Political Theory and Parties: Towards a Conceptual and Normative Appraisal of Political Parties

In remarkable contrast to empirical political science, political parties have found little favor in political thought (Muirhead and Rosenblum 2006: 100, Van Biezen and Saward 2008: 21). Despite the long tradition of theorizing about the relationship between citizen and state in general and about political representation in particular, political theorists seem to consider parties as a means without much, if any, intrinsic value. Thus parties are and remain, as Schattschneider already put it, ‘the orphans of political philosophy’ (1942: 16). Yet, in recent years, a number of political theorists from different strands of thought have turned to them and argued for a reappraisal of the role and value of parties for meaningful collective self-rule and the democratic ethos of citizens (Rosenblum 2008, Muirhead 2011, Ypi and White 2010, Rosanvallon 2008, Mouffe 2013). Against this background, this workshop aims to bring together experts from the field of political theory and political science to explore the justification, status and responsibilities of political parties within democratic societies and the functions of the system of party competition and conflict. Specifically, we propose four theoretical questions to be central in the workshop: 1) Are political parties merely a means to handle the complexities of modern democracy or can they also be intrinsically justified?; 2) How is the status of political parties to be conceptualized and grounded given their roles in both the ‘weak’ public sphere of (civil) society at large and the ‘strong’ public sphere of institutionalized politics?; 3) Are political parties merely vehicles to promote particular interests or can and do they also have responsibilities towards the common good?; and 4) What kind of normative or epistemic functions can be attributed to the system of party competition and conflict as a whole?