Rules of Engagement?

Research has repeatedly shown that formal party membership is in structural decline in liberal democracies. The same strongly negative trend, however, has not been observed for less formal forms of party attachment and authors have claimed that this leads to a pattern of multi-speed party adherence. In the current analysis, we investigate to what extent non-formalized forms of adhering to a political party have the same attitudinal and behavioural functions as formal party membership. The analysis is based on a 4-year (2011–2015) panel study in the Netherlands. The results indicate that party supporters are characterized by lower levels of commitment and stability than party members. What seems to matter, however, is the level of conviction, and a smaller group of highly motivated supporters resembles party members quite strongly. We close with some observations on how political parties might react to this deinstitutionalization of party attachment.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Types of party affiliation and the multi-speed party

Hooghe

Kölln

2018

“…If it is true that potential members are sensitive to the costs and benefits of joining, how parties construct their membership rules should affect not only how many supporters acquire membership but also some of the characteristics of those who join. Elsewhere we have found evidence of this mechanism (Kosiara-Pedersen et al, 2017), showing that membership costs and benefits affect the likelihood that party members will be active within their parties. On average, members of parties that are relatively difficult to join are more likely to participate in partisan activities.…”

Section: The Impact Of Membership Costs and Benefitsmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…Yet, institutional changes are not necessarily independent from the profile of party membership. Parties’ democratizing reforms appear to be related to the propensity of party supporters to become members, and to levels of party activism among party members (Kosiara-Pedersen et al, 2017). Such relationships may reflect the fact that differences in party member rights alter the cost/benefit equations of party membership, and of membership compared to other affiliation options.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The consequences of membership incentives: Do greater political benefits attract different kinds of members?

Achury¹,

Scarrow

Kosiara‐Pedersen

et al. 2018

Self Cite

In recent decades, parties in many parliamentary democracies have radically reshaped what it means to be a party member, making it easier and cheaper to join, and giving members greater direct say over party decisions. This article explores some implications of such changes, asking whether membership costs and benefits influence which supporters take the step of joining their party. In particular, it considers the impact of net membership benefits on membership demographics and on members’ ideology. The investigation examines patterns of party membership in 10 parliamentary democracies, using opinion data from the European Social Survey and data on party rules from the Political Party Database project. Our analysis shows that party supporters are more sensitive to political benefits than to financial costs, especially in terms of the ideological incongruence of who joins. As a result, parties offering higher benefits to their members have lower ideological and demographic disparities between members and other party supporters. This is a positive finding for party-based representation, in that it suggests that trends toward more inclusive decision-making processes have the potential to produce parties with memberships that are more substantively and more descriptively representative of their supporters.

“…In Australia, the Labor and National parties have experimented with ‘community pre-selections’, an open candidate selection model copied from the UK Conservatives (Gauja, 2017). They have created multiple modes of affiliation, many of which aim to harness online channels for participation and communication (Kosiara-Pedersen et al, 2017; Scarrow, 2015: 135–145). UK Labour, for instance, established a network of registered supporters and allowed for policy participation through online consultative forums (Gauja, 2017).…”

Section: Understanding Partisan Activity: From Members To Supportersmentioning

confidence: 99%

The expanding party universe: Patterns of partisan engagement in Australia and the United Kingdom

Gauja

Grömping

2019

Although membership is declining, parties continue to perform roles central to democratic governance in modern societies. Given this seeming paradox, we suggest that partisan identification, in complementing studies of formal membership, is a promising way of assessing the strength of parties’ democratic linkage. Using data from an original survey of voters in Australia and the United Kingdom, we analyse the participatory and demographic profiles of party supporters. We show that there are significant differences between supporters and those not committed to any party, as well as between supporters based on the strength of their party identification, substantiating the idea that parties can be conceptualized as a series of concentric circles of increasing engagement but declining representativeness. Stronger supporters are more likely to engage with parties online, volunteer and donate, but are older, more likely to be male and less likely to be foreign-born. Our findings have important implications for democratic practice as parties seek to expand and rejuvenate their networks of affiliates.