Parties and cleavages in the European political space

Article abstract:

In this paper I argue that we should not only survey internal EU trends - institutional as well as at party developments - to make judgements about democratic potential. We could also benefit from looking at historical experiences, and not only in the West European arena as these countries evolved into competitive party democracies during the 19th and 20th centuries. The histories of competitive party systems in large-scale, multi-ethnic, federal states like for example U.S.A and India could be equally suggestive. The purpose here is to bring forward some speculations on the potential future party system of the European Union. The theme also invites reflections on the mechanisms creating and sustaining cleavage-based parties, i.e. parties deeply entrenched in territorial, cultural or economic interests. Non-cleavage based party systems would not by any means exclude a competitive party system, but it would be a different type of competitive system.