Relations and Mutual Influence Between Political Parties and Social Movements

Movements use non-institutional or non-traditional modes of action for violent social change. Movements are seen as the creators of a new social, civil code and new knowledge. The movements take into account new requirements that remain unanswered by parties and articulate them outside the electoral space of the public sphere. Movements can influence the party system by transforming themselves into a political party of a new type - the party-movement. Thanks to the constant success in mobilizing the mass community, the new social movements (NSM) challenge established parties in terms of their traditional role of mediators between citizens and the political sphere. NSM threaten parties with program, electoral and organizational challenges. Parties attract movements as they need: Mobilization Movement Strategies. Expert opinion of movements in a specific area. Representation in movements for its members in order to build wide social networks and communication channels. Movements attract parties for the sake of: Enhanced participation in decision making. Material benefits. Discursive benefits. Ways of mutual influence: Public pressure or party support in the media. Lobbying the interests of the movement as part of cooperation with parties. Overlapping of staff. All the mutual influence of parties and movements can be divided into a number of aspects: The Electoral dimension - Movements can provide parties with a new electorate. The State and political-parliamentary aspect - Parties allow movements to influence the laws adopted in the field relevant to movements. The Aspect of the agenda and lobbying - Movements through relations with parties get the opportunity to introduce topics that really excite society and lobby the interests of society either directly or indirectly through the media. The Aspect of Identity - Parties allow movements to cultivate and disseminate new social identities among the electorate of parties. The Aspect of a contentious politics - The power and position of parties allows movements to implement a policy of contention in a much larger volume, but in the interests of parties that are not allowed to pursue a contention policy by status. The aspect of protests and “street politics” - parties represent the interests of movements in parliament, movements represent the interests of parties on the street, that is, many protests can be carried out by parties at the hands of movements. The aspect of the external context and crises - in situations of political crises and the collapse of the political regime, movements can help parties to consolidate public sentiments, or even play the “first fiddle” in this process in alliance with parties. The aspect of the autocratic context and democratic transformations - in autocracies and transitional regimes, the role of movements is changing. Negative Consequences: Movements challenge discipline and hierarchy in parties, seek to channel resources toward more uninstitutionalized politics. It causes discontent in the traditional electorate. Parties use movements for instrumental, selfish purposes and force them to comply with the rules of big politics. It causes discontent among traditional activists. In addition, parties and movements cannot only unite, but also be at enmity.