In many parliamentary democracies, political allegiances are in flux, with voters proving more willing to embrace new alternatives or to abstain from voting altogether. How are political parties reacting to these challenges, and what resources can they marshal to try to combat them? This paper provides novel answers to these questions, comparing key aspects of the structures and resources of over 120 parties in 18 parliamentary democracies. It will concentrate on three central aspects of party organization: The party as a membership organization, other structures linking parties to society, and the party as a democratic organization. More specifically, we analyze patterns of party membership size, the organizational anchorage of parties in society and the degree of internal party democracy. The analyses will draw on the first findings of the Political Party Database Project (PPDB), a collaborative research network that collects comparable data on political parties in modern democracies.
