Forms of Party Organization Party Types: Why do parties organize in the ways that they do?

Why do parties organize in the ways that they do? How much organization do they need? Do they need ‘thick’ organization with large # of members? to be organized at all times or only when elections are called? professionals rather than amateurs? Organization at all levels of government?

Party types: a composite typology Cadre parties Mass parties (or parties of mass integration) Catch-all parties and/or Electoral-Professional parties Cartel parties

Where this comes from: Maurice Duverger Sigmund Neumann Otto Kirchheimer Angelo Panebianco Richard Katz and Peter Mair

Duverger’s ‘theory’ of party organization Degree of organization reflects parties ‘electoral needs First parties were internally created & Took the form of loose cadre parties: Made of ‘local notables’ Minimal organization outside of parliament Minimal organization between elections

Duverger cont’d The mass party Mass parties externally created Extensive organization Outside of parliament & In between elections The mass party is A superior form of party organization The wave of the future

Sigmund Neumann Parties of individual representation Parties of mass integration Party not only organizes electorally, but also provides services and spiritual home for its citizens of the masses” (Otto Kirchheimer, 1966) Parties of total integration

Epstein’s critique: Contagion from the left vs. contagion from the right: Leon Epstein (Political Parties in Western Democracies, 1967) argues that the mass party is not the wave of the future Parties are not dependent on numbers or mass organization; They can rely on the media instead

Catchall and electoral professional parties: Problem: How do parties change over time? What are they like in middle age?

Otto Kirchheimer and the catch-all party: Parties of mass integration adapt to a more affluent and consumer oriented society by Abandoning attempts at “the intellectual and moral encadrement of the masses” Bidding for the support of interest groups Emphasizing the qualities of their leaders Scuttling “‘excess ideological baggage” Moving to the centre The success of one catch-all party forces others to imitate it, transforming the party system

Panebianco’s Political Parties Parties reflect genetic types Parties forced to transform themselves into electoral-professional parties

The cartel party Katz and Mair 1995 Parties share power with each other Parties have become part of the state Parties draw on state resources – e.g. state finance Party members are involved, but only at a distance

Problems: How appropriate are these types? Do they encompass all political parties? Do they describe contemporary parties? Do they fit political parties in Canada or the United States? How accurately do they characterize them? What about parties in other parts of the world?

Reminders: Preliminary bibliography & statement of topic due Friday, October 11th