Inside the personal party: Leader-owners, light organizations and limited lifespans

Abstract

Scholars in recent decades have discussed the emergence of a new leader-dominated party type, variously described as ‘personal’, ‘personalistic’ and ‘personalist’. However, there has been no original comparative research examining whether (and how) such parties resemble one another organizationally and whether they constitute a distinct organizational type. This article does so by comparing the parties of Silvio Berlusconi in Italy and Clive Palmer in Australia. Based on interviews with those in the parties and party documents, we find our cases share two distinctive organizational features: (1) the founder-leader’s dominance of the party and perceived centrality to its survival and (2) the relationship between the party and members saw active members discouraged and organization at the local level was extremely limited/non-existent. Building on this analysis, we then propose three criteria for identifying other personal parties and point to the existence of a possible subtype. We conclude that the emergence of personal parties requires us to reconsider our understanding of contemporary party organizations in advanced democracies.

‘No regionalism please, we are Leghisti !’ The transformation of the Italian Lega Nord under the leadership of Matteo Salvini

“…Thus, they may support Salvini's message and his style of deliverybut without 'forgetting' the party's regionalist roots. Therefore, it would be a mistake to go as far as conceiving Salvini's Lega as a fully-fledged 'personal' party in which regional power bases have become irrelevant (Kefford and McDonnell 2018). After all, the party's expected lifespan still very much depends 'on the collective nature of its organization' (Calise 2015, 303) and is not seen to be, either by commentators, party representatives or members 'as dependent on the political lifespan of its founder leader' (McDonnell 2013, 222).…”

How to run an efficient political machine: the billionaire Andrej Babiš and his political-business project

“…Remarkably, Hopkin and Paolucci did not conceptualise in detail the organisational implications of a private businessperson's entry into politics, even if their analysis of Berlusconi's Forza Italia offered several empirical examples of the translation of business -firm practices into party -political organisation. This aspect of the matter was grasped by other authors who studied the evolution of Berlusconi's party (Kefford and McDonnell 2018;Orsina 2014;Porro and Russo 2000;Seisselberg 1996). Incidentally, Berlusconi repeatedly proclaimed that a country should be run rationally, 'as a firm' (Ignazi 2010: 67) -and we can find literal analogues to this in Babiš's utterances.…”

The League of Matteo Salvini

“…Indeed, the League is far from being a "personal party" (cf. Kefford & McDonnell, 2018). Of course, Salvini has the "brand, which today is personified in the persona of the leader" (Interview 10), and interviewees commonly underline the vital importance of personalization for the electoral rise of the party (e.g.…”

“…interview 19). However, personalization does not mean that the expectation of the League's lifespan is perceived to be dependent on the political lifespan of its current leader, something that, instead, is typical of personal parties (Kefford & McDonnell, 2018). In fact, Northern representatives do acknowledge a potential scenario "after Salvini" (interview 20): "we feel leghisti, and we feel to be the party.…”