Representation and Participation Besides the Party Model? Social Profile, Motives of Joining and Types of Activism of Members in Independent Local Lists and Political Parties

In the past few decades, independent local lists in Germany have become serious competitors to established parties. In some municipalities, they dominate the political competition. In 2015, independent local lists were represented in over 80 per cent of all German municipalities and are increasing in other European countries (Angenendt 2015; Reiser/Holtmann 2008). However, despite the widespread presence and success of these non-partisan actors, political scientists have largely ignored this phenomenon. Recent research suggests that a janus-faced identity characterises independents: Their critical stance towards parties in local politics goes along with an overall acceptance of party democracy at the federal level (Angenendt 2018). In consequence, they are best described as party-sceptical alternative, restricted to the local political sphere. Up to now, empirical evidence concerning the social profile, motives of joining and level of political engagement of their members is still rare. My contribution therefore analyses whether they also represent a participatory alternative to party politics. The paper addresses three main aspects: (1) Who participates (2) for which reasons and (3) with which intensity as a party-independent? (1) In a first step, it is of particular interest whether independent local lists manage to activate party-independent sections of the population (e.g. the young, lower educated, low-paid) to political involvement and take advantage of their party-independent status in times of widespread distrust in political parties. Therefore, the empirical analysis is focusing on a comparison of the social profile of independents, party members and population. (2) In a second step, the motives for joining an independent local list are examined. Based on the General-Incentives-Model (Whiteley/Seyd 1996), a wide range of incentives is taken into account to enhance our understanding about the impact of political, social and individual determinants. Additionally, it is of some interest whether these determinants vary in their relative importance between independents and party members: are independents mainly driven by local circumstances or is anti-partyism an impelling motive for participation? (3) Finally, the analysis identifies different types of independents, based on their level of intra-group engagement. The results will be compared with party members’ intra-party engagement. The comparison will enhance our understanding whether independent local lists offer their members a comparable set of opportunities for engagement and can be regarded as a party-alternative for political participation in German municipalities. The analyses based on a cross-sectional postal survey with responses from 866 members of German independent local lists in 2015/16. The results will be compared with the party members-study PAMIS (Spier et al. 2011), both conducted at the Düsseldorf Party Research Institute.