Tocqueville stressed that although political associations, by definition, seek to impose their views on the polity, in practice the interplay among them has contributed to the emergence of norms of tolerance and the institutionalization of democratic rights. Over time, in both new and revived democracies, conflict between the governing and opposition parties helps establish democratic norms and rules. An opposition seeks to reduce the resources available to officeholders and to enlarge the rights available to those out of power. The existence of an opposition-in essence, an alternative government-restrains incumbents. Schattschneider, perhaps the most important pre-World War II American student of political parties, put it even more unequivocally, claiming at the start of his now classic work on party government that “political parties created democracy and that modern democracy is unthinkable save in terms of parties.” 2 In my own attempt to present a “minimalist conception of democracy,” 3 I have stressed the centrality of institutionalized party competition: “Democracy in a complex society may be defined as a political system which supplies regular constitutional opportunities for changing the governing officials, and a social mechanism which permits the largest possible part of the population to influence major decisions by choosing among contenders for political office”-that is, through political parties. ![]() In considering the forces and institutions that enabled democracy to flourish in the postrevolutionary United States, Alexis de Tocqueville paid particular attention to political associations and parties, which he identified as the key institutions of civil society.
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