Research Priorities, Funding Outcomes and the Study of Party Democracy

This paper engages with the central workshop theme of questioning the continued primacy and viability of political parties by examining the trajectory of party politics research through a global search and mapping of funding for party politics projects. Using publicly available data from funding councils (national and philanthropic), the paper will analyse two main trends. First, the extent to which party politics research forms an identifiable research priority for funders, particularly when compared to cognate research areas such as democratic innovations and studies of democratic decline more generally. Second, it maps the research focus and key questions posed within funded projects to better understand the development of the field. I suggest that this data provides valuable insights not only into what is seen as ‘cutting edge’ and important research as identified by peer review processes; but also allows us to better understand the relationship between research priorities developed by governments, philanthropic agencies and other funders, and researcher behaviour. Are there incentives to continue to study political parties? How are research calls and projects framed? Do they encourage researchers to think beyond the notion of party or push them to find ways to improve and preserve the existing paradigm?