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RESPONSIBLE PARTIES This page intentionally left blank Responsible Parties Saving Democracy from Itself FRANCES MCCALL ROSENBLUTH AND IAN SHAPIRO New Haven and London Copyright © 2018 by Frances McCall Rosenbluth and Ian Shapiro. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illus- trations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educa- tional, business, or promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected] (U.S. offi ce) or [email protected] (U.K. offi ce). Set in Janson Roman and Van Dijck type by IDS Infotech Ltd. Printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Control Number: 2018939957 ISBN 978-0-300-23275-2 (hardcover: alk. paper) Excerpt from The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt. Copy- right © 1951 by Hannah Arendt. Copyright © renewed 1979 by Mary McCarthy West. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Miffl in Har- court Publishing Company, and André Deutsch Ltd., London. All rights reserved. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 (Per- manence of Paper). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 You cannot choose between party government and Parliamentary government. I say you can have no Parliamentary government if you have no party government; and, therefore, when gentlemen denounce party government, they strike at that scheme of government which, in my opinion, has made this country great, and which, I hope, will keep it great. benjamin disraeli, speech in the House of Commons, August 30, 1848 Modern democracy is unthinkable save in terms of parties. As a matter of fact, the condition of the parties is the best possible evidence of the nature of any regime. e. e. schattschneider, Party Government (1942) In a two-party system one party always represents the government and actually runs the country, so that, temporarily, the party in power becomes identical with the state. . . . Since the rule of each party is limited in time, the opposition party exerts a control whose effi ciency is strengthened by the certainty that it is the ruler of tomorrow. . . . The multiparty system never allows any one man or any one party to assume full responsibility, with the natural consequence that no government, formed by party alliances, ever feels fully responsible. . . . Since the rise of the party systems it has been a matter of course to identify parties with particular interests, economic or others, and all Continental parties, not only these labor groups, have been very frank in admitting this. . . . The Anglo-Saxon party, on the contrary, founded on some “particular principle” for the service of the “national interest” is itself the actual or future state of the country; particular interests are represented in the party itself, as its right and left wing, and held in check by the very necessities of government. hannah arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix one. Misdiagnosing Democracy’s Ills 1 two. The Means and Ends of Democratic Competition 26 three. Vulnerable Minorities 42 four. Big Strong Parties: Westminster 62 five. Big Weak Parties: The American Variant 95 six. Strong Parties in Small European Democracies 128 seven. The French Mix 147 eight. Of Labradoodles and Poodledors: Germany 161 nine. Wannabe Labradoodles: New Zealand, Italy, Japan, and Mexico 178 ten. Presidentialism with Small Weak Parties: Latin America 199 CONTENTS eleven. Creeping Authoritarianism in Eastern Europe 213 twelve. Ways Forward 229 Notes 251 Index 311 viii Acknowledgments This is a contrarian book, so we are more indebted than is usual to colleagues, some of whom had to swallow hard, if not bite their tongues, to help us improve it. They include Andrea Aldrich, Dan Berliner, Nancy Bermeo, Robert Boatright, Anthony Butler, John Carey, Royce Carroll, Gerhard Casper, Allesandro Chiaramonte, Alexandra Cirone, Gary Cox, Olle Folke, Michael Fotos, Andrew Geddis, Jane Gingrich, Michael Graetz, Anna Grzymala-Busse, Jacob Hacker, Andy Hall, Peter Hall, Jonathan Hopkin, Chris Howell, John Kane, Marko Klas- nja, Sam Kortum, Francis Kramarz, Gunnar Helgi Kristinsson, Paul Lagunes, Joseph LaPalombara, Frances Lee, Thomas Leeper, Gottfried Ludewig, Iain Maclean, Monika Malepa, Isa- bela Mares, David Mayhew, Wolfgang Merkel, Brett Meyer, Nicoli Nattrass, Giulia Oskian, Rick Pildes, Carlo Prato, Doug Rae, Johanna Rickne, David Rueda, Christian Salas, Jeremy Seekings, Rogers Smith, Susan Stokes, Roy Summerfi eld, Peter Swenson, Margit Tavits, Kathleen Thelen, Mariano Tommasi, Nadia Urbinati, and an anonymous reader for Yale University ix