The Evolutionary Patterns of Western Party Politics and Their Social Roots
In recent years,the numerous new changes in Western party politics have become a significant manifestation of the unprecedented global transformations unseen in a century,posing pressing questions for political scholars to address.A deep understanding of the logic and roots behind these new changes requires a historical perspective.This paper analyzes the development of Western party politics from the perspective of"social cleavage"theory and outlines the following patterns of evolution:from the mid-19th century to the Second World War,the western world featured social split and social conflict,which led to strong antagonistic party politics;during the"golden age"in the thirty years following the Second World War,welfare state policy and the trend toward income equality contributed to consensus-based party politics;with the rise of neoliberalism and the end of the Cold War,the consensus party politics once again gave way to conflict politics,as evidenced in today's common phenomena of political polarization and"veto politics".Looking at the historical development of western political party politics,it is evident that the foundation of political party politics lies in social structure.This highlights the importance of the social integration function of political parties and provides a valuable reference for understanding the global significance of China's political party system.
party politicssocial splitconsensus politicspolitical polarizationveto politics
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
