Party Transformation
In West and Eastern Europe
André Krouwel
SSEES UCL, London
02-01-2010
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Too many party types!
•  Many party types exist in the literature, but no
general theory of party transformation.
•  Most parties in the West are ‘older than the
majority of the electorate’!
•  Thus: political scientists observed the same
parties for decades, re-naming them each time
they transform.
•  Each author focuses on specific stage of
characteristic: proliferation of models.
•  Basically 5 models + sequentially linked
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Clusters of party models
Elite, caucus
and cadre
parties
Mass-parties
Catch-all,
electoralist
parties
• Patronage and
charismatic parties
(Weber)
• Parties of personage
(Neumann)
• Caucus (Ostrogorski)
• Parties of parliamentary
origin (Duverger)
• Parties of individual
representation
(Neumann, Kirchheimer)
• Party of notables
(Weber, Neumann,
Seiler)
• Elite parties (Beyme)
• Clientelistic parties
(Rueschemeyer et al.)
• Modern cadre party
(Koole)
• Local cadre party
(Epstein)
• Governing caucus
(Pomper)
• Mass party (Michels,
Duverger, Beer)
• Class-mass and
denominational mass parties
(Kirchheimer)
• Weltanschauung and
Glaubens party (Weber)
• Parties of external origin,
branch-based mass parties,
cell-based devotee parties
(Duverger)
• Parties of democratic or
total integration, party of
principle (Neumann)
• Amateur and party
democracy model (Wright)
• Militants party (Seiler)
• Mass-bureaucratic party
(Panebianco)
• Programmatic party
(Neumann, Wolinetz)
• Fundamentalist parties
(Gunther and Diamond)
• Cause advocate party
(Pomper)
• Catch-all parties
(Kirchheimer)
• Professional-electoral
parties (Panebianco)
• Stratarchy (Eldersveld)
• Rational- efficient,
professional machine
model (Wright,
Schumpeter, Downs,
Pomper)
• Party machine (Seiler)
• Multi-policy party
(Downs, Mintzel)
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Cartel
parties
Business-firm
parties
• Party-cartel
(Kirchheimer)
• Cartel-party (Katz
and Mair)
• Business-firm (Hopkin
and Paolucci)
• Franchise
Organisations (Carty)
• Parties of professional
politicians (Beyme)
• Entrepreneurial
parties (Krouwel)
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What is wrong with party models?
•  Too uni-dimensional: one aspect is seen as
characteristic without justification.
•  Most models focus on ideology and social
background of membership (or elite).
•  Others focus on the organisational structure or
functions of political parties.
•  Low level of conceptual and terminological clarity
and precision.
•  No empirical indicators to assess whether parties
have transformed into another type.
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4 dimensions of party transformation
1.  Genetic origin
2.  Electoral dimension
–  Electoral appeal and social support
–  Social basis and type of elite recruitment
3.  Ideology (goals and programmes)
–  Basis for political competition
–  Extent of competition
4.  Organisation
–  Relation between PoG + PCO + PPO (PPG/PIG)
–  Resources
–  Campaigning
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Genetic origin
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Electoral dimension
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Ideological dimension
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Organisational dimension
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Genetic origin
Elite caucus
or cadre
party
1860-1920
Mass party
Catch-all,
electoralist
party
Cartel party
Business-firm
1880-1950
1950-present
1950-present
1990-present
Extraparliamentary
origin:
Parliamentary
origin
Social groups
(class, religion,
ethnicity)
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Originates from
mass parties,
linking or merging
themselves with
interest groups
Fusion of
parliamentary
parties and the
state apparatus
(and interest
groups)
Originates from
the privateinitiative of
political
entrepreneurs
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Origin in West: social cleavages
Lipset and Rokkan: the “historicity” of party alternatives
is of crucial importance (…) in the study of differences
and similarities across nations”.
Politics of European states are the products of three
revolutions:
•  Reformation and Counter-Reformation
•  French Revolution
•  Industrial Revolution
Revolutions struck countries at different times and
different conditions
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Revolutions and social cleavages
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Revolutions, issues and cleavages
Critical
juncture
Critical
issue
Resultant
cleavage
Reformation:
the 1648
settlement
Consolidation of
territorial state
1. Periphery versus statebuilding centre
National
revolution
Control over mass
education
2.Church versus secular
state
Industrial
revolution
Protection versus
modernisation and
free enterprise
versus workers
rights
3. Rural/agricultural
versus urban/industrial
interests
4. Workers versus capital
owners
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Social cleavages
•  If only one cleavage is salient – the normal or residual social
class one – then this acts as the fundamentally structuring
element.
