Political Party Membership in New Democracies

Electoral Rules in Central and East Europe

Alison F. Smith

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9783030417956
• eBook ISBN:
  9783030417963
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Comparative Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book explores the impact of electoral rules on political party development in Central and East Europe. It finds that 'high district magnitude' proportional electoral systems encourage centralised organisational development and campaigning – where communication with voters is conducted primarily via mass, social and digital media – while small electoral districts stimulate grassroots campaigning. As a result, low magnitude electoral systems are more likely to create an active role for party members, stimulating membership recruitment. The book further examines how parties organise and campaign on the ground. The analysis of in-depth surveys and interviews with party elites in Estonia, Lithuania and Slovakia sheds light on areas of party life that are rarely examined, including party fundraising. Overall, the effects of electoral systems on party organisation and campaigning reflect patterns previously observed in Western Europe, demonstrating that a degree of convergence has occurred.

© The Author(s) 2020

A. F. SmithPolitical Party Membership in New DemocraciesSt Antony's Serieshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41796-3_1

Begin Abstract

1. Parties and Members in the Twenty-First Century

Alison F. Smith¹

(1)

Political Developments, Landsmeer, The Netherlands

Alison F. Smith

End Abstract

Political party membership is often viewed as an anachronism, a relic from bygone days before the mass media and state subsidies rendered the communication and fundraising roles of members obsolete. Scholars have analysed the declining role of members in political parties since the 1960s, when ‘mass parties’ evolved into, or were superseded by, ‘catch all parties’ (Kirchheimer, 1969). Linkages between parties and society have since weakened, while the relationship between parties and the state deepened (Mair & Katz, 1997). By the beginning of the twenty-first century, van Biezen, Mair and Poguntke argued that party membership in Western democracies had reached ‘such a low ebb that it may no longer constitute a relevant indicator of organisational capacity’ (2012, p. 24).

Against such a backdrop, it was predicted that membership parties would not develop in the post-communist democracies of central and east Europe (Kopecký, 2008; van Biezen, 2003). These countries were democratising in an age where party members had little value. They also had fundamentally different social structures from their western European counterparts after decades of communist rule. However, as the post-communist democracies consolidated, considerable cross-country variation in membership levels appeared. By 2008, the percentage of the population across 11 central and east European democracies that claimed to be a political party member ranged from 0.8% in Latvia to 6% in Romania (European Values Survey, EVS).

This book demonstrates that electoral systems contribute to cross-country variation in membership levels. Presenting surveys and interviews from three central and east European democracies, it examines elite strategies in detail, showing the causal mechanisms driving electoral system effects. In Western European democracies, high magnitude proportional electoral systems provide strong incentives for party-driven, centralised campaigning (Bowler & Farrell, 1992); similar patterns were observed in central and east Europe, with communication via mass and digital media at the fore. Low magnitude proportional electoral systems encouraged specific patterns of ‘personal’ vote-seeking (Carey & Shugart, 1995); however, they also stimulated grassroots campaigning, creating a role for members. The single member district section of mixed electoral systems also stimulated grassroots campaigning, this time with activism concentrated in ‘marginal’ districts (Cox, 1990). This meant that members played an active role in party campaigning where electoral systems were ‘decentralised’, stimulating higher levels of party membership.

Presenting detailed fieldwork from three central and east European democracies—Estonia, Lithuania and Slovakia—this book provides rare insights into aspects of party organisation and campaigning that are often hidden from view, including voter contacting and fundraising. In doing so, it examines the causal link between party membership and electoral systems, analysing how electoral systems influence party elites’ demand for members. As a result, this book makes an original contribution to the scholarly literature on electoral system effects, political campaigning, party membership, party institutionalisation and, ultimately, democratic consolidation.

Members and Campaigning in the Twenty-First Century

The role of members has evolved significantly since the 1950s, when Duverger (1954) posited that the value of members varied according to political party ideology. He noted that ‘mass parties’ were usually socialist parties: their members helped their party’s cause by raising money and providing a political education to the working class. Meanwhile ‘cadre parties’, typically conservative or classical liberal parties, valued quality rather than quantity of members. Prestige, connections and the ability to secure votes were prized. However, no sooner had Duverger noted these differences than the dynamics of party competition started to change. From the 1960s onwards, structural changes in society and the development of mass communication technologies revolutionised how parties and voters communicated with each other.

