30 years of party scholarship

How parties organize has been of interest to scholars throughout the history of the political science discipline, but the 1990s saw a surge in studies on how parties were organizational changing, declining and adapting. Based on interviews with party scholars from across the world and generations, the aim of this paper is to provide a professional development depiction of the party organization research field and its development. The study is divided into three sections, roughly corresponding to the why, how and so what. First, we focus on party scholars’ training and academic background, their experiences with the ‘founding fathers’ and their way into the field of party research either as leaders of comparative studies on how parties organize, as country experts or in neighboring research fields. We include both planning and targeted recruitment, and the window of opportunity in a ‘random’ call. Secondly, we turn to the organization of the party research community and focus on the collaboration and competition between comparative projects with few or many collaborates, and single scholar projects focusing on either specific parties, countries or theoretical models. Finally, we ask what this inclusion in the party research community meant and/or means for their career, and what these scholars think of where the field is – or should be – heading.