Efficient intermediates? Challenges to parties in electoral democracy

Political parties in electoral democracies perform several important functions; representation of citizens, provision of political elites, formulation of solutions to societal problems and provision of governmental alternatives. In order to be able to do perform these functions parties need to have channels of communication with other actors in the society that would enable them to perceive and react to challenges in their social and political environment. This is all the more relevant in modern societies where power of political identities and ideologies is waning, where the constraints on policy making autonomy in national arena are growing and where parties increasingly appear to be just political entrepreneurs competing at elections and providing alternative governmental teams presenting different shades of similar policy solutions. So while parties are focusing more on competition for power, societies are becoming more complex and finding solutions to contemporary problems requires mobilization or a wider pool of knowledge and competence than parties often can muster. This paper will address the role of parties in modern electoral democracy and how success of parties in representing citizens’ demands, communicating with stakeholders in society and ability to develop policy solutions societies require affects citizens’ attitudes toward democracy. Focusing on European context, the paper examines what determines the ability of individual parties to fulfil these demands, and how their actions affect citizens’ attitudes towards democracy. In addition, the paper will also examines the link of the party performance and the emergence of new political actors challenging the political status quo on left and right end of the political spectrum.