SCHOLAR: ELECTIONS AND POLITICAL CLEAVAGES

The structure of political parties is described in its constitution and or manifest. It also describes the parties decision making and its mission. Its mission gives people an idea of what the party intends, it is an extension of their objectives. Parties are commonly structured as follows the convention is at the top followed by the executive committee, than the party officers, branches and lastly the members. The convention identifies and pushes the parties objectives. The executive committee allocates resources and makes decisions about the parties direction. The party officers communicate with the branches who campaigns locally. They also find local donors whom are willing to donate to the party’s cause. The members are the last part of this structure, they usually are required to be above the age of 19 and also they must pay a membership fee.

There are several classifications of elections and they are as follows, maintaining elections, critical elections, deviating elections and reinstating elections. Maintaining elections occur when the party who regularly wins, wins. Critical elections are those that change the party in power. Deviating elections on the other hand are election that are temporary shifts. Lastly, reinstating elections are those that bring back the party that regularly wins. It is important to analyze these because we can get an idea of how elections in the future are going to turn out. It gives us an idea of voting behaviors which would then allow parties to identify what the people want. These also allow party researchers to segment, target and position their parties in favor of public opinion.

Social cleavages are divisions within society which allow for a diverse voting bloc. These cleavages allow for diversity. These cleavages align with parties who meet their interest. Cleavages have political, social, ideological, and institutional dimensional considerations. The literature, “Political Parties in Canada,” explains many cleavages. They are rural/ urban, worker/ owner, state/ religion, periphery, materialistic and globalization cleavages. Rural prioritizes farming incentives and tax breaks for their crops while urban cleavages preference police safety, parks & recreation maintenance. The worker cleavage looks at employment conditions and salaries while owners look for reduced taxes on their profits. The state cleavage looks to maintain its authority and its government programs. Religious cleavages look to support parties that have conservative reserved values. The periphery cleavage looks at language and ethnicity. Materialistic cleavages are concerned for the availability of goods and services. Lastly the globalization cleavages look for integration in business.

In order to parties to be successful they must be able to maintain their structure. They need to make compromises with their leaders, members and the public at large. The party must be able to look at the macroscopic environment and be able to segment them so they can meet their needs through their campaign and or platform. They need to target specific demographics so that they can position themselves as such to appeal to them. Members must be aware and conscious of the parties’ objectives and missions. Each member has a role to play and these roles should compliment rather than conflict. If there is harmony within the party it could function more efficiently however, if there is conflict, people would be less efficient and can lead to a party at peril. In todays society, membership in parties are declining. This is a result of political apathy. Perhaps people are not being mobilized or intrigued enough. Parties need to reorganize and market themselves in modern ways. This could be advertisements in radio, t.v., flyers, banners or in the paper. Further they can continue to canvas door to door. They can involve themselves in social media like twitter so that they may appeal to a larger demographic. Lowering the voting age can also benefit political participation. This would allow people to be more knowledgeable about politics. An implication to this however, is the fact that we would have ignorant voters who guess. Another tactic that political parties can implement is to collaborate with the government to provide education to students at all ages so when they grow up, thy are aware of the process.