"Implementing Democratic Equality in Political Parties. Organizational Consequences in the Swedish and the German Pirate Party"
Bolleyer, Nicole; Little, C; von Nostitz, FC
Date: 19 January 2015
Journal
Scandinavian Political Studies
Publisher
Wiley
Abstract
This paper theorizes and empirically assesses some important intra-organizational implications of maximizing democratic equality in political partiesboth between followers and members and between members and elites.They include weak member commitment, passivity of the rank-and-file membership and – depending on party structure – high ...
This paper theorizes and empirically assesses some important intra-organizational implications of maximizing democratic equality in political partiesboth between followers and members and between members and elites.They include weak member commitment, passivity of the rank-and-file membership and – depending on party structure – high levels of internal conflict. To substantiate our arguments, we examine two parties that implement principles of democratic equality in their organizations: the Swedish and German Pirate parties. These cases show, first, that while organizational structures implementing norms of equality allowed them to rapidly mobilize a considerable following, the same structures systematically reduced their capacity to consolidate support in the longer term, a weakness that might eventually put these parties’ survival at risk.Second, they show that differences in the extent to which subnational units provide a foundation for member mobilization helps to explain variation in the level of internal conflict experienced by these parties.
Social and Political Sciences, Philosophy, and Anthropology
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
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