Parties and Elections in Europe

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Explanatory notes about the database.

Abstract: Parties and Elections in Europe provides a comprehensive database about the parliamentary elections in the European countries and autonomous subdivisions since 1945 and additional informations about the political parties, the electoral systems, the acting political leaders, the governments and the electoral laws. The parties are characterised according to their political orientation. The website also contains an electoral calendar, news in brief and links to parties and election authorities.

Editor: The independent and private website was established by Wolfram Nordsieck in 1997. The editor began his comparative study of political parties, party systems, elections and constitutional laws in the late 1980s. Thereafter he studied law and modern history at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany. Today he practices law.

References: Primary sources for the election results are central election commissions, parliaments, departments of statistics and databases of research instituts. Literature, newspapers and broadcasters are additionally used in case of need. Detailed informations and sources are listed below each country study. The party classifications base on literature, news, personal impressions, the parties' origins and self-assessments and their membership in Europarties and international party organisations.

Classifications (from left to right in the political spectrum)

The political parties are characterised according to their political orientation. The categories primarily base on the Cleavage Model (Lipset/Rokkan defined four basic cleavages for western civilisations: Owner - Worker, State - Church, Urban - Rural, Centre - Periphery) and the main types of party families noted by v. Beyme (1984):

Communism: The left-wing communist parties adhere to Marxism developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the 19th century. Their aim is the free and classless society based on common ownership of the means of production. They usually originated from revolutionary factions of social democratic parties (splits in 1917 after the October Revolution). Today some of them favour reformist and pluralist ways to achieve this aim (until the end of the SU called eurocommunists), others still adhere to the following revolutionary doctrines (keywords in brackets):

Marxist-Leninist (also called Leninist) parties prefer a non-pluralist orthodox tendency developed by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (leadership of a vanguard party, dictatorship of the proletariat, centralism; official doctrine of the former SU).
Trotskyist parties favour a non-pluralist tendency established by Leon Trotsky (leadership of a vanguard party, dictatorship of the proletariat, permanent revolution, workers' councils, internationalism).
Maoist parties advocate a non-pluralist version developed by Mao Zedong (leadership of a vanguard party, people's democratic dictatorship, continuing class struggle, practise and experimentation).

Socialism: Socialist parties advocate a society characterised by equal access to resources for all individuals. They resist the capitalist globalisation and intend to reorganise the socio-economic order through (more) public or direct worker administration of the means of production. Usually they developed out of the New Left that came up in the mid-1960s or former communist parties.

Democratic socialist parties are closely related to social democratic parties. These parties prefer a large public sector, redistributive tax policies, workers' control of labour processes and public ownership of key industries.
Eco-socialist parties combine democratic socialist, green and anti-globalisation policies.
Anti-capitalist parties intend to replace the whole capitalist system with another, usually socialist, system. These radical left parties strongly adhere to anti-globalisation policies. They often include (post-) revolutionary currents.

Social democracy: Social democratic parties are center-left parties rooted in the socialist labour movement of the 19th century. This (today) cross-class parties generally advocate a democratic welfare state and a mixed economy that contains privately-owned and state-owned enterprises. They adhere to values as freedom, solidarity, social justice and equality of rights and opportunities.

Third Way parties incorporate (economically) liberal topics as deregulations, privatisations, lower taxes and limited social welfare.

Green politics: Most of the green parties were founded in the late 1970s as part of the new social movements that came up in the mid-1960s (in particular the ecology, peace, women's and anti-nuclear movements). They are ecological parties based on largely post-materialist values as nonviolence, civil and human rights, grassroots and participatory democracy, feminism, animal welfare and social justice.

Regionalism: Regionalist (also called autonomist) parties focus on the interests of a particular region. They intend to increase the region's influence. Their aim is a decentralisation of governance and regional autonomy.

Separatist parties advocate a full political secession of a particular region and the formation of a new state.
Minority parties intend to secure and to increase the rights of an ethnical or linguistical minority (minority politics).

Centrism: Centrist parties are usually moderate traditionalist parties which are in the centre of the political spectrum and take a centrist position on the socio-economic left-right scale.