Noting these changes, Otto Kirchheimer (1969) predicted the dominance of ‘catch-all parties’, which would prioritise electoral success over programmatic coherence. In this context, membership parties would suffer an ‘evolutionary disadvantage’, being less ideologically nimble than their unencumbered competitors. They would, therefore, downgrade ‘the role of individual membership, a role considered a historical relic which may obscure the newly built-up catch-all image’ (Kirchheimer, 1969, p. 360). Building on Kirchheimer’s theory 20 years later, Angelo Panebianco (1988) argued that the blurring of class cleavages, combined with the influence of mass media on Western societies, had led to the emergence of ‘electoral-professional’ parties. Such parties had professional strategists, rather than members, at their core. Rapid developments in technology and communications allowed strategists to reach beyond traditional class cleavages which were, in any case, becoming blurred. Technological developments and the increased role of ‘electoral professionals’ also changed the dynamics of organisational power (Panebianco, 1988, p. 266), and the role of members was further downgraded.

By the 1990s, the environmental factors identified by Panebianco had, it was argued, pushed parties into a closer relationship with the state. Richard Katz and Peter Mair noted that the rising costs of campaigns, combined with the increasing difficulty of recruiting members, encouraged parties to turn to the state in search of resources (Mair & Katz, 1997, p. 96). They posited that parties increasingly operated as ‘cartels’, using laws on media access and public financing, along with electoral system thresholds, to constrain the entry of new parties. The ‘cartel party’ theory describes a form of politics that is increasingly self-referential, with party representatives less concerned with reaching out to society than with their own self-perpetuation. With financial resources coming from the state and communication with the public mostly channelled through the mass media, ‘cartel parties’ would value members for their ‘legitimising function’ only (Mair & Katz, 1997, pp. 110–111). van Biezen (2004) later argued that political parties were becoming ‘public utilities’, providing a service of public decision-making with minimal linkage to wider society.

In these accounts of the changing nature of political parties, voters are presented as passive recipients of parties’ tactical manoeuvring. However, in recent years, voters have made their discontent clear. As new (often anti-system) competitors emerged in the early 2000s, illusions of a cosy cartel were shattered. Mair, Müller, and Plasser (2004) noted that the most pressing problem now faced by established political parties was how to deal with popular disengagement and dissatisfaction, which was feeding support for their new populist rivals. The economic crisis of 2008–2012 further fuelled cynicism and discontent. However, re-building connections with society in the volatile world of twenty-first century politics would be far from simple for ‘traditional’ political parties. A variety of tactics have been adopted: in 2017, Scarrow, Webb and Poguntke found that ‘only a minority [of parties] can meaningfully be assigned to the types of cadre, mass, catch-all or cartel party’ (ibid., p. 319).

Political Parties in Central and East Europe

Against the backdrop of increasingly distant relationships between voters and their elected representatives in the established democracies of Western Europe, the countries of central and east Europe began democratising in 1989–1991. From a starting point of ‘floating parties and floating voters’ (Rose, 1995), during which party elites were unable to focus on any goal beyond short-term survival (Lewis & Gortat, 1995, p. 601), they would have to find a way of stabilising both their party systems and their individual parties. However, given the context of declining party membership in established democracies, the chances of membership parties forming in the new democracies of central and east Europe were thought to be remote. If Western European parties maintained membership bases through ‘organisational inertia or nostalgia’ (van Biezen, 2003, pp. 43–46), no such path dependency or sentimentality would apply in post-communist democracies.

Biezen argued that low levels of party membership were likely to persist in central and east Europe for three reasons. First, the sequencing of organisational development meant that parties acquired public office immediately after their creation and, as such, were ‘internally created’. In Biezen’s view, this emphasis on institution-building in the early stages of transition would encourage a long-term orientation towards the state (van Biezen, 2003, pp. 31–33). Second, the lack of social differentiation after decades of communism would push parties further towards the ‘electoral’ model of political communication, with the communist past a ‘thwarting experience for the structural consolidation of both political and civil society’ (ibid., p. 50). Third, Biezen argued that the availability of state funding created an organisa...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Parties and Members in the Twenty-First Century
• 2. Electoral Institutions and Party Membership
• 3. The Role of Party Members in Estonia
• 4. The Role of Party Members in Lithuania
• 5. The Role of Party Members in the Slovak Republic
• 6. Electoral Systems and the Roles of Members
• Back Matter