Alison Smith DPhil The...

313 Pages·2015·8.18 MB·English

by  Alison Smith

THE EFFECT OF ELECTORAL INSTITUTIONS ON
PARTY MEMBERSHIP IN CENTRAL AND EAST EUROPE
THESIS SUBMITTED IN TRINITY TERM 2013
IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
DEGREE OF D. PHIL IN POLITICS
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
ALISON F. SMITH
(ST. ANTONY’S COLLEGE)
WORD COUNT – 83,023
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE: PARTIES AND THEIR MEMBERS IN MODERN DEMOCRACIES 1

1.1 ‘GOING, GOING… GONE?’ MEMBERSHIP IN MODERN DEMOCRACIES

5
1.2 PARTY MEMBERSHIP IN POST-COMMUNIST DEMOCRACIES 13
1.3 MEMBERSHIP RECRUITMENT IN MODERN DEMOCRACIES: EXPLAINING VARIATION 17
1.4 DATA AND METHODS 30
1.5 PARTIES AND MEMBERS IN CENTRAL AND EAST EUROPE: CHAPTER PLAN 47
CHAPTER TWO: INSTITUTIONAL DESIGN AND MEMBERSHIP RECRUITMENT 49
2.1 LOW MEMBERSHIP: A UNIVERSAL POST-COMMUNIST TREND? 50
2.2 STATE SUBSIDIES AND MEMBERSHIP RECRUITMENT 53
2.3 REGIME TYPE AND MEMBERSHIP RECRUITMENT 66
2.4 ELECTORAL SYSTEMS AND MEMBERSHIP RECRUITMENT 71
2.5 DISCUSSION 77
CHAPTER THREE: INSTITUTIONS AND THE FUNCTIONS OF MEMBERS 82
3.1 AMBASSADORS IN THE COMMUNITY 84
3.2 LOYAL AND RELIABLE VOTERS 89
3.3 FUNDRAISING 90

3.4 POLICY IDEAS AND ‘LINKAGE’

95
3.5 A RECRUITING POOL FOR CANDIDATES 98
3.6 MEMBERS AS A CAMPAIGNING RESOURCE 105

3.7 IMAGE AND ‘LEGITIMACY’

109
3.8 SUMMARY 110
CHAPTER FOUR: ESTONIA 113
4.1 THE ESTONIAN POLITICAL SYSTEM 114
4.2 AMBASSADORS IN THE COMMUNITY 119
4.3 LOYAL AND RELIABLE VOTERS 126
4.4 FUNDRAISING 127

4.5 POLICY IDEAS AND ‘LINKAGE’

132
4.6 A RECRUITING POOL FOR CANDIDATES 140
4.7 MEMBERS AS A GRASSROOTS CAMPAIGNING RESOURCE 145
4.8 LEGITIMACY BENEFITS 149
4.9 DISCUSSION 152
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS, CONTD.
CHAPTER FIVE: LITHUANIA 157
5.1 THE LITHUANIAN POLITICAL SYSTEM 158
5.2 AMBASSADORS IN THE COMMUNITY 163
5.3 LOYAL AND RELIABLE VOTERS 169
5.4 FUNDRAISING 171

5.5 POLICY IDEAS AND ‘LINKAGE’

174
5.6 A RECRUITING POOL FOR CANDIDATES 181
5.7 MEMBERS AS A GRASSROOTS CAMPAIGNING RESOURCE 186
5.8 LEGITIMACY BENEFITS 183
5.9 DISCUSSION 195
CHAPTER SIX: SLOVAKIA 198
6.1 THE SLOVAK POLITICAL SYSTEM 199
6.2 AMBASSADORS IN THE COMMUNITY 207
6.3 LOYAL AND RELIABLE VOTERS 211
6.4 FUNDRAISING 212

