since then, there have been three waves of constitution making, linked to the ‘waves’ of state building discussed in chapter 2: after 1945, when many African and Asian states gained independence from their colonial powers; in the 1970s and 1980s, in Latin America, Africa and Asia when authoritarian forms of government collapsed; and after 1990, in central and eastern Europe when the post-communist nations engaged in a new burst of constitution making. • Between 1990 and 1995 ninety-six countries – more than a third of the world’s total – adopted new constitutions. Twenty were in central and eastern Europe, but thirty-one were in central and southern Africa. • Most countries have modified their constitutions at some point in their history, but Belgium, Canada, France (twice), The Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and Turkey have done so in major ways in recent decades. The Indian constitution has been amended more than seventy times since 1950, but the American has been amended only twenty-seven times since 1787, and ten of these were contained in the Bill of Rights of 1791. France has had seventeen constitutions since 1789. • About 70 per cent of constitutions date back no further than 1945. page 43

9. Fact file 3.2 Heads of state and heads of government ■ Heads of state • In presidential systems, the directly elected president is both head of state and head of government. • In parliamentary systems, the head of state is a largely ceremonial function carried out either by a monarch or a president, while the head of government, a position of real power, is normally filled by a prime minister or chancellor. • Presidential heads of state may be elected or appointed, but presidential heads of government in democracies are always directly elected. • Surprisingly, quite a few heads of state in established democracies are monarchs – Belgium, Denmark, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the UK. This is because these countries have often avoided revolution and adapted slowly to democratic pressures, leaving their kings and queens in place while adapting institutions around them. • Presidential heads of state, performing a largely ceremonial role, are found in Austria, Germany, Greece, Ireland, India, Israel and Italy.

10. Fact file 3.2 continued ■ Presidential heads of government • Usually the president is a single person, but a few countries (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus and Uruguay) have experimented with joint presidencies, usually unsuccessfully. • There are seventy-eight presidential systems in the world, making them the most common form of democratic government in the world. Fifty-five of these are new democracies formed since 1990, and it remains to be seen how many of these will remain presidential if these systems change. • Presidential systems are found mainly in Latin America, which has been influenced by the USA, and in the new democracies of central and eastern Europe. page 46

11. Fact file 3.3 Legislatures • The precursor of modern parliamentary legislatures is probably the Althingi, the assembly established by Viking settlers in Iceland about a thousand years ago. • Legislatures can consist of any number of assemblies, but about three-quarters of contemporary legislatures have one chamber (unicameral) and the rest have two (bicameral). • Unicameral legislatures include Denmark (Folketing), Finland (Eduskunta in Finnish, Riksdagen in Swedish), Greece (Vouli), Israel (Knesset), New Zealand (House of Representatives), Portugal (The Assembly of the Republic) and Sweden (Riksdag). • New Zealand became unicameral in 1950, when it abolished its upper house. Costa Rica, Denmark and Sweden later followed suit. • Bicameral legislatures include Canada (Senate and House of Commons are collectively known as Parliament), France (Senate and the National Assembly), Italy (Senate and the Chamber of Deputies), Japan (the House of Councillors and the House of Representatives, collectively called the Diet), The Netherlands

12. Fact file 3.3 continued (First and Second Chambers, collectively the States General), the UK (The House of Lords and the House of Commons make up Parliament), the USA (the Senate and the House of Representatives make up Congress). • The larger the population of a country, the larger its legislative body is likely to be. India, with a population of more than 100 million, has a lower house (the Lok Sabha) with 530 members. Brazil, with a population of 160 million, has a Chamber of Deputies with 517 members. At the other extreme, Trinidad and Tobago, with a population of 1.3 million, has a House of Representatives of 36 members, and Iceland, with a population of 300,000, has an Althingi with sixty-three members. • The larger the country the more likely it is to be bicameral. On average, unicameral democracies have populations less than half that of bicameral countries. • Four out of five federal states are bicameral, compared with one-quarter of unitary states. The representation basis of many second chambers in federal systems is often regional or local, as it is in Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Switzerland and the USA. page 47

