To analyse the party members’ socialization process has a deep importance to political science by the causal links it introduces, in terms of questioning the role and importance of political parties in Western democracies today. The main objective of this contribution is to analyse the impact of contexts, activities and motivations of party members and the consequences their profiles may have within the political system.
We aim to contribute to the study of recruitment, profiles, development contexts and motivations of Portuguese party supporters, in two of the major Portuguese Parties: the Socialist Party (PS) and the Social Democratic Center (CDS). We have as a starting point that the decline of party mobilization is as a topic of high importance in political science. The object of this contribution deserve further developed in the national plan, particularly as regards the study on the upstream in the choice of militant activity. The methodology used is anchored in a survey as well as in in-depth interviews. These will allow the deepening of causes and the fulfilment of a more intensive interpretation of the trends to be investigated by the survey applied. In addition, we will seek to contribute to contextualize and deepen causalities over pressing features of the Western politics such as voter turnout, the lack of interest in politics and in elections and the voter’s distance towards political decision centres.
