We seek to contribute to the study of linkage and to that of radical left parties’ relations with civil society, by focusing on the case of the Cypriot communist party AKEL. AKEL as a case study of the European radical left has comparative significance, by nature of its mass character and exceptional electoral fortune, which is by far better than that of its counterparts in the rest of Europe. An examination of AKEL’s links with society can thus shed (further) light both on the implications of the employment of the mass model in radical left party politics, and on whether it is more the structure of Cypriot society, or the agency of AKEL’s leadership that is responsible for the party’s successful electoral trajectory so far. Based on the distinction between participatory and policy responsive linkage, we explore three issues. Firstly, through the examination of participation patterns and organisational practices, we explore the intensity of linkage processes and more specifically how official and institutionally embedded the aforementioned links are, in the case of AKEL. Secondly, we trace the predominant direction of influence between AKEL and society, through looking at the presence or lack of programmatic transfer and organisational restructuring, between the two sides of the policy responsive linkage. Thirdly, we assess the explanatory value on the links developed by AKEL with society, of various factors that are either specific to the Cypriot case or have cross-border relevance and are either internal or external to the party. Methodologically we study membership policies and data (in terms of both party members and those members participating in the party’s auxiliary organisations – namely, the ‘Popular Movement’), electoral programmes/manifestos and congress decisions, semi-structured interviews with central and municipal party officials, as well as the results of a questionnaire handed to congress delegates during the autumn 2010 Congress.