6.5 POLICY IDEAS AND ‘LINKAGE’

217
6.6 A RECRUITING POOL FOR CANDIDATES 224
6.7 MEMBERS AS A GRASSROOTS CAMPAIGNING RESOURCE 232
6.8 LEGITIMACY BENEFITS 238
6.9 DISCUSSION 240
CHAPTER SEVEN: CROSS-COUNTRY COMPARISON 243
7.1 ELECTORAL INSTITUTIONS AND PARTY MEMBERS 244
7.2 FUNDING REGULATIONS AND PARTY MEMBERS 257
7.3 OTHER ELECTORAL INSTITUTIONS 260

7.4 ‘TOP DOGS’ AND ‘UNDERDOGS’: THE IMPORTANCE OF STRATEGIC FACTORS

263
7.5 MEMBERS, PURPOSIVE BENEFITS AND POLICY-MAKING 265

7.6 CULTURE, IDEOLOGY AND THE ‘LEGITIMISING’ FUNCTION OF MEMBERS

269
7.7 POST-COMMUNIST LEGACIES AND PARTY MEMBERSHIP 272
7.8 THE PURPOSE OF MEMBERS IN NEW DEMOCRACIES 276
CHAPTER EIGHT 280
iii
INDEX OF TABLES, FIGURES AND GRAPHS
Table 1.1: Backgrounds of Interview Subjects 45
Table 2.1: Party Membership in Eleven Central and East European Democracies 52
Table 2.2: Party Subsidies in Central and East Europe 56
Table 2.3: Membership Trends and the Availability of Direct State Funding 57
Figure 2.4: The Generosity of State Funding and Membership Recruitment 60
Table 2.5: Pay-Out Principles For State Subsidies (1999-2008) 62
Figure 2.6: Legislative Power and Membership Recruitment 68
Figure 2.7: Direct Presidential Elections and Party Membership Levels 70
Table 2.8: Electoral System Format in Eleven Post-Communist Democracies 74
Table 2.9: Average Number of Voters Per Constituency (Lowest Tier) 75
Table 3.1: Summary of Hypotheses 112
Table 4.1: What Is the Most Effective Way of Spreading Your Party’s Message?

120
Table 4.2: Perceptions of the Most Important Role Of Members 129
Table 4.3: If Your Party Wants To Recruit More Members, It Should…

137
Table 4.4: Length of Prior Affiliation 141
Table 4.5: What Qualities Are Important in Choosing Candidates 142
Table 4.6: Participation Of Members in Grassroots Activities (Local Elections) 146
Table 4.7: Participation Of Members in Grassroots Activities (National Elections) 147
Table 5.1: What Is the Most Effective Way of Spreading Your Party’s Message?

166
Table 5.2: Perceptions of the Most Important Role Of Members 172
Table 5.3: If Your Party Wants To Recruit More Members, It Should…

179
Table 5.4: Length of Prior Affiliation 183
Table 5.5: What Qualities Are Important in Municipal Candidates? 184
Table 5.6: What Qualities Are Important in National Candidates? 185
Table 5.7: Participation of Members in Grassroots Activities (National) 188
Table 5.8: Participation of Members in Grassroots Activities (Municipal) 191
Table 6.1: What Is the Most Effective Way of Spreading Your Party’s Message?

209
Table 6.2: Perceptions of the Most Important Function of Members 213
Table 6.3: If Your Party Wants To Recruit More Members, It Should…

218
Table 6.4: Length of Prior Affiliation 228
Table 6.5: What Qualities Are Important In National Candidates? 229
Table 6.6: What Qualities Are Important In Municipal Candidates? 233
Table 6.7: Participation of Members in Grassroots Activities (Municipal) 221
Table 6.8: Participation of Members in Grassroots Activities (National) 221
Table 7.1: Policy Making Processes of Estonian, Lithuanian And
Slovak Political Parties 266
Appendix 1: Three Country Comparison of Survey Results 303
iv
LIST OF PARTY ABBREVIATIONS
Bulgaria
BSP* Bulgarian Socialist Party (Bulgarska sotsialisticheska partiya)
DPS Movement for Rights and Freedoms (Dvizhenie za prava i svobodi)
GERB Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (Grazhdani za evropeysko na Balgariya)
SDS Union of Democratic Forces (Sayuz na demokratichnite sili)
Croatia
HDZ Croatian Democratic Union (Hrvatska demokratska zajednica)
HNS

