Institutionalization of the Czech and Luxembourgian Pirate Parties: a comparative perspective

This paper compares two successful pirate parties from the perspective of the concept of party institutionalisation. We understand party institutionalisation rather as a set of properties than as a process. Focusing on internal and external dimensions of institutionalization, this study offers a comparative analysis grounded in original interviews with party elites and data from the European Social Survey. Measured in terms of re-election into the national parliamentary arena, both parties can be considered successful representatives of an otherwise unsuccessful party family. After its initial parliamentary breakthrough in 2017, the Czech Pirate Party was re-elected in the 2021 election. The Pirate Party Luxembourg was elected for the first and second time in 2018 and 2023. Employing a comparative framework, this research scrutinises internal and external aspects of institutionalisation in these two parties. Utilising original interviews with key party figures to analyse the density and role of the local organisational units of the party and leadership dynamics, this paper sheds light into the differences in internal party institutionalisation. Additionally, it examines the external dimension of institutionalisation focusing on the properties of the electorate, drawing insights from the European Social Survey dataset. By integrating qualitative insights from elite interviews with quantitative data from the European Social Survey, this paper offers a comprehensive understanding of the degree of institutionalization of these two similarly successful parties from the same party family.