Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/233

* POLITICAL PARTIES. 197 POLITICAL SCIENCE. followed by a struggle between Republicans and Monarchists which, after the resignation of King Amadeus in 1873, resulted in the short-lived republic under Castelar. In 187-t the monarchy was restored, and in 1876 the new Constitu- tion gave opportunity for a new alignment. Under this there were two constitutional monar- chist parties — the Conservatives, made up chicflr of the clergj- and aristocracy, and the Liberals (Constitutionalists or Dynastic Left). In addi- tion to these two true political parties were the Carlists, who were irreconcilable absolutists, the Republicans, and the Possibilists (a name having much the same meaning as Opportunists in France). The Republicans have an increasing strength in Spain. For many years Canovas del Castillo and Sagasta, the respective leaders of the Conservative and Liberal parties, had been alternately in power. .Just before the war with the United States Sagasta ( q.v. ) and the Liberals again took the helm. The peace negotiations brought the Conservatives once more into power, but the administration was a troubled one. .Spain has, in fact, since 1898 entered upon a course of readjustment to new conditions which has its effect upon the parties. Sweden and Xobwat. The Scandinavian dual monarchy really comprises two distinct nations with one King and a common administration for war and diplomacy. Each has therefore its dis- tinct national politics. The parties in Sweden are the aristocratic Conservative Party, forming the Parliamentary Right, and having its strength in the cities; and the rural Democratic Party, the Parliamentary Left, known as the Rustics. In recent years an urban Democratic Party of de- cidedly radical tendencies has arisen. Tlie So- cialists, organized as a party in 1889. joined the Democrats and a demand was made for universal suffrage. Norway is the most democratic country of Europe socially and, except Switzerland, in its political constitution. For many years the Dem- ocratic majority in the Storthing was in conflict with the King and his Ministers, chiefl.v over the budget. In 1872 an attempt was made to secure a responsible ilinistry from the Parliamentary majority. In 1884 the King yielded and at first attempted to form a Conservative Ministry, but was obliged to call upon the Left. In 1886 the Loft split into the Old Left and the Xew ( Liber- al) Left. The conflict that ensued brought out three parties — Conservative, Ministerial, and Rad- ical, the second being due to the attempt of the Prime Minister. Sverdrup. to hold his position in spite of party defeat. A Conservative Ministry was formed in 1889. At the same time a nation- alist agitation began and grew to large propor- tions. The Conservatives were defeated in 1891 on a bill to regulate the relations between Swe- den and Norway. The Radical became a national- ist party. This agitation in Xorway. threaten- ing the imion, developed a counter-movement in Sweden, so that practically a ^.'orwegian and a Swedish party have arisen in the combined mon- archy. Switzerland. There is no party government in Switzerland and no party machinery, such as is necessary in countries where there is party gov- ernment. Minority representation is responsible for this. There are parties, however. The politi- cal history of the present confederation begins in 1847, when the Radicals triumphed over the Cath- olic Sonderbund. .Moderates, Radicals, and Cath- olics were thereafter the parties that appealed to the sufl'rages of the people. The two former di- vided at lirst on the attitude of Switzerland toward the revolutionan- movement elsewhere; then on railroad development, and other questions. In the struggle over constitutional revision from 1864 to 1874 revision was opposed by the Ultramontane Catholics, and by the French and Italians, who feared the domination of the German cantons. After the revision there were new adjustments of party relations. The Vatican decrees of 1870 were oppo.sed by a body of Swiss Catholics, who rejected the dogma of Papal infallibility. They were known as Old Catholics and their" recogni- tion by the Swiss Government as the true Cath- olic body precipitated a contest with the Vatican and the Ultramontane Swiss Catholics. The Ul- tramontanes or Clericals, the legislative Right, became a strong and aggressive political body. On the other side the Radicals form the Extreme Left, believing in the absolute severance of both Protestant and Catholic churches from politics. The Radicals difTer in their attitude on ques- tions outside of Church matters, the French being opposed to the national centralization which is sought by the Germans. The Centre, or Liberal Conservative party, is far from homogeneous and united. It is made up mainly of the conservative moneyed classes. A Catholic People's Party was formed in 1894. Socialist party movements, al- though many have been set on foot by foreigners who have found asylum in Switzerland, have not flourished on Swiss soil, but the Griitliverein, a society founded in 18.38 on a democratic basis, has been gradually adopting socialist ideas. Consult: Seignobos, A Political History of Europe Since ISl^, trans, by S. M. Macvane (Xew York. 1900). a very useful compendium of European political history; Lowell, Governments and Parties in Continental Europe (2 vols., Bos- ton, 1897 ), an invaluable and thoroughly scien- tific examination of the political systems "of Aus- tria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, and Switz- erland; Rohmer. Doctrine of Parties (1844); Woolsey, Political Science (2 vols., Xew York, 1886 ) . See the sections on the government and history of the different countries, to which the history of parties closely relates itself. POLITICAL SCIENCE. That branch of the social sciences which deals with the organization and life of the State. It comprises the considera- tion of the general problem of the origin and na- ture of the State; investigations into constitu- tional forms, political forces, and modes of pub- lic administration: and the attempt to establish sound rules and maxims of political action. The characteristic feature of political and legal, as distinguished from purely social, facts lies in the presence, in connection with the former, of a definitely organized personal authority endowed with determinate functions and enforcing its de- crees by a fixed sanction. In the original Greek sense 'politics' refers to the entire art of realizing the ethical ideal in the State by the establishment and maintenance of orderly government ; but in modern times this term is often used in a much more restricted sense. The characteristic political fact, accord- ing to the modern usage of language, is the strug- gle for personal authority in an organized com-