Croatian People’s Party (Hrvatska narodna stranka)
HSS

Croatian Peasant Party (Hrvatska seljačka stranka)
SDP Social Democratic Party of Croatia (Socialdemokratska partija Hrvatske)
Czech Republic
ČSSD
Czech Social Democratic Party (Česká strana sociálne demokratická)
KDU-ČSL
Christian Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People’s Party

(Křest’anská a demokratická unie – Českoslovenká strana lidová)
KSČM

Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (Komunistická strana Čech a Moravy)
ODS

Civic Democratic Party (Občcanská demokratická strana)
Estonia
ER Estonian Reform Party (Eesti Reformierakond)
IRL Pro Patria and Res Publica Union (Isamaa ja Res Publica Liit)
EK Estonian Centre Party (Eesti Keskerakond)
SDE Social Democratic Party (Sotsiaaldemokraatlik Erakond)
Hungary
Jobbik

Jobbik – The Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik Magyarországért mozgalom)
MDF

Magyar Demokrata Fórum
MSZP

Hungarian Socialist Party (Magyar Szocialista Párt)
v
List of Abbreviations (Contd.)
Latvia
JL New Era (Jaunais laiks)
SC

Harmony Centre (Saskaņas Centrs)
TP

People’s Party (Tautas Partija)
ZZS

Union of Greens and Farmers (Zaļo un Zemnieku savienība)
Lithuania
DP Labour Party (Darbo Partija)
LS

Liberal Movement (Liberalų Sąjūdis)
LSDP

Social Democratic Party of Lithuania (Lietuvos socialdemokratų partija)
TS-LKD Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats
(Tėvynės sąjunga - Lietuvos krikščionys demokratai)
TT Order and Justice (Tvarka ir teisingumas)
Poland
PO Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska)
PiS

Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość
PSL

Polish Peasants’ Party (Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe)
SLD Democratic Left Alliance (Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej)
Romania
PD-L Democratic Liberal Party (Partidul Democrat-Liberal)
PNL

National Liberal Party (Partidul Naţional Liberal)
PSD Social Democratic Party (Partidul Social Democrat)
Slovakia
HZDS

Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (Hnutie za demokratické Slovensko)
KDH

Christian Democratic Movement (Kresťanskodemokratické hnutie)
MKP

Party of the Hungarian Coalition (Magyar Koalíció Pártja)
SKDU-DS
Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – Democratic Party