13. Fact file 3.4Judiciaries • The principle of judicial review was originally limited to the USA in the nineteenth century. It became more widely accepted in the twentieth century, especially in federal systems where the courts were used to settle disputes not only between branches of government but between federal and other levels of government as well. • A few democracies, such as Belgium, Finland, The Netherlands and Switzerland, do not have judicial review. • Some states (Israel, New Zealand, the UK) have judicial review in practice, but not in theory. In the UK, the binding nature of EU law has given the courts the role of judicial review. • Special constitutional courts have been created in Austria, France, the EU, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, and many of the new democracies of central and eastern Europe. • Judicial review is carried out by regular courts in most countries including Australia, Canada, Denmark, India, Italy, Japan, Sweden, and the USA. • The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany has become one of the most active in the West, rejecting some 5 per cent of all legislation on constitutional grounds, and becoming involved in issues ranging from freedom of speech and abortion to federal–state relations and public finance. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is also active and powerful in EU matters. page 50

14. Fact file 4.1Presidential and parliamentary systems ■ Presidential systems • Influenced by the USA, many Central and South American democracies have presidential government – Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay. • Most democracies in Africa are presidential including Benin, Botswana, Ghana, Namibia and South Africa. • Presidential government is often found in the newly established democracies of the ‘third wave’ (see chapter 2), including Argentina, Croatia, the Philippines, South Korea and Taiwan. • Switzerland is unique. It has a collective presidency formed by the seven members of the Federal Council (Bundesrat), one being selected to be the formal president each year. • Most democratic presidents are restricted to one or two terms of office, a few to three and most set a minimum age for candidates that is higher than for other offices in order to get more experienced candidates.

15. Fact file 4.1 continued ■ Parliamentary systems • There are currently fifty-six parliamentary systems in the world, including thirty-one constitutional monarchies and twenty-five established democracies. • Parliamentary systems are most common in the older democracies of western Europe, (including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the UK) and half of them are in British Commonwealth countries, including Australia, Botswana, Canada, India and New Zealand. • Israel is unusual in having a directly elected prime minister who, unlike a president, can be removed from office by the parliament, thus precipitating an election for both the prime minister and parliament. • In contrast to presidential systems, the prime ministers or chancellors of parliamentary systems do not have limited terms of office, and in recent decades some of them have had successive election victories and have held on to power for a long time – Gonzales (Spain), Kohl (Germany), Menzies, Fraser and Hawke (Australia), Mitterrand (France), Thatcher (UK) and Trudeau and Mulroney (Canada). • A large proportion of parliamentary democracies are smaller states (India is an exception) and many are small island democracies. • Of the newly democratised countries of central and east Europe, only Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia and Slovakia are fully parliamentary. page 62

16. Fact file 4.2Semi-presidentialism • Relatively few countries have a semi-presidential form of government, and only Finland, France and Portugal have been so for more than a quarter of a century. Finland’s semi-presidentialism has moved towards a parliamentary system. • Among the new democracies the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania and Slovenia have chosen the system, but there has been a tendency in the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania for the presidential office to be converted into a more prime ministerial one. • Israel has a hybrid presidential–parliamentary system of government, including the semi-presidential characteristic of a directly elected prime minister. page 65

17. Fact file 5.1Confederations • Confederations include international organisations such as NATO, the UN and the United Arab Emirates. • One of the earliest confederations was the Swiss Confederacy, dating back to 1315 (some say even to 1291). • When the USSR (a federation) collapsed in 1989–90, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS, a confederation) was created in 1991 as an emergency measure to tie twelve of the former Soviet Republics together. • Many transnational federations do not last long – the Czechoslovakian Confederation of the early 1990s, the League of Nations, various Middle East confederations of Arab states but some have been successful – NATO, the UN and United Arab Emirates. • The weakness of the confederal system of the USA (1776–88) lead to the creation of the Federal constitution of 1789. page 75

