Challenges to Contemporary Party Democracy

Political parties have long played a central role in both the theory and practice of modern democracy, constituting a vital link between the sovereign people and the politicians to whom the exercise of the affairs of the state is temporarily entrusted. Though many would argue that democracy remains ‘unthinkable save in terms of party’, contemporary party democracy is undeniably facing a number of fundamental challenges. For one, party linkage to the demos has atrophied and levels of public trust in political parties are in part very low. On the other hand, the capacity of party government has been severely curtailed, inter alia because the growth of supranational organisations and the constraints of an increasingly globalised economy have hollowed out the nation state. Not least because of such developments, parties faced considerable pressures for organisational adaptation (e.g. in the application of new information and communication technologies and respect of party elite recruitment). Moreover, as Peter Mair argued, we may be witnessing a growing gap in modern party democracy between highly responsive outsider parties on the one hand and increasingly unresponsive and largely emasculated responsible parties of government on the other. The Standing Group on Political Parties invites proposals for papers on any aspect of the challenges to contemporary party democracy. Papers might, for example, address the nature of the challenges, their causes, or how and with these are being responded to by parties and party systems.