•  Other cleavages might cut across class divisions: often this is
religion, particularly where religious behaviour is closely
associated with conservative orientations, whatever social
class one belongs to.
•  Lower-level cleavages can be nested in higher order
cleavages: the centre-periphery cleavage – where minority
nations resist the construction of a state – might strengthen
divisions based on social class; especially if members of a
minority community are also in an unfavourable socioeconomic position.
•  Cleavages can be structuring, reinforcing or cross-cutting.
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Social cleavages Southern Europe
•  Experience of democratic government short-lived.
•  Long tradition of mass exclusion (unions, peasant and
student organisations and left wing parties banned)
•  No real popular representation in parliament (no
competitive elections + no real opposition parties).
•  Authoritarian regimes established under conditions of
economic and political crisis.
•  Class domination in state (army, bureaucracy) and
church.
•  Not fascist, yet similar in rhetoric and outlook: extreme
nationalism and conservatism.
•  Anti-socialist/anti-communist: governed in the interests of
industrialists, large landowners and bourgeoisie.
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Social cleavages Southern Europe
•  Prolonged state formation: ‘Essentially longwave counter-revolutionary
phenomenon’ (O’Donnell).
•  Weak social cleavage articulation due to
conflict about regime formation: weak civil
society and weak/fragmented institutions to
resist regime.
•  Regime associated with single ‘charismatic’
figure, supported by the Church.
•  Religious cleavage: large influence of Catholic
church.
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Social cleavages Southern Europe
•  Relative international isolation as result of
autarkic economic policies: missing out on
European economic miracle in 1960’s.
•  Weak agricultural economies (large primary,
small secondary sector): mass mobilisation of
workers problematic.
•  Dualist socio-economics: many modern
features alongside traditional elements
(religion, emancipation)
•  Weak articulation on ‘new’ cleavages:
postmaterialism
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Party formation Southern Europe
•  Rapid transition movement.
•  Newly established liberal-democratic order
imposed from above.
•  Resistance by upper-class to include
lower class into the political system.
•  Party formation from above.
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Social cleavages in ECE
•  Weak social cleavage articulation: national
revolution not completed and economic
development problematic (oligarchs/moguls &
corruption).
•  Nationalism remains overriding social cleavage.
•  State-formation and economic cleavages have
become interconnected:
–  Pro-market libertarians versus anti-market
authoritarians (Kitschelt 1992).
–  GAL (Green-Alternative-Libertarian) versus TAN
(Traditionalist-Authoritarian-Nationalist)
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On the origin of parties in ECE
•  Parties emerge within parliamentary system, rather
than from society (Innes, 2001).
•  Parties of ‘winners and losers’ (black & white divide
in revolution) (Kitschelt, 1999):
•  From communist nomenclature:
–  Successor parties (cadre or mass?)
–  ‘Parties of power’ (business-firms!)
•  From society: (formerly) politically excluded:
–  Oppositional blocks/forums (catch-all?)
–  Discontent/radical nationalist parties
–  Intellectuals/dissidents (cadre parties)
•  From business (and state):
–  Business moguls/ex-nomenclature
–  Populist entrepreneurs
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Origin new parties WE
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Ideological dimension
Elite
caucus or
cadre party
Mass party
Catch-all,
electoralist
party
Cartel party
Period
1860-1920
1880-1950
1950-present
Basis for
party
competition
Traditional
status of
individual
candidates
Ideology and
representation
of a social
group
Maintenance of
The quality of
accrued power
management of
by sharing
the public sectors
executive office
Extent of
party
competition
Very limited
on the basis
of personal
status and
wealth
Polarised and
ideological
competition
(centrifugal
competition)
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Centripetal
competition on
technicalities
1950-present
Diffusion of
political
disagreement.
'Conflicts'
become
symbolic:
artificial
competition on
issues.
Businessfirm
1990-present
Issues and
personalities
(as a political
product)
Permanent
struggle for
mediaattention
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10
green
8
radical-left
liberal
social democratic
6
Tan/Gal
social democratic
regionalist/ethnic
regionalist/ethnic
4
centrist
agrarian
christian democratic
no family
conservative
conservative
radical-left
2
liberal
christian democratic
confessional
no family
agrarian
populist-right
populist-right
East
confessional
0
West
0
2
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6
Left/Right
8
10 25
Netherlands 2006
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Belgium 2007
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Portugal 2009
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Israel 2009
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Israel 2009
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Israel 2009
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Ideology party families in Europe
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Europarties divided
Left pro EU
Right pro EU
Right anti EU
Left anti EU
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Electoral dimension
Elite caucus
or cadre
party
Mass party
Catch-all,
electoralist
party
Cartel party
Businessfirm
Period
1860-1920
1880-1950
1950-present
1950-present
1990-present
Electoral
appeal and
social
support
Limited
electorate of
upper social
strata via
personal
contacts
Appeal to specific
social, religious or
ethnic group on
the basis of social
cleavages such
as class and
religion
Appeal to
broad middle
class, beyond
core group of
support
‘regular
cliëntèle’ that
provides
support in
exchange for
favourable
policies
‘electoral
market’ with a
high level of
volatility.
