Party difference hypothesis

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The party difference hypothesis (also party indifference thesis or party difference theory ; English: partisan theory ) is a theoretical approach from political science that states that state activity depends to a decisive extent on which party is in government.

Derivation

Derivation according to Hibbs

In 1977, the American economics professor Douglas Adams Hibbs published a study of the various influences of parties on macroeconomic outcomes. He assumes that due to the modified Phillips curve , all governments are faced with the trade-off between either high inflation rates or high unemployment rates. Depending on which clientele a party represents, it will decide differently: Left parties and parties fed by the working class would accept higher inflation rates in order to implement the interests of their base, right-wing parties and parties from the bourgeoisie would opt for lower inflation rates.

Alternative derivation

In 1770 Edmund Burke , in his work Thoughts On The Cause Of The Present Discontents, described a party as "a body of men united, for promoting by their joint endeavors the national interest, upon some particular principle in which they all are agreed" (an association of People founded to work together to represent the national interest on the basis of certain principles they all share). This alternative derivation traces the differences between parties back to different values ​​and worldviews , rather than, as Hibbs, to class conflicts .

criticism

Hibb's approach in particular has been subject to considerable criticism. Not only did the modified Phillips curve in the stagflation of the 1970s prove not to be universally valid and thus Hibbs' conflict of goals theory lost its scientific basis; The assumed party type of the mass integration parties has hardly existed in any Western democracy for a long time . Furthermore, he is accused of overestimating the ability of politics to control the economy , as the institutional framework conditions in reality severely restricted them. Nevertheless, the party difference hypotheses are regarded as an important step in the explanation for the emergence of policies and is still often part of scientific research.

literature

  • Hibbs, Douglas A., 1977: Political Parties and Macroeconomic Policy, in: American Political Science Review 71 (4), 1467-1487