Maurice Duverger, a French sociologist of the last century, singled out three types of struggle between parties: conflict without principles, conflict over secondary principles, and conflict over fundamental principles. As a first example, she cited the Republican and Democratic parties in the United States, between which there are no serious conceptual differences. The second example is the countries of Northern Europe and the Nordic countries where parties argue over many issues but agree on important, fundamental issues. And finally, as a third option, Duverger mentioned her country and Italy, where in the 1950-70s the left, including the communist parties and the liberal forces, had very serious and insurmountable contradictions.
Using this classification, let’s see which option we have. At first glance, it seems that the case is a bit like the United States because there are no ideological differences between the main forces, especially the parliamentary forces. But the essential difference is that the representatives of the two “ruling” parties in the United States do not want to destroy, sentence, or imprison each other. Maybe in their hearts they have such a desire, there is simply no such opportunity in the United States.
And if we’re being serious, what are the contradictions between the RPA and the Civil Contract? Let’s look at the ideology. The previous ruling party says that its ideology is Nzhdehism and Taronism, while the current ruling party claims that it is against “isms.” But judging by the Civil Contract’s slogans, the main focus is on the fight against corruption and looting (let’s not discuss how this is done here). Let’s admit that the ideology of the CP is “anti-robbery.”
But here we are facing a very interesting reality, which is manifested during the local elections. It is known that most of the candidates from the “active” Civil Contract (“party members”) and the city council are former RPA members. Therefore, it turns out that the “pro-Nzhdehs,” which was called “thief” in 2018, has become “anti-thief.” The problem is very simple. For these people, it does not matter what the ruling party is called and what principles it declares. They do not care at all what has happened in our country during the last three years. The only thing they are interested in is their own business and official position. It does not matter under what sign it will be implemented.
Read also
And this means that the RPA and CP parties do not exist as such. And in those conditions, it is premature to hold party elections in the regions, to put it mildly.
Aram Abrahamyan
