Party organization and election campaigning

North American and European Comparisons

Problem: Why do parties organize in the ways that they do?

• How much organization do they need?

• Do they need – ‘thick’ organization with large # of members?– to be organized at all times or only when

elections are called?– professionals rather than amateurs?– Organization at all levels of government?

• How do their needs change over time?

Starting points:

• Epstein’s critique of Duverger

• Models of change in Western Europe

• Where, if anywhere,

Epstein’s critique:

Contagion from the left vs. contagion from the right:

• Leon Epstein (Political Parties in Western Democracies, 1967) argues that the mass party is not the wave of the future

• Parties are not dependent on numbers or mass organization;

• They can rely on the media instead

Catchall and electoral professional parties:

Problem:

• How do parties change over time?

• What are they like in middle age?

Otto Kirchheimer and the catch-all party:

• Parties of mass integration adapt to a more affluent and consumer oriented society by– Abandoning attempts at “the intellectual and moral

encadrement of the masses”– Bidding for the support of interest groups– Emphasizing the qualities of their leaders– Scuttling “‘excess ideological baggage”– Moving to the centre

• The success of one catch-all party forces others to imitate it, transforming the party system

Panebianco’s Political Parties

• Parties reflect genetic types

• Parties forced to transform themselves into electoral-professional parties

The cartel party

Katz and Mair 1995

• Parties share power with each other

• Parties have become part of the state

• Parties draw on state resources – e.g. state finance

• Party members are involved, but only at a distance