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Whither Parties? Hume on Partisanship and Political Legitimacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 December 2017

JOEL E. LANDIS
JOEL E. LANDIS*
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis
*
Joel E. Landis is a Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Political Science, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616 (jelandis@ucdavis.edu).
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Abstract

Recent work by party scholars reveals a widening gap between the normative ideals we set out for political parties and the empirical evidence that reveals their deep and perhaps insurmountable shortcomings in realizing these ideals. This disjunction invites us to consider the perspective of David Hume, who offers a theory of the value and proper function of parties that is resilient to the pessimistic findings of recent empirical scholarship. I analyze Hume's writings to show that the psychological experience of party informs the opinions by which governments can be considered legitimate. Hume thus invites us to consider the essential role parties might play in securing legitimacy as that ideal is practiced or understood by citizens, independent of the ideal understandings of legitimacy currently being articulated by theorists. My analysis contributes to both recent party scholarship and to our understanding of the role of parties in Hume's theory of allegiance.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 112 , Issue 2 , May 2018 , pp. 219 - 230
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2017 

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Footnotes

I am grateful to James F. Adams, Shalini Satkunanandan, John T. Scott, Robert S. Taylor, participants at the Southern Political Science Association's 2017 annual meeting, attendees of the UC Davis Political Theory Workshop, and several anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and critiques. I am indebted to the Bilinski Educational Foundation for their generous support while the work for this article was undertaken.

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