The membership of political parties in European democracies, 1960‐1990

Katz, Richard S.; Mair, Peter; Bardi, Luciano; Bille, Lars; Deschouwer, Kris; Farrell, David M.; Koole, Ruud; Morlino, Leonardo; Müller, Wolfgang C.; Pierre, Jon; Poguntke, Thomas; Sundberg, Jan; Svåsand, Lars; Velde, Hella van de; Webb, Paul; Widfeldt, Anders

doi:10.1111/j.1475-6765.1992.tb00316.x

Cited by 290 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…For one, like most other institutional variables, party organization is unlikely to change dramatically over time. Indeed, more time-varying measures, such as the member-voter ratio (Katz et al 1992;Mair and van Biezen 2000) or party centralization (Bille 2011;Lundell 2004), which tap into other aspects of party organization than the leadershipactivist balance we are interested in, also hardly display any change. For example, in our sample, only four out of the 55 parties included change the degree of centralization of candidate-selection procedures between 1977 and 2003 (Bille 2001;Lundell 2004).…”

Section: Data and Measurementmentioning

confidence: 96%

Why Do Parties Change Position? Party Organization and Environmental Incentives

Schumacher¹,

Vries²,

Vis³

2013

The Journal of Politics

176

213

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Section: Data and Measurementmentioning

confidence: 96%

Why Do Parties Change Position? Party Organization and Environmental Incentives

Schumacher¹,

Vries²,

Vis³

2013

The Journal of Politics

176

213

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“…Looking at Figure 1, it is possible to compare the level of party membership of the PD with that of the Italian Communist (until 1990) and post-Communist party (1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006). The downward trend, which is common throughout Western Europe (Poguntke et al, 2016;Van Biezen et al, 2012;Katz et al, 1992), is particularly evident in the case of the Partito Democratico, which can now count on less than 400,000 members. Even for the largest left-wing party in Italy, the golden age of mass politics and, accordingly, of mass-based parties is just a distant memory.…”

Section: In Search Of An Organizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Italian Democratic Party, its nature and its Secretary

Pasquino¹,

Valbruzzi²

2017

Rev. Esp. Cienc. Polít.

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The Democratic Party (PD) is the only reasonably organized party in the Italian de-structured party system. It is itself undergoing a process of transformation. It defies all traditional party definitions. It is no longer a class-based mass party and not even a mass party. Nobody within the party believes that such a party can resurrect. It shows many features of a catch-all party, but some of them are by far more prominent than others. It is not simply an electoral-professional party since its aims go beyond just winning the elections and it relies more on internal resources than on outside professionals. At this point, the most appropriate definition is that of a personalist party cum factions. This article tries to explain : (1) how the PD has acquired a dominant position in Italian politics; (2) how its leader has been elected by members and sympathizers of the party; and (3) how much he is trying to transform the PD into a vehicle pursuing his personal ambitions. Much of what Matteo Renzi will achieve or fail to obtain depends on the new electoral law and on the opposition mounted by some actors, especially the Five Stars Movement. The easiest forecast is that in the short-run the Italian party system will remain de-structured providing opportunities, but also volatility risks for the PD and its leader.Keywords: Italy, party system, personalist party, leadership, primaries. ResumenEl Partido Demócrata (PD) es el único partido razonablemente organizado en el desestructurado sistema de partidos italiano. El propio PD está sufriendo un proceso de transformación que desafía todas las definiciones tradicionales de partidos. Ya no es un partido de masas de clase y ni siquiera un partido de masas. Nadie dentro del partido cree que tal partido pueda resucitar. Muestra muchos rasgos de un partido «atrapa todos», pero algunos de ellos son mucho más prominentes que otros. No es simplemente un partido profesional-electoral ya que sus objetivos van más allá de ganar las elecciones y depende más de los recursos internos que de profesionales externos. En este momento, la definición más apropiada es la de un partido personalista con facciones. Este artículo trata de explicar (1) cómo el PD ha adquirido una posición dominante en la política italiana; (2) cómo han elegido los miembros y los simpatizantes del partido a su líder y (3) cómo este último está intentando transformar el PD en un vehículo para sus ambiciones personales. Gran parte de lo que Matteo Renzi obtenga o no depende de la nueva ley electoral y de la oposición organizada por algunos actores, en especial el Movimiento Cinco Estrellas. El pronóstico más fácil es que en el corto plazo el sistema de partidos italiano seguirá desestructurado brindando oportunidades, pero también riesgos de volatilidad para el PD y su líder.Palabras clave: Italia, sistema de partidos, partido personalista, liderazgo, primarias.

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“…They mostly discuss national aggregate membership data over all (available) parties as a proportion of the electorate (aggregate M/E per country) to run longitudinal cross-national comparisons (Katz et al, 1992;Mair and van Biezen, 2001;van Biezen et al, 2012). This leaves only two or three time points per decade per country.…”

Section: Main Contribution and Opportunities Of The Mapp Datasetmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The MAPP dataset offers more time points and covers more parties than the existing studies, which ultimately provides many more observations (M). As a matter of comparison, at the party level, Katz et al (1992) 272 direct observations (222 for the five main parties and 50 for the six smaller parties) and 97 proxies of party membership observations (M) (33 proxies used for the five main parties, 64 proxies used for the six smaller parties). Proxies for missing observations were calculated based on a linear interpolation between existing observations.…”

Section: Main Contribution and Opportunities Of The Mapp Datasetmentioning

confidence: 99%

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assessing party membership figures: the mapp dataset

2017

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Assessments of party decline and decline of traditional forms of political participation often rely on the argument of party membership decline. Most studies analysing trends in party membership over time focus on aggregate country-level data at a few points in time. While they allow grasping general membership trends, they are not without shortcomings. This article presents the Members and Activists of Political Parties (MAPP) dataset related to the MAPP project. The dataset makes a large amount of data on party membership available to the larger public. The dataset provides 6,307 party membership data observations (M) covering 397 parties in 31 countries, mostly between 1945 and 2014. The article discusses the existing literature and data on party membership trends, how membership trends have been assessed so far, and the potential added value of the MAPP dataset.

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The membership of political parties in European democracies, 1960‐1990

Cited by 290 publications

References 3 publications

Why Do Parties Change Position? Party Organization and Environmental Incentives

Why Do Parties Change Position? Party Organization and Environmental Incentives

The Italian Democratic Party, its nature and its Secretary

assessing party membership figures: the mapp dataset

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