Political parties and public opinion: democratization processes in Armenia

Abstract

The current study addresses the fundamental issue of responsiveness of the political parties in Armenia. It aims at discovering how Armenian parties learn about public opinion; utilize public opinion in order to represent the public’s interests, and which strategic tools they use to influence public opinion. By comparing parties that got elected to the National Assembly in 2003 with those that participated in the elections but were not elected, this study reveals whether those having representatives in Parliament have been conducting more active work with public opinion. In-depth interviews with the officials of ten political parties revealed the current state of affairs concerning the Armenian parties’ understanding of and work with public opinion. As the findings show parties themselves realize the existence of many problems in the Armenian party system. They also realize the functions to be performed by each party in a democratic society. This awareness is a considerable progress taking into account the deeply rooted Soviet mentality and the Soviet legacy of the country. The study revealed that parties represented in Parliament have more strategies and resources to learn about electoral priorities and issues. They have more effective regional outreach with the public, possess media analyzing centers, and most importantly, they conduct opinion polls and public research in general, to become aware of the people’s problems and concerns, to receive feedback on a particular policy decision of the party, and to assess the party’s overall image. So, more or less significant parties do have an understanding of public opinion and try to work with it. Parties represented in National Assembly have both more resources and more access to Mass Media as compared with parties not represented in parliament. They also realize the importance of maintaining active cooperation and relations with media, as opposed to the not elected parties which attain the Soviet style views of the media to take the initiative of cooperation with political parties. Furthermore, elected parties appear to have more meaningful media related goals. Besides presenting the party’s ideology, they also have an understanding of the importance of such objectives as promoting freedom of speech and advancing the ideas of democracy. Elected parties have both a more profound understanding of the significance of organized meetings with the public and conduct them more frequently than not elected parties do. Thus, parties that are represented in the National Assembly have more strategies to learn about, be responsive to, and influence public opinion in Armenia. The reason should not be confined to the fact that in National Assembly parties have more resources to do so. As the study demonstrated, one party (United Labor) not previously represented in Parliament was elected, another party (Ramkavar Azatakan Party) having sufficient resources was not elected. These two examples demonstrate that neither previous representation in Parliament, nor financial resources are sufficient preconditions to be elected. What parties need for being elected is meaningful strategies and active work with public opinion.