Exit. Why party members consider leaving their parties

Party membership figures are in general in decline in the Western world, even if some parties have increasing membership figures; however, the net membership figures do not tell the whole story about how many members are entering and exiting parties. Whereas there is a long tradition for looking into the incentives for engaging in political organizations and several membership studies have looked into why members enroll and become active in parties, few have looked at the exits. Why are party members considering leaving their parties? The theoretical base of the response to this question is developed by turning around theories of incentives of political enrollment and party activism. Party member surveys conducted within European parties with considerable variation in political basis, size, age, level of intra-party democracy etc. show that both political disagreement, lack of political career ambition, dissatisfaction with intra-party democracy and lack of emotional detachment are driving party members’ exit considerations. Hence, parties may work on many parameters when trying to sustain membership.