Swedish political parties are characterized by their markedly different support across geographical space. In most cases, the sources of these regional variations date back to the time of the founding of the parties. Moreover, the regional strongholds and the areas of weak support for the parties have survived major societal changes such as the transition from the agrarian to the industrial society, emigration, and urbanization. Why is it that a certain area evolves a political tradition that sets it apart from neighboring areas? This study addresses itself to this and similar topics with empirical emphasis on the Swedish Social Democratic Party (the SAP).The study is based on the conviction that the regional imbalance in the SAP vote originates in the interaction/competition between various social and political movements in the local environment. The initial model used to explain these imbalances comprises three different factors that influence the party's vote: the socio-economic structure, the local organizational environment and the effect of local party organizational efforts.In order to test the importance of these factors three different areas were selected; one strong, one weak, and one unstable in terms of the Social Democratic vote.The findings show that no single factor alone accounts for the variance in the regional support of the SAP. Rather, what is decisive are the interactions within the structural and social properties of a context.By way of conclusion, this study lends support to the following conclusions of the prospects for the SAP to mobilize the electorate: to establish itself in the local setting the party needs an organizational culture, a local party organization and the absence of strong local opinion against the party's activities and organizational efforts. The party also seems to be favored by a high level of political mobilization (participation), whereas there is nothing to suggest that the SAP's prospects of becoming successful are hampered by competition from the left-wing parties. / digitalisering@umu

