Party Membership and Intra-Party Democracy: How Do Members React to Organizational Change within Political Parties? The Case of Belgium
<span class="abs_content">Facing a crucial legitimacy crisis, many Western European political parties have recently undergone various forms of organizational changes by adopting procedures for increasing intra-democracy: internal ballots, internal referenda, primary elections and so...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Coordinamento SIBA
2015-03-01
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| Series: | Partecipazione e Conflitto |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://siba-ese.unisalento.it/index.php/paco/article/view/14789 |
| _version_ | 1797680632673861632 |
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| author | Giulia Sandri Anissa Amjahad |
| author_facet | Giulia Sandri Anissa Amjahad |
| author_sort | Giulia Sandri |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <span class="abs_content">Facing a crucial legitimacy crisis, many Western European political parties have recently undergone various forms of organizational changes by adopting procedures for increasing intra-democracy: internal ballots, internal referenda, primary elections and so on. Direct democracy is now used in a wide range of decision-making procedures such as candidate and leadership selection (Cross and Katz, 2013). These reforms have pro-vided new opportunities for participation to party members. What happens to more traditional elements of party internal structures when such instruments of intra-party democracy are adopted? And more specifically, how are such changes perceived by the party base? This paper explores the attitudes and behaviors of members with regard to intra-party democracy procedures. On the basis of a case study (Belgium) and of an original dataset, the paper explores the political consequences of intra-party democracy. We show that members’ satisfaction with the party and their degree of previous internal activism affect the level of involvement in intra-party democracy activities. However, the dissatisfaction of the party base vis-à-vis of the membership role is growing. Intra-party democratization seems to limit the organizational function of the grass-roots membership to a ‘cheerleading’ role.</span><br /> |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T23:32:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-777c91daa5ba401c8420d17b4ca80d0f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1972-7623 2035-6609 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T23:32:54Z |
| publishDate | 2015-03-01 |
| publisher | Coordinamento SIBA |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Partecipazione e Conflitto |
| spelling | doaj.art-777c91daa5ba401c8420d17b4ca80d0f2023-09-20T07:59:54ZengCoordinamento SIBAPartecipazione e Conflitto1972-76232035-66092015-03-018119021410.1285/i20356609v8i1p19014041Party Membership and Intra-Party Democracy: How Do Members React to Organizational Change within Political Parties? The Case of BelgiumGiulia Sandri0Anissa Amjahad1Université Catholique de LilleUniversité libre de Bruxelles<span class="abs_content">Facing a crucial legitimacy crisis, many Western European political parties have recently undergone various forms of organizational changes by adopting procedures for increasing intra-democracy: internal ballots, internal referenda, primary elections and so on. Direct democracy is now used in a wide range of decision-making procedures such as candidate and leadership selection (Cross and Katz, 2013). These reforms have pro-vided new opportunities for participation to party members. What happens to more traditional elements of party internal structures when such instruments of intra-party democracy are adopted? And more specifically, how are such changes perceived by the party base? This paper explores the attitudes and behaviors of members with regard to intra-party democracy procedures. On the basis of a case study (Belgium) and of an original dataset, the paper explores the political consequences of intra-party democracy. We show that members’ satisfaction with the party and their degree of previous internal activism affect the level of involvement in intra-party democracy activities. However, the dissatisfaction of the party base vis-à-vis of the membership role is growing. Intra-party democratization seems to limit the organizational function of the grass-roots membership to a ‘cheerleading’ role.</span><br />http://siba-ese.unisalento.it/index.php/paco/article/view/14789intra-party democracyleadership selectionparty membershipparty politicsprimary elections |
| spellingShingle | Giulia Sandri Anissa Amjahad Party Membership and Intra-Party Democracy: How Do Members React to Organizational Change within Political Parties? The Case of Belgium Partecipazione e Conflitto intra-party democracy leadership selection party membership party politics primary elections |
| title | Party Membership and Intra-Party Democracy: How Do Members React to Organizational Change within Political Parties? The Case of Belgium |
| title_full | Party Membership and Intra-Party Democracy: How Do Members React to Organizational Change within Political Parties? The Case of Belgium |
| title_fullStr | Party Membership and Intra-Party Democracy: How Do Members React to Organizational Change within Political Parties? The Case of Belgium |
| title_full_unstemmed | Party Membership and Intra-Party Democracy: How Do Members React to Organizational Change within Political Parties? The Case of Belgium |
| title_short | Party Membership and Intra-Party Democracy: How Do Members React to Organizational Change within Political Parties? The Case of Belgium |
| title_sort | party membership and intra party democracy how do members react to organizational change within political parties the case of belgium |
| topic | intra-party democracy leadership selection party membership party politics primary elections |
| url | http://siba-ese.unisalento.it/index.php/paco/article/view/14789 |
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