Parties’ Protection Against Political Intimidation, Harassment and Violence

Increased intimidation, harassment and violence in politics have dire consequences for political participation, representation and democratic health across the world. Political parties are central for addressing this challenge due to their unique linkage role, hence are significant for ensuring that party activists, candidates and elected representatives are not inhibited from political activism, from campaigning and from fulfilling their representative duties. In this light, this paper explains and characterizes explains parties’ rules, regulations and procedures for preventing and addressing psychological, physical and sexual intimidation, harassment and violence targeting party members, activists, candidates and elected representatives. The theoretical framework combines party literature on party reform, party change and intra-party democracy with the growing field of studies on the character and consequences of intimidation, harassment and violence in politics. Comparative text analysis of 24 major old and new European parties’ rules, regulations and procedures on hindering and handling intimidation, harassment and violence, supplemented with interviews with party representatives, depicts the variety in whether parties have adopted these, and if so, who and which types of harassment are protected, and how these rules, regulations and procedures are institutionalized and enforced. Increased intimidation, harassment and violence in politics harms the conditions for a well-functioning democracy, and only some parties are, and to varying extents, doing something about it.