What is the Difference Between a Member and a Supporter? Comparing the Profile and Political Activity of Green Party Members and Supporters in Australia

Much of the recent literature on party members and organizational change has charted the decline of political parties as membership organizations. In an increasingly professionalized campaign environment, political parties are turning to more capital intensive modes of campaigning, and to engaging members, supporters and voters in new ways (for example, by establishing supporters networks and utilizing online forms of communication). Many of these emerging forms and patterns of political activism challenge traditional conceptions of formal party membership and in particular, the relationship between party members and supporters. This paper speaks to the emerging debate over the utility of maintaining membership and supportership as distinct categories in analyzing party activism. We question the core assumption that the activities of members and supporters are somehow functionally different through a case study of the Australian Greens – a political party generally known for its grassroots political organization. Using original data gathered from two separate surveys of Green Party members and supporters undertaken in 2012 and 2013, we analyze the political activities and profiles of contemporary Green Party members (including campaign activity, online participation and attitudes to organizational reform). We compare this with complementary data from a survey of party supporters to evaluate the key differences and similarities between these two groups in terms of profile, political activity and engagement with the party – in order to ascertain whether there really is any functional difference between members and supporters in the modern political party.