The Institutionalization of Political Parties in Europe

In 2015 parliamentary and presidential elections were held in 12 member states of the European Union, in Spain parliamentary elections are due on December, 20th 2015. In these elections numerous new political parties emerged or up to this time minor and insignificant parties successfully institutionalized themselves (e.g. new right parties in Denmark or Poland, left parties as Syriza in Greece or parties that found their own niche and cannot be categorized on the right-left axis) – while at the same time others de-institutionalized or completely disappeared from the political sphere. The paper is part of a bigger research project on this topic. It examines processes of institutionalization and de-institutionalization of individual political parties (be it newly born parties, splinter parties or mergers (Mair 1999) as well as parties that have been “formed by individual entrepreneurs or party formations promoted by existing societal organizations” (Harmel/ Svåsand 1993)) on national level in European member states which held parliamentary or presidential elections in 2015. It is based on a theoretical understanding of party institutionalization as a process, that goes beyond electoral success and parliamentary seat distribution and includes “internal”, “external” and “objective” aspects ( Panebianco 1988, Poguntke 2002, Randall and Svåsand 2002, Basedau and Stroh 2008, Bolleyer 2014). Why and how do some newcomer parties manage to “perform” well in the outlined dimensions, while others decline at the same time? To answer this question and to strengthen our understanding of the sources and practices of party institutionalization the paper develops – in conceptual terms – a “continuum of party institutionalization” and is based – in methodological terms – on a mixed methods research design. It combines quantitative and qualitative data collection (expert surveys and qualitative interviews) and data analysis and gives first insights into the empirical findings of the comparative study.