18. Fact file 5.2Federal states • Of the 178 states in the world in 1997, twenty-one were fully federal. • Federal states include Brazil, Canada (sometimes described as quasi-federal), India, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Switzerland and the USA. • The first example of federalism in the western world was the Achaean League in ancient Greece. The first federal state in modern history was the Dutch Republic of the United Provinces. • Modern federal states include some of the largest in the world – Brazil, Canada, India, Mexico and the USA – and cover 40 per cent of the globe’s population and nearly half its land. But Switzerland is also a federal state. • The number of states within federal systems varies. There are three regions in Belgium, six states in Australia, twenty-six cantons in Switzerland and fifty states in the USA. • Belgium is the newest federal state, being created in 1993 out of the three linguistic areas of Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia. • No truly federal system has ever evolved into a unitary system, but there are many examples of failed international federations (the West Indian Federation, 1962, the Central African Federation, 1963, the Malaysian Federation (Singapore left in 1965), the East African Federation, 1977 and Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, 1992). page 80

19. Fact file 5.3Unitary states • Unitary states include the northern countries of Finland, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, The Netherlands, Sweden and the UK, the southern European countries of France, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Turkey, as well as Japan (the largest unitary state in the world) and New Zealand. • Among the democracies of the world there are many more unitary than federal systems, but the unitary ones tend to be the smaller in terms of both population and territory. • Fused local government systems (sometimes called ‘Napoleonic systems’) were found in their clearest form in France, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Turkey, though late twentieth-century reforms have tended to reduce central government’s direct control of local government. • Dual systems (sometimes referred to as the ‘Westminister model’) of local government are found in New Zealand, Ireland and the UK. • The local self-government model is found in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. • Since the 1970s, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK have all created or strengthened their middle or meso-layer of regional government. This has reduced the difference between fused, dual and local self-government arrangements. page 82

20. Fact file 5.4Sub-central government: patterns of change ■ Consolidation • The consolidation of smaller units of local government into bigger ones in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, Sweden and the UK. Sweden has subsequently sub-divided some local authorities in favour of ‘small democracy’. • Consolidation of this kind was resisted in France and southern Europe. Voluntary cooperation between local authorities and the emergence of regional authorities occurred instead. ■ Consolidation ■ The growth of meso-government ■ Decentralisation in unitary states ■ Centralisation in federal states

21. Fact file 5.4 continued ■ The growth of meso-government • Belgium turned itself into a federal state, with three regions, in 1993. • France, Ireland, Italy and Spain have introduced important regional layers of government. • Greece has created new regional government, with elected prefects. • Finland has created new regional joint authorities for regional planning, development and environmental control. • The UK has created the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and a directly elected mayor for the London region. • Austria, Canada, Denmark and Sweden have shifted functions downwards from the central to the middle layer of government, and strengthened this layer. • Canada and Denmark have shifted some services upwards from local to meso-government.

22. Fact file 5.4 continued ■ Decentralisation in unitary states • Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Italy and Spain have devolved some services from the central to the middle layer of government. • Denmark, France, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, Turkey and the UK have moved some service responsibilities from central to local government. • Sweden has shifted some functions from local to central government, while transferring other responsibilities in the reverse direction. • Central government in the UK has begun to exercise greater control over local authorities, and privatised some important local services. • The number of special-purpose authorities has increased in Canada, the UK and the USA. • Austria, Canada, Switzerland and the USA (all federal systems) have strengthened their middle level of government by removing some restrictions from them, or giving services to them.

