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First published online December 16, 2011

Party strategies towards civil society in new democracies: The Spanish case

Tània Verge [email protected]View all authors and affiliations
Volume 18, Issue 1
https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068811422648

Abstract

The aim of this article is twofold. First it sheds light on the types of relationship established by political parties with interest groups in new democracies through the identification of the strategies applied by parties towards civil society. Analysis of the Spanish case allows the mapping of three different strategies: the creation and/or sponsoring (of social organizations), penetration (infiltration of social organizations by party members or co-option of them for the party in central or in public office) and collaboration (creation of common forums for contact and action with social organizations). The article also discusses the rationales embedded in these strategies and how their use has changed over time and across parties. The second aim is to examine the environmental and party organizational factors that might explain the patterns revealed and to develop hypotheses on party strategies towards interest groups.

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Published In

Volume 18, Issue 1
Pages: 45 - 60
Article first published online: December 16, 2011
Issue published: January 2012

Keywords

  1. interest groups
  2. political parties
  3. Spain
  4. voters/citizens

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Authors

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Tània Verge
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
[email protected]
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Notes

Tània Verge, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, C/Ramon Trias Fargas, 25–27, 08005 Barcelona, Spain Email: [email protected]
Tània Verge is Visiting Professor in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain). Her research interests include political parties, gender and politics and political behaviour.

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