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The Study of Ostrogorsky’s Party Thoughts

Author: ZhaoTao
Tutor: WangJun
School: Hebei Normal
Course: International political
Keywords: Ostrogorsky the British Party democracy party organization
CLC: D09
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2011
Downloads: 65
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Abstract

As a Russian political scientist, historian, jurist and sociologist, Ostrogorsky is recognized as the three founders of political sociology as well as Max Weber and Robert Michaels. What’s more he is also an expert in the field of political party system and political party theory.Ostrogorsky worked in the Department of Law of Russian St. Petersburg national university and the Russian Ministry of Justice in his early period. Then in 1880, he went to Paris and studied in the Paris Institute of Politics. During his stay in France, Ostrogorsky was influenced by the French political thought that was doubt about all the great thinkers such as Comte, Durkheim, Tocqueville, Saint-Simon and Proudhon and so on, which led him to rethinking the issues on the development of the political party later. He traveled around the United Kingdom and the United States to study their political systems. Then based on his investigation and own understanding of political party, he published the book Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties. This book consisted of two volumes: one part of the Britain and the other part of the United States, in which he analyzed the relationship between political party organization and the principle of democracy and created a precedent for the comparative study of political parties by comparing political systems of the two countries. Meanwhile, Ostrogorsky is a social scientist who concerned the gender equality and how women can enjoy their political status in the regime.This thesis will discuss Ostrogorsky’s party thought in the following aspects. First, the introduction is a brief summary of purpose, background, significance, status both at home and abroad, ideas, contents and methods of the research. It expounds the urgency and significance of the study of Ostrogorsky’s party thought in order to help us understand the origin and development of the two-party system both in Britain and the United States. Apart from the introduction, this thesis consists of four parts.The first part of this thesis will analyze the background of formation of Ostrogorsky’s party thoughts. This section includes three levels: his life and writings, historical background and theoretical background. It mainly introduces his book Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties. In this book, Ostrogorsky described the relationship between political parties and development of democracy politics through the overall and systematical research of the political parties both in the U.K. and the U.S. which are the two representative democratic countries. He argued that with the development of democracy politics both in Britain and America, political parties would become more and more indispensable in the new political society.The second part of the thesis focuses on the establishment and development of political parties. By discussing the origin of the Association of British politics, the development of political parties and the emergence of parliamentary groups, Ostrogorsky introduced the emergence, development and influence of the British parties. In the early 19th century, British people’s resentment against the corruption of national parliaments was growing day by day; they attempted to organize the commissions and associations to express their dissatisfaction and wishes freely. At the same time, British democrats continued to resist the feudal system. In the pursuit of political reforms, a lot of permanent organizations emerged which were the so-called political associations. A permanent organization didn’t form in Britain until 1832; however the reform bills had defects on the preparation of electoral lists, so it was convenient for people to express private ideas which became an opportunity for political associations to be registered as legal organizations. Then, the unfit temporary political association changed into a permanent standard political party organization, and the Conservative Party organization was one of the earliest political parties at that time. With the emergence of party organizations, those members who had common features within the organization formed special groups in order to gain the maximum political benefits. That was the origin of the parliamentary group which appeared in the form of a secret committee. In Ostrogorsky’s opinion, the development of the parliamentary group would eventually lead to control and division of power within a country or a political party.The third part of the thesis consentrates on the relationship between the progress of democracy politics and party orgnizations. After the exlporation towards the history of British political history, Ostrogorsky explored that party orgnizations play an essential role and take an immeasurable status in promoting the development of British democratic political system. It is the flourishing development of party orgnizations that enhance the individual political realization, driving the citizen’s political participation,as well as putting re-examining party organization’s value in the development of democracy politics in a necessary place. Ostrogorsky analyzed the relationship between democracy politics and party orgnizations, and also summarized party organizations’promotion function towards democracy politics in three aspects, all of them will be illustrated and analyzed in this part.The fourth part mainly shows the rationality and limitations of Ostrogorsky’s party thoughts. His purpose was to reveal that the role of party organization is very different from the so-called polity. Through a lot of investigation about the national parliaments and Congress, he thought that the political form had been an important embodiment of political power. He pointed out that the democracy system should not be based on the political parties, but on the basis of broad learning, active political participation and group of citizens who were enthusiastic about politics. In fact, because of standing on the opposition side of political parties, much of his thought was confined to personal research without acknowledgement by the society. This thesis conducts a comprehensive analysis of Ostrogorsky’s party thoughts and explores the particularity of his party thoughts in order to restore its original look. Besides, it takes a deep research on the development of British party, including its forms, systems, types, leaders and members and so on. The author forms his own views based on the experience and lesson of western parties and intends to take the advantages of it in order to push the construction of democratic politics in China.

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