23. Fact file 5.4 continued ■ Centralisation in federal states • In Australia, the states were originally given complete control over education, but gradually both federal and state government have come to share these powers. • Canadian provinces, originally responsible for health services, now share the responsibility with federal government. • The federal government of the USA acquired more duties and responsibilities in the ‘New Deal’ era of the 1930s to try to overcome economic problems, and in the 1940s it centralised around the war effort, while in the 1960s and 1970s it further consolidated power to manage racial integration and social change. Whereas the US states used to decide speed limits on the roads and the minimum drinking age, the federal government has now established a high degree of national unity on these matters. page 90

24. Fact file 7.1Public bureaucracies • The term ‘bureaucratie’ is said to have been used for the first time in 1764 in France to describe a new form of government by officials, which is completely different from democracy, autocracy, and monarchy. The term soon spread to Italy (burocrazia) to Germany (B¨urokratie) and to Britain. • ‘Bureaucracy’ predates the French invention of the word. It was necessary wherever the earliest empires created a need for the administration of large territories. The term ‘mandarin’ – referring to those at the very highest levels of the modern civil service – comes from the civil service of ancient China. • The French Council of State is a special administrative court with the double function of protecting civil servants against attempts by politicians to manipulate them, and of ensuring that civil servants behave properly. Many other states have set up administrative systems of tribunals and law to regulate the public bureaucracy. • Being a top civil servant in many countries is very prestigious, perhaps most of all in France and Japan. The French administrative elite are known as ‘Enarques’ after the Ecole National d’Administration (ENA), while most of Japan’s senior civil servants are the products of the University of Tokyo’s Law School. Spain has its prestigious system of cuerpos, and the British have traditionally recruited from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

25. Fact file 7.1 continued • In the eighteenth and nineteenth century entry to the very highest levels of the civil service in many western countries was traditionally restricted to an upper-class elite. This is less true today now that top jobs are increasingly open to merit, and to recruits from working-class and minority backgrounds. • Some state bureaucracies are run along ‘generalist’ lines, and recruit people of all-round ability and intelligence to work in a wide variety of top jobs – the UK, Ireland and, to some extent, Italy, Portugal and Spain. The more ‘specialist’ tradition is more technocratic and trains people for particular departments or jobs – France, Germany, The Netherlands and the Nordic countries. • The practice of incoming governments appointing top layers of the civil service is an old one in Finland, France, Germany and the USA, but it is now spreading to other countries. • The most radical new public management (NPM) reforms are found in the Anglo-Saxon countries of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the USA, and in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. They are weakest in Germany and Greece, and have had limited success in France, Italy, Japan, Portugal and Spain. • Almost all countries have implemented NPM since the 1980s, but these have taken different forms in different countries. In France, Sweden and Spain they were designed to strengthen the civil service; in Denmark, Norway and the UK to weaken and reduce it. page 121

26. Fact file 8.1Political attitudes and values • TrustTrust between fellow citizens is said to be a crucial underlying condition for democracy. The World Values Studies show that the less democratic a system, the lower its social trust. Among the democracies, countries such as Argentina, Chile, the Dominican Republic and Ghana have comparatively low levels of social trust (10–20 per cent), whereas Canada, Finland, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden have high scores (50–65 per cent). • Interest in politicsOf forty-five countries surveyed in 1999–2002 an average of 45 per cent of citizens described themselves as ‘very or somewhat interested in politics’. Of the democracies, the highest placed were Austria, the Czech Republic, Israel, The Netherlands, Norway and the USA (80–66 per cent). The lowest placed were Argentina, Chile, Finland, Portugal and Spain (all below 30 per cent). • Satisfaction with democracyIn forty-nine countries surveyed in 1999–2002, an average of 49 per cent of people expressed a satisfaction with democracy in their country. The figures are, not surprisingly, much higher in democracies, but even so they vary quite a lot. The lowest placed are Croatia, Ireland, Lithuania, Northern Romania and Slovakia (all below 30 per cent), and the highest placed are Austria, Canada, Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Portugal (all above 66 per cent).