Voters as
consumers.
Social basis
and type of
elite
recruitment
Selfrecruitment(p
rivate
initiative from
upper class)
Cleavage based
recruitment based
on ideological
commitment
External
recruitment
from various
interest
groups
Recruitment
mainly from
within the
state
structures
(civil servants)
Self
recruitment,
private
initiative
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Electoral alignments ECE
•  Weak identities and socio-economic
determination (widespread poverty), yet some
structure discernible:
–  Nationalists: country-side, elderly, statedependent and lower-educated.
–  Opposition: urban, younger and middle-age
generations, highly educated professionals and
experts.
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Organisational dimension
Period
Elite/cadre
party
Mass party
Catch-all party
Cartel party
Business-firm
1860-1920
1880-1950
1950-present
1950-present
1990-present
Importance
Minimal. Party in
central office
subordinate to
party in public
office.
Symbiosis between
party in central office
and party on the
ground
Members as a pool
for recruitment of
political personnel
Minimal and irrelevant
Subordinate to party
in public office
Symbiosis between
party in central office
and party in public
office
Minimal and irrelevant
Core of the party
organisation.
Subject to the extraparliamentary
leadership
Concentration of
power and resources
at the parliamentary
party group
Concentration of
power at the
parliamentary party
leadership and
government (party in
public office)
High level of
autonomy for
individual political
entrepreneurs in the
party to 'promote'
themselves
Personal wealth
Membership
contributions,
ancillary
organisations and
party press
Interest groups and
state subsidies
State subsidies
Corporate and social
interests and
commercial activities
Labour-intensive
Personal contacts
mass mobilisation
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Professionalisation
and more capital
intensive
organisation
Professional
permanent
organisation
Spindocters,
marketing36
techniques,
'contracting-out'.
Position of
party in
central office
Position of the
party in public
office
Resource
structure
Type of
political
campaigning
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Non-existent or
minimal
Voluntary
membership
organisation is the
core of the party
Marginalisation of
members
membership
organisation
(party on the
ground)
Political Campaign and the Media
•  Mass-media = non-party channels of
communication between people and
representatives.
•  Increasing influence of commercial media.
•  More focus on leadership (+ horse-race) less on
content/policies.
•  More capital-intensive campaigns.
•  More support of specific groups e.g.
multinationals.
•  Internal party competition next to inter-party
competition.
•  ‘Spindoctors’, media cycles and professional
campaigning.
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Development of campaigning
Cadre/Mass (1850-1960)
Catch-all (1960-1990)
Businessfirm (1990- )
Campaign
organization
Local and decentralized
National +
more professional
National + decentralized
operations
Preparation
Short-term + ad hoc
Long campaign
Feedback
Local canvassing & party Opinion polls, surveys
meetings
Constant polling of opinion,
focus groups, etc.
Media
Party Media, Local Press Television strategy &
direct Mail
& radio broadcast
Media-cycle, mediated website, e-mail
Local meetings
News management,
press conferences
Extension of news
management, policy
development via media
Low budget
Moderate
High cost for consultants
and commercial campaign
Fragmented electorate as
target groups
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Campaign
events
Costs
Stable social and
partisan
alignment
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Electorate
Social and partisan
dealignment
Permanent campaign
Organisational structures ECE parties
• 
• 
• 
• 
Low membership-parties.
Highly centralised decision-making
Clientelistic clan structures & patronage.
Party in public office (president and government)
dominate party.
•  Resources from the state and the state-controlled
or state-regulated economic activities.
•  Campaigning through state-controlled media.
•  Party-states and state-parties!
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Are parties in East and West similar?
•  Parties are
–  unrepresentative and undemocratic
–  not socially rooted (membership)
–  personalist/clientèlistic
–  Volatile (constant changing party landscape)
–  not institutionalised/dependent on the state
–  Weak inter-party relations (party system)
•  Party models (implicit) in mind of party assistance similar
to observers of advanced democracies.
•  West is democratic (loser's consent) and facing different
structural constraints than in post-authoritarian systems.
•  Elections and parties do not automatically constitute
democracy!
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