www.cevroinstitut.cz 2. New Parties: Organization Changes www.cevroinstitut.cz Organizational structure ■cadre parties ■mass parties ■catch-all parties ■electoral-professional parties ■cartel parties ■business-firm parties ■member-less parties ■cyber-parties Traditional parties www.cevroinstitut.cz Theory of political parties ■ Cadre parties (late 19th century) ■ Face to face communication, newspapers, local rallies ■ Mass parties (early 20th century) ■ Mass print media, party press, mass membership, class parties ■ Catch-all parties (20th century) ■ Mass media: TV, radio, decreasing importance of mass membership, appeal to a wider range of voters ■ Electoral-professional parties (late 20th century) ■ Privileged access to state run media, professionalization of party campaigns ■ Cyber parties (early 21st century) ■ Cyberspace, low importance of membership, politics in cyberspace ■ New media www.cevroinstitut.cz Electoral-professional party: 1988 Angelo Panebianco ■ Growing importance of mass media ■ Parties are driven towards ■ personalized campaigns ■ candidate-centred and issue oriented strategies ■ TV and interest groups : ■ far more important links between parties and electorates than traditional collateral organizations, bureaucracy and party members www.cevroinstitut.cz Electoral-professional party ■ Parties hire out professionals to run election campaigns ■ TV specialist ■ Marketing ■ P.R. ■ Professionals: important in certain spheres of party work ■ fund rising ■ political marketing ■ media presentation ■ helpful as opinion pollsters and advertising consultants www.cevroinstitut.cz Cartel Party: Richard Katz and Peter Mair (1995) ■ Parties threatened by ■ uncertain electoral gains ■ significant drops in membership ■ → parties pursue strategies that aimed at provision and regulation of state subventions to political parties ■ Key difference ■ Closer link to state ■ increasingly dependent on state (state finance) www.cevroinstitut.cz Cartel Parties ■ “characterised by the interpenetration of party and state, and also by a pattern of inter-party collusion” ■ Cartel parties try to prevent other (non-parliamentary) parties to reach state subsidies and parliamentary representation ■ Laws that provide finance assistance only to parliamentary parties ■ Access to public media is restricted only to parliamentary parties ■ Electoral laws that increase legal threshold for small nonparliamentary parties www.cevroinstitut.cz Memberless parties ■ Oscar Mazzoleni and Gerrit Voerman (2016) ■ Maximizing centralization of decision-making process ■ Promoting party unity ■ Enhancing electoral effectiveness ■ Flexiblity and quick decision making ■ Examples: ■ The Freedom Party ■ The Lega dei Tiscinesi ■ Dawn of Direct Democracy www.cevroinstitut.cz Cyber party: Theory by Helen Margetts (2001) ■ Cyber party = a conceptual model ■Real parties may only approximate the concept ■Modern political parties – some traits of the concept ■ “virtual parties”: “Die Digitalen” in Germany ■ran in the 1999 local government election in Berlin ■operated only on the on-line basis www.cevroinstitut.cz Cyberparties - reaction to: 1. Increasing use of ICT ■ Citizens, organizations, government, NGOs… ■ New apps ■ Mass usage of the Internet = key platform for political communication ■ More and more activities shift on-line ■ Cyberspace = major battlefield of politics 2. Changing patterns of relationship between parties and voters ■ Single-issue political activities ■ Declining party membership ■ Increasing reluctance of citizens to join organizations of any kind (especially parties) ■ Dealignment (voters are less attached to parties; decreasing partisan identification) www.cevroinstitut.cz Single issue political activity ■ Anti-capitalism ■ Fox-hunting ■ Animal rights ■ Environmental issues ■ Human rights issues ■ Pirate issues ■ … ■ → technologies allow target at the respective groups www.cevroinstitut.cz Further examples of single-issue activities www.cevroinstitut.cz Party Responses: Cyberparties (summary) ■ Origins: ■ Changing patters of political participation ■ Web-based technologies ■ Claim to support ■ Direct linkages to voters ■ Membership ■ No or little membership ■ Loose definition of supporters ■ Channels of communication ■ Web-based www.cevroinstitut.cz Cyberparties and their weaknesses ■ „preaching to the converted“ (Pippa Norris) ■ On-line messages can not reach out other people ■ Lack of organizational capacity and weaknesses ■ Lack of people: grassroots activity is vital for local campaigns ■ Campaign can not be done solely on-line ■ Lack of membership fees paying members ■ X Internet – cost saving device ■ X absence of membership does not preclude donations