27. Fact file 8.1 continued • Post-materialismThe highest levels of post-materialist values in the late 1990s were found in the comparatively wealthy democracies of Argentina, Austria, Australia, Canada, Italy and the USA (all above 25 per cent), and the lowest in Estonia, Hungary, India, Israel and Slovakia (all below 5 per cent). • National prideThe Australians, Mexicans, Peruvians, Portuguese, South Africans and Uruguayans are proudest of their nation. The Dutch, Germans, Japanese, Lithuanians and South Koreans are the least proud. • Ethnic, religious, and linguistic differences, with correspondingly strong political culture differences, are found in Belgium, Canada, India, The Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland and the USA. The most ethnically homogeneous democracies are the Nordic countries. • Ethno-nationalismEuropean examples of regional nationalism include Bulgaria (the Turkish minority), Bosnia (Serbs, Croats and Muslims), Northern Ireland (Catholic nationalism and Protestant unionism), Russia (Chechen and other Siberian minorities), Serbia (Albanian nationalism), Spain (Catalan, Galician and Basque nationalism) and Turkey (Kurdish nationalism). page 146

28. Fact file 8.2Political behaviour • Political discussionOn average, 75 per cent of people across forty-three countries claimed to discuss politics ‘frequently’ or ‘occasionally’ with their friends. The highest placed were East Germany, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania (all new democracies, 90 per cent or more), and lowest Belgium, Italy, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Turkey (less than 60 per cent). • Direct actionResearch shows that ‘protest behaviour’ in the form of strikes, sit-ins, protests, marches and boycotts, is now a widely accepted part of the political repertoire of west European citizens, but that only a very small minority (1–3 per cent) actually engages in such behaviour. • Protest behaviourAmong forms of direct action, signing petition is the most frequent (an average of 43 per cent across forty nations in the early 1990s), followed by lawful demonstrations (21 per cent), boycotts (9 per cent), unofficial strikes (6 per cent) and the occupation of buildings (2 per cent).

29. Fact file 8.2 continued • Revolutionary actionAmong the democracies, no more than 2 per cent of the Austrians, Danes, Dutch, Japanese, Norwegians and (West) Germans now believe in radical change by revolutionary action, but the figures are much higher in the new democracies of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and South Africa (19–32 per cent). • Political inactionIn fourteen West European democracies in 1974–90, between a quarter and a third of the population had no interest and took no part in political life. Another 25–40 per cent were ‘active’ in the sense that they had an interest and did engage in some way in political life. • Political elitesTwo-thirds of heads of government in the world between 1945 and 1975 had a university education and more than half (56 per cent) were lawyers, teachers, or civil servants. page 153

30. Fact file 9.1Pressure groups • One of the first pressure groups was The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, founded in 1787 in Britain by William Wilberforce, a highly effective pressure group leader (http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article?eu=407999). • The number of registered Washington lobbyists is over 23,000 and their estimated expenditure in 1999 was $1.4 billion (http://www.opensecrets.org). • There are about 3,750 Political Action Committees (PACs) in the USA. Most represent business, labour or ideological interests. In 1999 and 2000 they raised $604.9 million and gave most of this to chosen election candidates. The biggest spenders were The National Association of Realtors ($3.4 million), the Association of Trial Lawyers of America ($2.6 million), the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees ($2.6 million), The Teamsters Union ($2.6 million), and The National Auto Dealers Association ($2.5 million). • The European Union’s Directory of Special Interest Groups lists 915 lobby groups, mainly in the sectors of agriculture (131), industry (301), services (331) and general interest (394). They range from the Association of

