The Future of Party Membership in Representative Democracy

Abstract

Political parties across Europe face growing pressures that challenge their capacity to represent citizens effectively. Party scholarship has widely discussed the widening gap between parties and society as organisations professionalise, centralise, and lose their traditional grassroots anchors. Nonetheless, studies have started to show parties' capacity to adapt their organisations (e.g., including more participatory mechanisms, primaries, different modes of party affiliation) as well as how parties modify their political and electoral strategies (e.g., adopting new technologies, programmatic change, leadership renewal) to provide more attractive alternatives to recruit and mobilise members and supporters to ensure their survival. This panel brings together research examining how different organisational strategies—ranging from membership recruitment and internal democracy to leadership styles and innovative party models—shape parties’ ability to connect with citizens at the national, regional and local levels.

Title	Details
Organizing for Success: The Effect of Intra-Party Democracy on Local Level Party Presence	View Paper Details
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Great Expectations Lead to Great Disillusionments: A Portrayal of Party Membership Experiences in Four European Challenger Parties	View Paper Details