Populism without members. Two cases from Central Europe

Political theory has thoroughly track the development of political parties and their organizations. With further professionalization and cartelization the question is whether extensive membership still is a necessary feature for parties to exist and fulfill their roles in political systems (see Katz, Mair 1995, Webb et al. 2002, Mair 2013). Moreover, there has been a growing number of memberless political parties (Voerman, Mazzoleni 2016) which contrasts what is believed to be one of the defining features of political parties in general and their link to society – their membership. Being without members is usually a result of decision of such memberless parties as a part of their organizational or electoral strategies. This is especially true for populist parties whose anti-party appeal usually combined with a strong leader fits well memberless organizational structure. This paper provides an analysis of two Central European cases of memberless anti-establishment parties, the party Ordinary People and Independent Personalities from Slovakia and the party Dawn of Direct Democracy from Czech Republic. Both parties were able to enter national parliament with virtually no members. Our analysis relates “memberlessness” of these parties to their anti-establishment appeal and puts it into a wider context of political opportunity structures that facilitated their emergence and subsequent electoral success. Moreover, it evaluates consequences of absence of membership on their further development.