31. Fact file 9.1continued European Fruit and Vegetable Processing Industries to the Youth Forum of the European Union (http://europa.eu.int/comm/civil_society/coneccs/index_en.htm). • One the largest social movements in India is the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights. The Dalits are the 240 million in India who are not one of the four castes – the untouchables (http://www.dalits.org). • The Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB) represents nearly 11 million trade unionists in Germany (http://www.dgb.de/sprachen/englisch/grundsatz.htm). It operates at the Lander and Federal government level in Germany, with the ETUC (http://www.etuc.org) in the European Union and with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions on the global level (http://www.icftu.org). • The UN has a Conference of 374 NGOs which it lists as official consultative bodies. • The Union of International Associations estimates that the number of international NGOs grew from 176 in 1909, to 833 in 1951, 1,718 in 1972 and 42,100 in 1998 (http://www.uia.org/statistics/organizations/stybv296.php). page 167

32. Fact file 10.1Public service and market media ■ Public service broadcasting • Public service broadcasting characterised much of western Europe up till the 1960s, and is still comparatively strong in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. • The job of regulating the media is carried out by such bodies as the Federal Cartel Office in Germany, the Monopolies Commission and OFCOM (Office of Communications) in Britain and the Federal Communications Commission in the USA. • In France and Italy, parties and the government have had considerable direct influence over the public media. In Germany, public broadcasting is in the hands of the Lander (to avoid the dangers of a national propaganda machine of a pre-war Nazi kind), in Belgium it is divided between the Flemish and French communities and in The Netherlands it is apportioned between the main social and religious ‘pillars’ of society.

33. Fact file 10.1 continued ■ Commercial broadcasting • Britain introduced commercial TV in 1955, and commercial radio was legalised in 1971. This was soon followed by waves of commercialisation across the rest of west Europe. By 1990, there were more commercial TV channels than public ones. • TV is largely privatised in Belgium, Greece, Japan, The Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey and the USA. • The Greek broadcasting system was deregulated and privatised in the late 1980s, when its two TV channels and four radio stations were state-owned. Now it has 158 private TV channels and 1,200 private radio stations. • In most central and east european countries, the old state media monopolies have been abolished and TV is either privatised (e.g. the Czech Republic), a public–private model (e.g. Poland), or public (e.g. Hungary). Some companies have been sold to western multi-media conglomerates (Bertelsmann, News Corp, Springer and Time Warner), but some are in the hands of ex-communists, and some are still under heavy government influence. page 188

34. Fact file 11.1Voters and elections ■ Referendums and elections • The minimum voting age in the great majority of countries is eighteen. • Referendums are still used relatively rarely, and often for constitutional changes, but they have been held in almost every democratic country in the world, exceptions being Argentina, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, The Netherlands and the USA (where some states do hold them). • Referendums are most common in Australia, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy and New Zealand, but Switzerland stands out with almost 300 since 1941. • Voter registration varies from 42 per cent in Switzerland, 58 per cent in India and 66 per cent in the USA, to 91 per cent in Belgium, 92 per cent in Iceland and 96 per cent in Australia. It averages 75 per cent in established democracies.

35. Fact file 11.1 continued ■ Voting turnout • Voting is technically compulsory in a few countries, including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Greece, Italy and The Netherlands (before 1970). Turnout is only about 4–5 per cent higher in these countries compared with non-compulsory systems. This is partly because the formalities of compulsory voting are sometimes not followed up in reality. Voting turnout in older, established democracies tends to be about 15 per cent higher than in all other countries (73 per cent and 59 per cent respectively), but the gap between them has been closing slowly since 1945, and is now less than 10 per cent. • If one excludes the two deviant cases of very low turnout among the most advanced democracies – Switzerland and the USA – average turnout is close to 80 per cent. If one then allows for the fact that a proportion of the non-voters are old, or ill, or temporarily absent from their voting district, then some nine out of ten citizens in democracies normally vote. • Average voting turnout in PR systems (68 per cent) is higher than in semi-PR systems (59 per cent) and in plurality–majority systems (59 per cent).