This thesis analyses the process of women&rsquo / s legislative recruitment in Turkey by focusing on the interaction among the certain features of the Turkish political system including the attitudes of the party elite toward the enhancement of women&rsquo / s political representation. It has been demonstrated in earlier studies that one of the reasons behind women&rsquo / s low level of parliamentary representation in Turkey is the fact that the selectors in the political parties fail to support women candidates adequately in the elections. Related to that, women&rsquo / s legislative recruitment is also likely to be impeded by the unsupportive nature of the main dynamics of political system such as political culture, party system and the v electoral system. Considering the fact that these institutional and attitudinal factors are highly inter-related with each other, the insufficient number of women candidates nominated by the major social democratic party, the Republican People&rsquo / s Party in the 1990s, including the latest national elections on November 3rd, 2002 calls for an analysis of not only the attitudes of the RPP selectors toward positive discrimination mechanisms such as the quotas for women but also of the relevant party institutional factors rooted in the Turkish political system. The study contends that the RPP&rsquo / s women-friendly party culture and selectors&rsquo / positive perspectives towards women&rsquo / s political integration are not sufficient factors for the promotion of women&rsquo / s legislative recruitment within the party. The weakness of the intra-party democracy in the RPP which is particularly the result of the oligarchic structure and the problems with institutionalization significantly impede women&rsquo / s legislative recruitment within the party. The study has found that the low level of women&rsquo / s legislative recruitment in the RPP is a consequence of the interaction between the institutional and attitudinal factors within the RPP which perpetuates patriarchal elite oligarchy in the nomination process. The documented gap between the RPP&rsquo / s party rhetoric and practice in this study is found as the reflection of the party&rsquo / s problems in internalizing social democratic values.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:14:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2140.pdf: 2607420 bytes, checksum: 9d3083d819130253fbd6ed021ef90aea (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-08-27 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The thesis main goal was to test the partial applicability of the cartel party model (Katz and Mair), to understand the transformations in the national structure of the Workers Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores PT) between 1980 and 2005. The main hypotheses of the research derive directly from two of the three defining elements of such model. The secondary purpose was to build a general vision of the party organization during the period, focused on institutional changes, emphasizing motivations, strategies and conflicts associated to such changes. Two analytical dimensions were utilized: the functional and the organizational. On the functional dimension we detected that, during 25 years, the petista organization established a solid relationship with the state, and an estrangement from civil society. Such state links became essential for the party survival. The new situation affected the balance of power inside the party. On the organizational dimension, we observe a strengthening and greater autonomy of the party in public office , even capable to dominate the party in central office . On the other hand, the strategies of hegemonic party faction (Articulação/Campo Majoritário) shattered the intra-party democracy, increasing the importance and autonomy of the party in central office , while the party membership became less significant. The Michels iron law of oligarchy was corroborated: the Workers Party of Brazil could not escape from your oligarchization. If the party in public office and party leadership win with this new balance of power, there is only one looser: the party membership. / O objetivo central da tese foi testar a adequação de dois dos elementos definidores do modelo de partido cartel (Katz e Mair) para compreender as transformações da estrutura nacional do Partido dos Trabalhadores entre 1980 e 2005. As hipóteses principais da pesquisa, a serem testadas em relação ao PT, originaram-se diretamente dos aspectos constitutivos desse modelo. O objetivo secundário da tese foi construir um quadro geral da evolução organizativa do partido nesse período, com o foco nos processos de mudança institucional, destacando motivações, estratégias e conflitos envolvidos nessas mudanças. Duas dimensões de análise foram empregadas: a funcional e a organizativa. Na dimensão funcional constatamos que, ao longo de um quarto de século, a organização petista estabeleceu laços cada vez mais sólidos com o Estado, ao mesmo tempo em que se afastava da sociedade civil. Os vínculos estatais passaram a ser centrais para a sobrevivência organizativa. A progressiva inserção estatal do partido alterou as relações internas de poder. Na dimensão organizativa, constatamos a emergência de uma face pública cada vez mais forte e autônoma, capaz inclusive de dominar a direção partidária. Por outro lado, estratégias da Articulação/Campo Majoritário desconstruíram a democracia intrapartidária, reforçando o papel da direção nacional, que ganhou em autonomia vis-à-vis à base partidária. Causa e efeito dessa situação, a lei de ferro de Michels mostrou-se válida: o PT não escapou à tendência de oligarquização de sua direção. Se face pública e direção partidária ganharam nesse novo equilíbrio interno de forças, houve apenas um perdedor: a base de filiados do PT.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:14:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 5537.pdf: 1932064 bytes, checksum: 3125235f7283d6fb36e1dce9ab252c09 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-07-29 / Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos / The main purpose in this thesis is to analyse the candidate selection process for Federal Deputy in Brazil in the 2010 elections within four parties: DEM, PMDB, PSDB e PT. Heretofore, the study of candidate selection in our country have privileged the formal dimension of selection, like party´s statutes analysis or regional dinamics. In the other hand, except for some exceptions, the conclusions pointed out the impact of brazilian institutional design in candidate selection, undervaluing parties as autonomus units in the process. Therefore, from data about candidacy gathered at the Electoral Supreme Court and a survey applied to one hundred and twenty candidates, we tried to sketch the candidate selection process at the intra-party arena. The conclusions suggests that political parties are capable in divert from institucional incentives and choose candidates by different methods regarding the strenght and direction of the institutionalization. Hence, the different methods bring relevant consequences for the candidates profiles as well for the parties themselves. / O objetivo central desta tese é analisar o processo de seleção de candidatos a Deputado Federal no Brasil durante as eleições de 2010 em quatro partidos: DEM; PMDB; PSDB e PT. Até então, os estudos sobre seleção de candidatos em nosso país privilegiaram aspectos formais da seleção, como análise dos estatutos de partidos ou processos regionais. Por outro lado, salvo algumas exceções, o enfoque para as conclusões sobre a seleção de candidatos esteve sempre nos impactos do desenho institucional brasileiro, subvalorizando os partidos como unidades autônomas no processo. Assim, a partir de dados das candidaturas fornecidos pelo Tribunal Superior Eleitoral e de um survey aplicado a cento e vinte candidatos, buscamos traçar o processo de seleção privilegiando a arena intrapartidária. As conclusões sugerem que os partidos são capazes de contornar o sistema de incentivos institucionais e selecionar seus candidatos por processos diferenciados entre si tendo em vista sua força e direção de institucionalização e que produzem consequências importantes para os perfis dos candidatos, bem como para os partidos em si.

