|
||||||||||||||
TABLE 7.12b: Early 1960S: BV6.55 Providing Recreational Facilities ties. These parties seem likely to qualify as parties of "social integration" in Neuman's terminology (1956). Parties were scored separately on goal orientation according to the extent of their reliance on open competition (BV600), restricting competition (BV610), and subverting the system (BV620). Parties that depend exclusively on any one of these strategies necessarily do not employ either of the others. But less than 60 percent of our parties (59 percent in 1950-1956 and 55 percent in 1957-1962) were dedicated to a single strategy. The rest employed some mixture of approaches toward their goal of obtaining government office. The Communist Party of France, for example, was scored as pursuing something less than electoral competition during our time period due to its activity in promoting antigovernment disturbances. Nevertheless, most parties had a dominant orientation and could be characterized as "competitive," "restrictive," or "subversive." If one allows a value of 2.5 or greater on our three strategy variables to determine a party's characteristic strategy, the results of our sample of parties are as shown in Figure 7.1. Parties oriented mainly toward open competition are represented at the top of the middle coordinate. Those primarily committed to restriction or subversion are grouped at the ends of the lower left-hand and lower right-hand coordinates, respectively. Parties with mixed strategies occupy various points in the spaces between the coordinates. Examining Figure 7.1, we find some small but notable changes in proportions of parties pursuing each of the major strategies. Our sample contains more competitive parties by far than either of the other orientations, but the proportion decreases from 1950-1956 to 1957-1962. There is a corresponding increase in the proportion of the world's parties which held governmental office mainly by restricting competition from other parties or groups in society. Much more could be said about party strategies and the nature of competitive vs. restrictive vs. subversive parties, but that intriguing subject lies beyond the purpose of this volume. Presumably, the data herein will aid in its study. |
||||||||||||||