TY - JOUR

T1 - Implementing Democratic Equality in Political Parties

T2 - Organisational Consequences in the Swedish and the German Pirate Parties

AU - Bolleyer, Nicole

AU - von Nostitz, Felix-Christopher

AU - Little, Conor

PY - 2015/6/1

Y1 - 2015/6/1

N2 - This article theorises and empirically assesses some important intra-organisational implications of maximising democratic equality in political parties both 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 the arguments, two parties that implement principles of democratic equality in their organisations are examined: the Swedish and German Pirate parties. These cases show, first, that while organisational structures implementing norms of equality allowed them to rapidly mobilise 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 mobilisation helps to explain variation in the level of internal conflict experienced by these parties.

AB - This article theorises and empirically assesses some important intra-organisational implications of maximising democratic equality in political parties both 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 the arguments, two parties that implement principles of democratic equality in their organisations are examined: the Swedish and German Pirate parties. These cases show, first, that while organisational structures implementing norms of equality allowed them to rapidly mobilise 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 mobilisation helps to explain variation in the level of internal conflict experienced by these parties.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - equality

KW - political parties

KW - democracy

KW - organizational structure

KW - intraorganizational mobility

KW - pluralism

KW - Sweden

U2 - 10.1111/1467-9477.12044

DO - 10.1111/1467-9477.12044

M3 - Journal article

VL - 38

SP - 158

EP - 178

JO - Scandinavian Political Studies

JF - Scandinavian Political Studies

SN - 0080-6757

IS - 2

M1 - 3

ER -