Models of Party Organization and Europarties

Abstract

This chapter examines the development of political parties at the European level (henceforth referred to as Europarties) in relation to models developed to understand party organizations at the national level, with a particular focus on how such models affect the ability of parties to perform democratic functions (that is, linking citizens to policy-making institutions). Specifically, we argue that Europarties, in their current form, were created as an organizational response to changing systemic and societal conditions at the national and European levels. We conclude that Europarties appear to be elements and/or manifestations of the organizational development of political parties in European democracies’ multi-level political systems rather than organizations specifically created to perform democratic functions at the European Union (EU) level. In this sense, they exhibit deficiencies that are even more pronounced than those of contemporary national parties of the ‘cartel type’ (which are predominant in Europe and arguably in Canada), and thus fail to offer a realistic solution to Europe’s democratic deficit.