When Europeanisation meets organisation: enhancing the rights of party members in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

The participation of members in intra-party decision making has been extensively documented in the literature. This article brings forward the concept of party member rights that adds the dimension of freedom of opinion and action within the party. It aims to identify the causes behind these rights in political parties from three Central and Eastern European countries (Hungary, Romania and Slovakia). It argues and tests how party age, Europeanization and party leadership change may enhance PMR. The empirical evidence draws on an original dataset based on standardized content analysis of 142 party statutes between 1988 and 2012. The results reveal important and robust effects of these variables when controlling for other determinants.

European integration and political party logos: A ‘visual Europeanization’?

“…Scholars have long held that parties mobilize around the same deep-seated cleavages, borrowing programs and organizational models from each other (Bartolini and Mair, 1990). Consequently, both voting distribution across Europe (Caramani, 2012) and the structures and strategies of European parties have increasingly converged (Gherghina and Von Dem Berge, 2018;Lewis, 2015;Von Dem Berge and Poguntke, 2013). According to several scholars, European integration has strengthened this tendency, prompting a Europeanization of political parties.…”

“…Europeanization literature extensively debates whether European Union (EU) accession prompts convergence between the parties of new member and candidate states in regions like Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and their Western counterparts. According to several scholars, CEE parties have emulated parties in Western Europe across several dimensions, including programs and internal procedures (Aylett et al, 2013; Gherghina and Von Dem Berge, 2018; Von Dem Berge and Poguntke, 2013). Even though some research focuses on the Europeanization of political communication and the activities of political parties in the emerging European public sphere (Kriesi et al, 2007), the visual dimension of this process receives limited attention.…”

Party members and leadership styles in new European democracies

“…In the most recent two decades, there has been a general tendency for many parties to adopt more rights for their members, to provide them an active role and power in the intra-party decision-making process (Gherghina, 2014; Gherghina and Von Dem Berge, 2018; Scarrow, 2015; Van Haute and Gauja, 2015). In particular, many parties focused on the adoption of internal democracy in which members are given a direct say in the candidate or leader selection processes (Adams and Merrill, 2008; Hopkin, 2001; Pennings and Hazan, 2001; Sandri et al, 2015; Scarrow and Gezgor, 2010).…”

Towards achieving the sustainable development goal 9: Analyzing the role of green innovation culture on market performance of Chinese SMEs

“…Numerous studies show that SMEs invest mainly in process development instead of PRI. Consequently, this study focuses only on the influence of PRI on MRP ( Gherghina and von dem Berge, 2018 ). According to erstwhile research, a GIC must be formed, sustained, and fostered if organizations are competitive and produce new products ( Waqas et al, 2021 ).…”