Liberalism: Liberal parties are middle-class parties based on the tradition of political liberalism, a movement of the 18th century. The doctrine of liberalism considers personal freedom to be the most important goal. In particular it stresses free markets, free trade, limited governments, deregulations, privatisations, low taxes and individual property rights (economic liberalism) as well as equality for all citizens under the law, secularism and civil liberties.

Social liberal parties stress civil liberties and human rights; they usually also tend to social market policies.
Conservative liberal parties combine liberal policies, especially economic liberalism, with more traditional stances on social, ethical or national issues (in some countries this variant is traditionally known as national liberalism).

Christian democracy: The Christian social doctrine (basic principle: human dignity) is the inspiration of the Christian democratic parties. This cross-class parties combine Christian ethical and moderate social conservative positions with a social market model. They are supportive of family values and adhere to principles as freedom, justice, solidarity and subsidiarity.

Conservatism: Originally inspired by natural law and formed by the upper-class, conservative parties today are mainly middle-class organisations that favour traditional values as authority, nation, national cultur, stability, continuity, religion and family. They seek to preserve the current status quo or to reform the society only slowly. Over the time they incorporated some liberal values, especially on economic issues (free market policies).

Liberal conservative parties combine conservative policies with more progressive stances on social and ethical issues (literally the term is also used for a variant of conservatism which incorporates free market policies).
National conservative parties concentrate on national interests and eurosceptic positions; they usually advocate traditional social and ethical views, tend to law-and-order politics and are in favour of limiting immigration.
Social conservative parties promote public morality; they are culturally, ethically and socially strict traditional.

Nationalism: Nationalist parties believe that the nation with its ethnical, linguistical and cultural identity and its sovereignty is of primary importance. This usually involves a strong identification with a state defined in this terms.

Right-wing populist parties are protest parties that appeal to the fears and frustrations of the public. Their strategy rely on a combination of (ethno-) nationalism with an anti-elitist rhetoric and a radical critique of the political institutions. Usually they prefer strict anti-immigration and law-and-order polices and tend to forms of xenophobia.
Far-right politics is a collection label for (ideologically heterogeneous) ultra-nationalist parties. They adhere to a pure form of the nation defined by ethnicity. Usually they believe that a nation requires a collective identity and a strong leadership. These parties challenge the equality of all humans. Most of them tend to xenophobia, racism, authoritarianism and corporatism. Normally they are hostile to the present democracies and their pluralist values.

Single-issues: Agrarianism, Animal welfare, Anti-clericalism, Anti-corruption politics, Centralism, Copyright and patent reform, Direct democracy, Environmentalism, Equality, Euroscepticism, Feminism, Freedom of information, Gaullism, Kemalism, Loyalism, Monarchism, Pensioners' interests, Religious beliefs (Christian left, Christian right, Evangelicalism, Islamism etc.), Republicanism, Social justice, Souverainism, Statism, Unionism.

Europarties and international party organisations

Officially recognised Europarties in 2010 (formally called political parties at European level). An Europarty is a party operating transnationally in Europe and in the institutions of the European Union. According to EU regulations it must have received in one quarter of the member states 3% of the votes at the last European Parliament election or it must be representated in one quarter of member states by members of the European Parliament, a national or regional parliament. All Europarties are predominantly made up of national member parties:

	European People's Party (EPP)		Alliance of European Conserv. and Ref. (AECR)
	Party of European Socialists (PES)		European Democratic Party (EDP)
	European Liberal Democrat and Ref. P. (ELDR)		European Free Alliance (EFA)
	European Green Party (EGP)		EUDemocrats (EUD)
	Party of the European Left (EL)		European Christian Political Movement (ECPM)

International party organisations (listed are organisations with a specified membership and at least one member in the European Parliament or a national parliament):

	Socialist International (SI)		Pirate Party International (PPI)
	Centrist Democrat International (CDI)		Committee for a Workers' International (CWI)
	International Democrat Union (IDU)		Union of Communist Parties - KPSS (SKP)
	Liberal International (LI)		Nordic Green Left Alliance (NGLA)
	Global Greens (GG)		Alliance of Europ. National Movements (AENM)

Terms of use: The website is devoted to share the informations on a free basis. All figures can be saved for private purposes. Every publication in media or a commercial use requires written approval.

Contact: Wolfram Nordsieck, Merkurstraße 1, 40223 Düsseldorf, Germany. Mail: info[at]parties-and-elections.eu.