Slovenská demokratická a kresťanská únia – Demokratická strana
SMER-SD
Direction – Social Democracy (Smer – sociálna demokracia)
Slovenia
DeSUS
Democratic Party of Pensioners in Slovenia (Demokratična stranka upokojencev Slovenije)
SD Social Democrats (Socialni demokrati)
SDS Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka)
vi
ABSTRACT
THE EFFECT OF ELECTORAL INSTITUTIONS ON
PARTY MEMBERSHIP IN CENTRAL AND EAST EUROPE
Party membership levels in the new democracies of central and east European were
predicted to remain universally low, stymied by post-communist legacies, the availability of
state funding and the prevalence of mass media communications (van Biezen, 2003;
Kopecký, 2007). However, more than two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall,
membership levels vary considerably between countries, and also between individual
parties within party systems. Using freshly gathered party membership data, elite surveys
and interviews, this thesis explores a number of institutional hypotheses to test whether, as
in western democracies, electoral institutions influence how parties organise and
campaign. This thesis finds that national electoral systems, municipal electoral rules and
business funding regulations have an observable impact on how parties use their members.
In particular, ‘decentralised’ electoral systems encourage greater involvement of members
in voter contacting and other small campaign tasks. This thesis concludes that, contrary
to the dominant literature, the availability of state funding has little impact on party
membership recruitment. Instead, central and east European parties’ attitudes to
members are shaped by a complex interaction of institutional, cultural, ideological and
strategic factors.
vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank the ESRC for funding this thesis, and Dr Paul Chaisty (St Antony’s
College, University of Oxford) for his patient supervision. I would like to thank the Smith
family and Floor van der Wateren for their support, patience and proof-reading efforts (all
remaining mistakes are my own). Finally, I would like to thank the interviewees who
agreed to participate in this research for allowing me a rare window into their world.
viii
1
Parties and their Members in Modern Democracies
Since the 1960s, scholars have sought to explain the declining role of members in
political parties. In the modern world of mass media communications and state
subsidies, it is often argued that the role of party members has been reduced to a
‘vestigial function’.1 As a result, political parties in the new democracies of central and
east Europe were not expected to recruit members.2 However, this thesis argues that
the reality is more nuanced. Party membership has risen in some central and east
European democracies, but fallen in others.
After analysing country-level and party-level membership data, and drawing on the
results of detailed surveys and interviews, this thesis will conclude that institutional
rules influence the value of members, and thus whether or not parties invest in
membership recruitment and retention. Relevant institutions include electoral
systems at both national and local levels, funding regulations, party registration rules,
and the length of any pre-election ‘silence period’. There is also, however, variation at
the party system level, resulting from imbalances in the resources available to
1 Peter Mair and Ingrid van Biezen (2001), ‘Party Membership in Twenty European Democracies’,
Party Politics, 7(1): 5-21; Herbert Kitschelt (2001), ‘Divergent Paths of Postcommunist Democracies’, in
Larry Diamond and Richard Gunther (eds), Political Parties and Democracy, The Johns Hopkins University
Press (Baltimore).
2 Ingrid van Biezen (2003), Political Parties in New Democracies: Party Organization in Southern and East-Central
Europe, Palgrave (Basingstoke).
1
individual parties, the ideological orientation and normative beliefs of party elites, and
strategic considerations, such as the tactics of other political parties.
Since the 1960s, when Otto Kirchheimer predicted that ‘catch-all’ parties would
prioritise electoral success over programmatic coherence, jettisoning members along
the way,3 successive scholars have developed models of professionalised,
organisationally nimble parties, designed to take full advantage of modern
communications. Such parties avoid significant investment in grass-roots activities,
instead preferring to focus their efforts on slick media campaigns, largely bankrolled
by state subsidies, which are fast becoming ubiquitous.4 In 2001, Mair and van
Biezen’s comparison of party membership in twenty European democracies appeared
to confirm this picture of inexorable membership decline.5 Ten years later, an
updated report concluded that ‘membership has now reached such a low ebb that it
may no longer constitute a relevant indicator of organisational capacity’.6
Against this backdrop, the chances of membership parties forming in the new
democracies of central and east Europe were thought to be minimal. If western
European parties maintained a membership base out of ‘organisational inertia or
3 Otto Kirchheimer (1969), ‘The Transformation of the Western European Party System’, in Federic S
Burin and Kurt L Shell (Eds), Politics, Law and Social Change: Selected Essays of Otto Kirchheimer, Columbia
University Press (New York).
4 Angelo Panebianco (1988), Political Parties: Organization and Power, Cambridge University Press; Peter
Mair and Richard S Katz (1997), ‘Party Organization, Party Democracy and the Emergence of the
Cartel Party’, in Peter Mair (Ed), Party System Change: Approaches and Interpretations, Clarendon Press
(Oxford).
5 Peter Mair and Ingrid van Biezen (2001), ‘Party Membership in Twenty European Democracies’,
Party Politics, 7 (1): 5-21.
6 Ingrid van Biezen, Peter Mair and Thomas Poguntke (2012), ‘Going, going… gone? The Decline of
Party Membership in Contemporary Europe’, European Journal of Political Research, 51 (1): 24.
2