The Organisational Structure of Movement-Parties: The Case Study of Barcelona en Comú

The still-budding stream of literature on movement-parties has depicted, since Herbert Kitschelt´s seminal work, this type of party as holding a grassroots but stratarchical and thin organizational structure which, once the party enters the governmental level and undergoes the process of institutionalization, will surrender itself to the electoral-professional model of party, and lose its original participatory (and even mass-based) characteristics. This paper looks more closely at this „iron law“ of movement-parties, by grounding its analysis on the case-study of the movement-party Barcelona en Comú (BeC), which stemmed from social movements (especially the Indignados movement) and has been governing the city of Barcelona since June 2015. By analysing the organizational development of BeC, this paper asks what does it mean to be a “movement-party”, focusing on the evolving relationship and continuities between the movement and the party, institutional and non-institutional dynamics, party and movement. How is BeC keeping a continuous relationship with its ‘indignant base’ and the wider civil society, and negotiating its double identity? How is BeC managing its participatory-democratic structure in governing the city? It investigates how BeC manages its hybrid identity, articulated in the four-pronged levels of city representatives (party in public office), party in central office, party on the ground, and the wider civil society/social movements, with an eye to its dynamic transformation. The paper also looks at the link between organizational form and functions. Its participatory structure and linkages with social movements and civil society actors can increase accountability, facilitate the co-production, and dissemination of knowledge but also raises many challenges. The paper draws on in-depth interviews, participant observation and focus groups with Indignados and other social movements participants, and with BeC representatives, leading and rank-and-file activists.