36. Fact file 11.1 continued • Founding election turnout in central and eastern Europe in the 1990s was on average 12 per cent higher than in later elections, but in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Oceania turnout was actually lower in founding than in subsequent elections. • Competitive elections (where the largest party wins less than half the votes) have a turnout 10 per cent higher than less competitive elections (where the largest party wins more than 50 per cent of the poll). • Turnout is not closely related to national wealth or population size, but it is closely associated with the UN Human Development Index*. Countries with the highest HDI ratings had an average turnout of 72 per cent, those with the lowest 56 per cent. *Human Development Index A UN index of national development that combines measures of life expectancy, educational attainment and wealth into one measure. See the UN Human Development Report Office website http://hdr.undp.org/

37. Fact file 11.1 continued ■ Class voting • Britain has one of the purest class voting patterns in the western world but its Alford index* fell from 41 per cent in the general election of 1951 to 19 per cent in 1997. • In the same period the Alford index for Germany fell from close to 30 per cent to less than 10 per cent, and for Sweden from 50 per cent to less than 20 per cent. *Alford index A measure of class voting that calculates the difference between the proportion of working-class people voting for a left party, and the proportion of middle-class people doing the same. The higher the index, the greater the class voting.

38. Fact file 11.1 continued ■ Religious voting • In most of the predominantly Catholic countries of west Europe (Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy and Spain and in the south of Germany and The Netherlands), the largest centre-right party is a Christian Democratic one that relies heavily on Catholic votes. Christian Democratic parties are also found in Australia, Chile and South Africa. • In the Protestant countries of west Europe (Scandinavia, the UK and the north of Germany and The Netherlands) the main centre-right party is a secular one. • In France (80 per cent Catholic) almost half the Catholics voted for a centre-right party in the 1980s, compared with fewer than one in seven of the Protestants. At the same time about a third of those who attended church of any kind voted for a left party, compared with seven out of ten of those who did not attend church. • In the 1950s, more than 90 per cent of Dutch Catholics voted for the Catholic People’s Party (KVP), the second largest in the country. By 1977, 67 per cent were still doing so. page 201

39. Fact file 12.1Party systems, government formation, coalitions and electoral systems ■ Party systems • Dominant one-party systems are found in India (the Congress Party), Japan (the Liberal Democratic Party), South Africa (the African National Congress, ANC) and Sweden (The Social Democratic Workers’ Party). • The main examples of two-party systems are Canada, New Zealand (until constitutional reform in 1966), the UK (Labour and Conservatives) and the USA (Democrats and Republicans). • Multi-party systems are the norm and are found in most parts of the democratic world. ■ Government formation • About 10 per cent of all governments formed in western Europe 1945–95 were single-party governments, about a third were MWCs, another third were minority governments and about one in six were surplus majority. • Japan has had a dominant party system and one-party-government for most of the post-war period. The two-party systems of Canada, New Zealand (until 1996) and the UK are associated with one-party governments, where a single party forms the government.

40. Fact file 12.1 continued ■ Coalitions • The multi-party systems of most western European nations since 1945 are associated with coalition government. • ‘Grand’ coalitions ruled in Austria, 1947–66, in Germany, 1966–9 and are often found in Switzerland. • MWCs have survived well in Austria, Germany, Iceland, Luxembourg and Norway, while surplus majority governments have been formed in Germany and Iceland. • Minority governments have a relatively good record for stability in Ireland and Sweden, and especially Denmark. • Coalitions of all kinds have fared relatively poorly in Belgium, Finland, France (Fourth Republic, 1945–58) and Portugal. • The FDP, a small centre-liberal party in (West) Germany, was in the governing coalition for much of the post-war period, because of its pivotal role. The Christian Democrats (CDA) have played a similar part in Dutch coalitions. ■ Voting systems and party systems • Of a list of seventy-three liberal democracies in the 1990s, thirty-six had PR electoral systems and thirty-seven non-PR systems. Of the thirty-six PR countries, 81 per cent were multi-party and the remaining 19 per cent were two- or dominant one-party systems. Of the thirty-seven non-PR countries, 13 per cent were multi-party and 50 per cent were two- or dominant one-party systems. page 228