Nicole Bolleyer

New party organization in Western Europe: Of party hierarchies, stratarchies and federations

Scholarly work on models of party organization tends to treat stratarchy and hierarchy as analytical opposites. Based on two different visions of stratarchy that co-exist in the literature, this article presents a threefold typology locating party stratarchy as a model between party hierarchy, as one counter-image, and party federation, as the other. The types differ in the extent to which core competences and resources (e.g. selection of parliamentary candidates, mechanisms for conflict resolution, finances) are centralized, and in the extent to which interest representation in national party organs follows territorial lines. The typology is applied to durable yet organizationally new parties (founded since 1978) that maintained a national presence across eight West European democracies. With few exceptions, each of these parties fits neatly within one of the categories, and in-depth analysis suggests that the three models help us systematically capture party dynamics.

New parties in government: party organization and the costs of public office

Previous studies suggest, and common wisdom holds, that government participation is detrimental for new parties. This paper argues that the opposite is true. Drawing on a large-N analysis (111 parties in 16 countries) in combination with two case studies, it demonstrates that new parties generally benefit organisationally from supporting or entering a government coalition. Compared to established parties, new parties have the advantage that their leadership is more able to allocate effectively the spoils of office, and can change still malleable rudimentary party structures so as to respond to intra-organisational demands, as well as the functional demands of holding office. The authors conclude by setting their finding in wider perspective and elaborate on its implications for contemporary West European politics.

Intergovernmental Relations in the UK: Continuity in a Time of Change?:

Party political incongruence in the UK after 2007 has had a moderate effect on both the machinery of intergovernmental relations and the dominant modes of intergovernmental interaction. In assessing changes in intergovernmental structures, we find more frequent meetings and more formalised interactions. A preference for informal bilateral exchange, however, still prevails. In assessing changes in the nature of intergovernmental relations, we find some intensification of conflict, but amid continued co-operation. While one might find more pronounced changes after longer periods of party political incongruence, we argue that the limited effect observed thus far can be traced back to: (i) formal-legal features of the UK multi-level polity; (ii) the nature of the policy sectors requiring intergovernmental co-ordination (iii); the specific political dynamics within the constituent governments; and (iv) the mitigating role and structure of non-elected institutions such as the civil service and the judiciary.

Introduction: Political Opposition in a Multi-Level Context

This short introduction sets out the rationale for the special issue. It introduces the concepts of intergovernmental relations (IGR) and party political incongruence which are central to the analyses contained in the issue. It considers the nature and form of intergovernmental relations in the early years of devolution, under conditions of predominant party congruence in the composition of the central and sub-state governments. It then develops the hypothesised relationship between party political incongruence and intergovernmental relations, focusing on the nature and structure of IGR. It introduces the key questions to be addressed in the issue and each of the subsequent contributions which explore this relationship in greater depth.

EU legitimacy revisited: the normative foundations of a multilevel polity

This paper reconceptualizes the challenge of legitimate governance in the European Union (EU) as a multilevel polity. Legitimacy is defined as one possible motivation for accepting political rule; it roots in citizens’ affiliation with a balanced set of core values and their structural realization. This article argues that any attempt to legitimize the EU faces two distinct challenges. First, owing to the co-existence of states and individuals as political subjects, national legitimacy standards – defined by their balance of negative freedom, political equality and welfare – cannot be reproduced. Second, the legitimacy of both the Union and its member states depends upon the compatibility of values across levels. Empirically, legitimacy is hard to disentangle from other motivations behind acceptance, such as self-interest or fear of sanctions. By analysing the EUs constitutional evolution as a ‘structural proxy’ for its underlying values, we capture shifts in the supranational value configuration and identify potential incompatibilities with established national balances. Such incompatibilities, we argue, are a hitherto neglected challenge to the normative justifiability of both the EU and its member states.

The Irish Green Party: From Protest to Mainstream Party?

Abstract In the comparative study of party organisation and party systems Irish parties have long been considered as deviant. While this might, in certain respects at least, be a proper description for the major Irish parties, the Irish Green Party mirrors the transformation from a loose protest movement opposed to ‘conventional politics’ into an established force in the Irish party system – most visible in its current government participation – that a range of Green parties in other European countries have already experienced. This paper analyses this transformation by focusing on the party’s organisational evolution from its foundation in 1981 until 2009. One of the core findings is that its growing political relevance was accompanied by a shift towards a stronger professionalisation of party elites, which pushed for a streamlining of intra‐organisational procedures. This development empowered the party in public office and thereby centralised the party organisation, a finding in line with theories on new parties’ long‐term evolution.

