How to reach external Citizens? Comparing Varieties of Transnational Party Infrastructure

With a growing number of citizens living abroad, incentives and strategies to reach diasporas have become increasingly important for political actors. National political parties respond to new competitive transnational environments and engage with citizens living outside their country of origin. However, compared to traditional national party organisations, we know little about parties going abroad and their transnational instruments. To address this gap, I compare the official transnational infrastructure of all parliamentary parties in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. By examining official party documents and information from party secretaries, I evaluate how parties reach external citizens and factors that correspond with their organisational decisions. I find that the ability for expats to use internet voting does not increase the scope and extent of the analysed parties’ physical infrastructure, whereas the ability to donate correlates with more investment into formal party branches abroad. In addition, I argue that larger parties are more likely to invest in formal transnational infrastructure, and that left-right wing ideology and populism have little impact on organisational models across the selected countries.