The Party Branch and the Council Party Group: Who Governs?

The relationship between the three organizational ‘faces’ of political parties – the party on the ground, the party in central office, and the party in public office – has received much attention in the party literature. However, the relationship between the local party branch organization (i.e., its executive committee) and the local party in public office (i.e., the party group in the local council) has been left largely unexplored. In this paper, we explore the relationship between these two ‘faces‘ at the local level and discuss the democratic implications of our findings. The paper focuses on the case of Norway – a multi-party system with large variation in municipal size. Nine parties are represented in the national parliament. Different combinations of these parties, together with minor parties and non-partisan local lists, make up the different municipal party systems. The size of Norway’s 356 municipalities varies considerably, from more than 600 000 inhabitants to around 200. The unique data, collected in 2021, comprise a web survey (N=827) that was sent to all leaders of municipal party branches and local lists represented in Norway’s municipal councils, as well as qualitative interviews with 19 branch and list leaders in four selected municipalities. There is reason to believe that the relationship between the party organization and the party in public office may look quite different at the local level, compared with the national level. Local politics is less professionalized. In most Norwegian municipalities, mayors are the only full-time local politicians. Some of the largest cities are exceptions, with larger political staffs employed by the parties and/or the municipality. Our preliminary analyses have shown considerable variation in the party branch–council group relationship. Generally, work in the two local party ‘faces’ is strongly integrated. But in some cases, important decisions are made by the council group, whereas the executive committee is more important in other cases. In yet other cases, it is difficult to make a distinction – since the same individuals make up both the local executive committee and the local council party group. In this paper, we aim to analyse the causes of variation regarding two dependent variables: the degree of integration and the distribution of power between the party branch and council group. We test hypotheses on two main explanatory variables: party and municipal size. Regarding municipal size, we assume that parties in large municipalities have more members to fill the various offices. This may facilitate a stronger division of labour within the local units, and a stronger separation between the two ‘faces’. Regarding party, socialist parties (founded as mass parties) have traditionally given more power to the extra-parliamentary organization. On the other hand, Norwegian party organizations have become standardized over time. Most of these differences are gone, and the right-wing populist Progress Party has adopted the traditional ‘socialist’ organizational model, perhaps more than any other party. In addition, branches with many members (large parties and parties in large municipalities) may practice a stronger division of labour within their local units.