The Lay of the Land: Battlegrounds and Terrain in Party Scholarship

Abstract

There is no shortage of works on political parties and their relationship to governing institutions and political behavior. But unlike the study of legislatures, the courts, executives, or voters, party analysis has proceeded in a segregated fashion. Indeed, few integrative models have been advanced linking what parties are, what they do, and why they matter both normatively and empirically. In this paper we argue that four conceptual battlegrounds best summarize these works, and that within each there are common threads. Party scholarship has really been fought on three terrains: party organization and activities, party values and culture, and the party context. Before definitive answers can be reached and integrative models developed, scholars must first ask the same questions, and in the same language.