The Irish Green Party and Europe: An Unhappy Marriage?

Abstract To what extent is the Irish Green Party affected by the presence of an additional, European arena next to the domestic one? The answer is twofold. Organizationally, the Irish Green Party drew on the experience and support of the pan‐European Green Party Federation and more developed Green parties in other countries. The European arena also provided a platform for electoral success and thereby an important route to resources used to professionalize the organization. Programmatically, and despite the above, the positioning of the Green Party towards European integration has always been ambivalent. European environmental law is more demanding than national law and environmental problems often ask for international solutions which, theoretically, should be welcomed by the party. Yet their fight for direct citizen participation makes them wary of shifting power to a polity whose democratic credentials are contested. While the Green Party originally opposed Europe, they have become more differentiated and constructive over time, pushing for democratization whilst simultaneously viewing the EU as an arena in which desired policies are generated. Having entered government at a national level in 2007, its closer involvement in EU decision‐making should reinforce this trend.

Regional Mobilization in the ‘New Europe’: A Research Agenda

Abstract This Special Issue re-assesses regional mobilization in the ‘New Europe’. We anticipate that enlargement to Central Europe, the entering into force of the Lisbon Treaty and the largest economic and financial crisis since the birth of the European Community have affected how regional governments respond to Europeanization along three different dimensions: (1) the position they take vis-à-vis the process of EU integration more generally, (2) the strategies they adopt in response to Europeanization pressures and (3) their internal structures and dynamics of the EU member states as multi-level states. The article introduces a framework and formulates hypotheses to examine why and how Europeanization pressures in the ‘New Europe’ affect regional mobilization along these three dimensions. In the final section, the article also introduces the various contributions to this Special Issue and relates them to the analytical framework.

Problems of party assistance in hybrid regimes: the case of Morocco

Like many other transition countries, Morocco is a prime target for democracy promoters. In light of the ongoing democracy promotion efforts in Morocco, this study seeks to analyse the range of measures for political party assistance applied by three major providers, two of which style themselves as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and one of which is an intergovernmental organization (IGO). To estimate the likely effects of the various measures of assistance, we distinguish between those trying to (a) professionalize party activities in the respective institutional setting, (b) initiate a change of formal-legal rules defining the institutional setting, and (c) establish and intensify party linkages with society. Using these categories to examine political party assistance in a ‘hybrid’ regime (that combines competitive elections with non-democratic or authoritarian elements) reveals two problems from the viewpoint of provider organizations who apply such assistance as a means of democracy promotion. First, there is a lack of clear incentives, which may result in a failure by the targeted party elites to establish party organizations incorporating citizens in their internal decision-making processes; and secondly, the successful professionalization of the political parties may lead unintentionally to maintaining the hybrid nature of such regimes rather than supporting further democratization.

The Survival and Termination of Party Mergers in Europe

Why do constituent parties that participated in a party merger that was intended to be permanent decide to leave the merger to re-enter party competition separately? To address this question, merger termination is conceptualised in this article as an instance of new party formation, coalition termination and institutionalisation failure. Building on this conceptualisation, three sets of factors are presented that account for which mergers are likely to be terminated by constituent parties and which are not. To test these three sets of hypotheses, a mixed-methods design is used. First, survival analysis is applied to a new dataset on the performance of mergers in 21 European democracies during the postwar period. The findings support hypotheses derived from a conception of merger termination as new party formation: pre- and post-merger legislative performance significantly affect the probability of merger termination. Furthermore, the institutionalisation of constituent parties helps to sustain mergers if the latter already built trust in pre-merger cooperation, in line with the conception of merger termination as institutionalisation failure. Two theory-confirming case studies are then analysed: one case of merger survival and the other of termination. These case studies substantiate the working of the significant variables identified in the large-N analysis that drove the selection of case studies. They also reveal how mediating factors difficult to capture in large-N designs help to account for why factors that – theoretically – should have complicated the working of the ‘survival case’, and should have been beneficial to the ‘termination case’, did not generate the expected effects.