Abstract
This chapter discusses the literature on parties in advanced democracies and develops three arguments. First, we need to move beyond a conceptualization of parties as citizen representatives and more systematically consider which functions parties as organizations fulfill when ‘running the state,’ a task that is keeping party elites increasingly busy. This allows us to assess whether party government handles the ‘functional’ challenges linked to governing better or worse than alternative models, such as expert government, which is increasingly prominent in the debate. Second, it is argued that observing symptoms of organizational decline of mainstream parties is in itself insufficient to conclude that the presence of an extra-parliamentary organization is not longer crucial to assure parties’ long-term success in an increasingly volatile electoral market. The study of organizationally new parties that faced the decision to invest resources in an organizational infrastructure over the last decades opens a window of opportunity to examine whether the mechanisms linked to the mass party model are really outdated as often claimed. Finally, the chapter raises the most fundamental question, namely whether indications of party change, especially intensifying party–state interpenetration, form part of a broader societal development that concerns voluntary organizations more generally or whether they are party-specific.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
Complexity denotes ‘the complexity of regularized procedures for coordinating the efforts of party supporters in executing the party’s strategies and tactics.’ (Janda and Colman 1998: 618).
- 4.
Looking at integration within the same policy field, the question is whether and how the political-level and the administrative level are linked and interact (Peters 1998). As far as integration across policy fields is concerned, it is crucial whether actors operating in a policy field (who might belong to the same or different government units) are informed about, can be affected by and respond to processes in other policy fields or whether processes in different policy fields evolve in isolation (Metcalfe 1994).
- 5.
Similarly, van Biezen (2012) suggests that parties’ increasing constitutionalization might be an attempt to legitimize parties in face of their weakening representative capacities.
- 6.
- 7.
Recognizing the importance of the rise of new parties in advanced democracies, we find a wide range of insightful comparative studies focusing either on the evolution of particular party families (e.g., Kitschelt 1989, 1990; Poguntke 2002b; Ignazi 2003; Mudde 2007; Art 2011) or on cross-national patterns of new party emergence, entry and performance (e.g., Mair 1999; Hug 2001; Abedi 2004; Tavits 2006; Deschouwer 2008; Meguid 2008).
- 8.
In how far this is enough to keep the party going in the longer term, remains to be seen.
- 9.
Following Mair (1999) newness was defined as organizational newness, not as ideological or programmatic newness. Parties qualified as new if their organizational foundation took place in or after 1968 and if they a) were built from scratch (‘newly born’), b) if they were mergers in which newly born parties participated, or c) if they were minor splits from old parties. All of them faced or still face the challenge to build a viable infrastructure and stabilize support while operating in increasingly volatile contexts (Lipset and Rokkan 1967; Mair 1997), which complicate the setup or reliable ties to members and voters(see for details Bolleyer 2013)
- 10.
Possible yardsticks for party success are national vote shares, seat shares, repeated parliamentary access and government participation.
- 11.
The book was published first in 1980.
- 12.
Core characteristics of membership groups relevant to this discussion are those with a formal organization including a formal, mostly voluntary, membership that pays regular subscriptions, a (not necessarily exclusive) orientation toward the provision of a collective good (either accessible by/beneficial to the members only or the public as a whole), which are run with the involvement of volunteers (even though the intensity and type of involvement can vary widely). They are further non-profit-seeking and non-governmental.
- 13.
While employers can exit firms (Hirschman 1970), the decision to change employer is more consequential than leaving a voluntary organization to join another.
- 14.
In countries such as Australia, Germany, or the Netherlands, parties need to meet requirements in terms of their internal organization.
- 15.
Depending on the field scholars work in, there are various labels for the group of organizations relevant here such as third sector or voluntary sector organizations or voluntary agencies (e.g., Billis 2010; Cunningham and James 2011). Alternatively, they are called civil society organizations, voluntary associations, or collective action associations (e.g., van Deth 1997; Knoke 1988). Reflecting this pluralism in terms of terminology, there is also disagreement about the exact specification of the universe of relevant groups that count as voluntary organizations and how to distinguish different types (Jordan et al. 2003).
- 16.
- 17.
Jordan and Maloney (1997, 2007) have indicated that successful and longer-lived ‘new politics organizations’ (e.g., environmental groups) develop over time tendencies similar to parties. They are among the few scholars that have explicitly challenged the widely shared assumption in the social movement literature and sometimes also present in the party literature that these new organizations are fundamentally different from parties in the way they operate.
- 18.
Note that organizations in the voluntary or third sector do not necessarily have members, although many do, especially those that are formed bottom-up and grew out of citizen initiatives (Halpin and Jordan 2012).
- 19.
See for distinct logics of party formation and adaptation Biezen (2005).
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Bolleyer, N. (2013). The Change of Party–State Relations in Advanced Democracies: A Party–Specific Development or Broader Societal Trend?. In: Müller, W., Narud, H. (eds) Party Governance and Party Democracy. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6588-1_12
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