This paper examines the theoretical function of party youth organisations and also the formal embedding of it within the party organisation. It aims to contribute to a better understanding of a party’s structure and relationship to sub-organisations, especially between parties and their youth organisations, by proposing an analytical framework as a cornerstone for further research and testing it by analysing and comparing statutes.
Since the 1990s there is an ongoing debate about parties in Western democracies and their decreasing support in society mainly caused by the observed membership decline and loss of partisanship. Most parties seem to fail permanently to encourage people to join them. Parties are also confronted with an aging membership and a measurably underrepresentation of young members. Nevertheless, it is documented that a majority of these parties still attach importance to the ‘party on the ground’ and develop new ways of involvement e.g. by more inner party democracy. Traditionally parties have different kinds of sub-organisations which represent special interest groups, e.g. farmers, a shared identity, e.g. religious groups, or sociodemographic groups, e.g. women and also young people. Of all these affiliated organisations the party’s own youth organisation is the most common one. That means that most established parties have one and also new parties tend to support the foundation of a youth wing. All in all it is assumed that this is beneficial for the party.
Therefore, what kinds of functions are ascribed to a party’s youth organisation?
The first part of the paper gathers possible theoretical explanations why parties have sub-organisations at all. Different concepts and aims of party organisations are reviewed, particularly the relationship of parties to affiliated organisations. It is also questioned if youth organisations are assigned a special role. An analytical framework is presented in which the function of youth organisations can be investigated. According to the linkage theory they provide a sociodemographic link to society based on age. Among other things, they are seen as a recruitment resource, a training ground for a future engagement in the parent party as well as an option of providing political education and group socialisation. It is also discussed if youth organisations share the overall party goals of vote-, office- and policy-seeking.
The second part of the paper then analyses if and how these identified theoretical functions are implemented within the formal rules of a party and how that is reflected by party youth organisations. First of all, how strong is the tie between party youth organisations and their parent parties? Different patterns of relations can be found here. And secondly, are the youth organisations able to fulfil the identified functions by providing a corresponding structure on an organisational level? This is done by a comparative content analysis of the statutes of the most established seven German and seven British parties as well as the statutes of their youth organisations. The most recent version of the statutes was used (2010 to 2015).
