Re-reading Richard Katz: Labour and the ‘Crisis of Party Democracy’ in Southern Europe

Abstract

Emerging from discussions at the Politics and Labour Network workshop, held in Milano in October 2015, this panel explores critically, theoretically and empirically Richard Katz’s oeuvre—from his pivotal contribution to the 1980s’ Party Government project through to his work on types of democracy, ‘party as linkage’, the ‘cartel party’ thesis that he elaborated with Peter Mair, and his work-in-progress on cartel parties and populism. The aim of this interdisciplinary panel of labour-focussed scholars is to shed new light on the ‘crisis of party democracy’ from the perspective of labour by first, drawing on their current research into labour in southern European countries. Second, they will mobilize and reassess Katz’s complex but open arguments in the context of the sweeping economic, social and political changes we are witnessing in Europe and, especially, in southern Europe. Their papers will cover: the hegemonic origins of the cartel party and of its tendency to diminish labour rights and labour representation; the changing relations between parties and unions in Italy, Spain and Portugal over the past 50 years; the EU’s response to Greece during the Crisis, theorised as a case of ‘cartel capitalism’; and, a close-up analysis of the cartelization of the Syriza party-government after January 2015 that asks, to what extent does this prefigure challenges to EU-led Austerity in other southern European countries? The panel promotes scholarly discussion about what party democracy was, is or should be from the perspective of workers. How does the disjuncture between reality and expectations—or what Katz calls, preference and expertise—translate into contention inside and outside left partisan politics? Into contention inside and outside organisations of worker representation. Into national and supranational contention? Or, in the case of cartel parties that have emerged in post-dictatorship democracies (Greece, Portugal, Spain), into a compression of historical processes and reversion to more authoritarian politics?

Title	Details
The US Hegemonic Origins of the Cartel Party: The South European Cauldron	View Paper Details
The EU, Cartel Parties and Cartel Capitalism: The case of Troika and Greece	View Paper Details
Trajectories of trade union-political party relationships in Portugal under democracy	View Paper Details
Policy Content, Party Cartelization and Social Protest: Preliminary Conclusions from the Greek Contentious Cycle (2009-2016)	View Paper Details
Towards a New Type of Linkage? Mainstream Left-Wing Parties and Trade Unions in Southern Europe from a Comparative Perspective	View Paper Details