Este trabalho se volta à evolução do Partido dos Trabalhadores no estado de São Paulo. No contexto mais amplo do debate sobre partidos políticos, o PT sempre se apresentou como um contraponto nas abordagens sobre o sistema político brasileiro que, partindo de diferentes paradigmas teóricos, chegou sempre ao diagnóstico de que estas instituições estariam fadadas a serem organizações frágeis. Daí a análise do partido sob o ponto de vista da organização ser particularmente interessante. Serão observados os movimentos de expansão e retração da estrutura do partido para além do seu núcleo de origem a partir da base de filiados, do comportamento nas disputas no nível local e do desempenho nas eleições proporcionais. Todos esses aspectos se mostram relacionados no desenvolvimento da organização no estado onde nasceu. / This dissertation seeks to understand the evolution of the Workers Party (PT) in the state of São Paulo. In the broader context of the debate on political parties, the PT was always presented as a counterpoint in the approaches of the Brazilian political system that, starting from different theoretical paradigms, the researchers always concluded that these institutions were bound to be fragile organizations. Therefore, the analysis of the party from the point of view of its organization becomes particularly interesting. The movements of expansion and contraction of the partys structure will be observed considering not only the core founder who leads the party, but also based on its membership roster, its behavior in disputes at the local level and its performance in proportional elections. All these aspects are related to the development of the organization in the state that the party was born.

All the youth political organizations, that were included in his research, aimed to provide its political parties with the function of party stabilization, They acted as a mediator between political party and the defined part of society. There is an assumption, that institutionalized political party wants a strong and durable relationship with the affiliated organization because of its mutually beneficial functions. Moreover, these parties should also aim to formalize this relationship via its statutes. However, in the Czech Republic there is a strong tendency toward omitting this form of relationship as the parties prefer more informal relations. This diploma thesis discovered, that in the only youth political organization with formal ties to its maternal organization was Young Social Democrats. Even though these youth political parties act lice a support structure, they can be also perceived by political party as a potential source of instability and danger.

This diploma thesis focuses on comparison of ANO 2011 and Fidesz based on their origin, development, organizational structure, program and ideology, and role of the party leader. Beside the introduction of various organizational party types and concept of "genetical code" by Angelo Panebianco, the parties are examined also by concept of populism defined on the basis of the book by Cas Mudde and C.R. Kaltwasser. Based on two case studies of ANO 2011 and Fidesz the goal of this paper was to find out similar and different features and explore their impact on democratic system. As long as these two parties have different organizational structure, one of the important features is dominant role of their founder not only in the foundation of the party but also in the following development towards centralized organization and personalization. The other common feature is populism which appears to be an important variable affecting the party's influence on the democratic system. However, the character of populism is different in these cases. Particular political system and electoral system also play important role in the potential decline of democracy.

Submitted by BRUNO MITIO ASSANO SILVA (brunomitio@gmail.com) on 2017-04-20T17:37:28Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação Mestrado - Bruno Mitio A. Silva.pdf: 3293208 bytes, checksum: e0ce997d5aa6239861ed1ad99d3e0bb9 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Pamela Beltran Tonsa (pamela.tonsa@fgv.br) on 2017-04-20T17:45:04Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação Mestrado - Bruno Mitio A. Silva.pdf: 3293208 bytes, checksum: e0ce997d5aa6239861ed1ad99d3e0bb9 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-20T18:37:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação Mestrado - Bruno Mitio A. Silva.pdf: 3293208 bytes, checksum: e0ce997d5aa6239861ed1ad99d3e0bb9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-23 / Recent studies have advanced the understanding of municipal level party organizational behaviour, highlighting, where present, different levels of institutionalization. These studies, however, only able to show this diversity at a given point in time. This present study aims to describe the process of (i) brazilian municipalities presence by the parties (ii) the organization of this process between 2007 to 2015. At the end of this study, we can see a high variation within these structures on the specified period. Some initial hypotheses can be attributed to these changes. Among them, the profile of the cities influence the political parties in making decisions between making a firm long term commitment to an area or only contesting in local public office elections. Another possibility is that the less organized parties in the municipalities are the very same that are less able to change their state party leadership. These issues are associated with both the organizational capacity a party has with which to pursue its multiple objectives and also the extent to which the internal democratic processes of these institutions allow the base access to the decision making process. / Trabalhos recentes têm avançado na compreensão do comportamento da organização partidária em nível municipal, distinguindo estruturas que evidenciam diferentes níveis de institucionalização, quando elas são presentes. Estes trabalhos, todavia, caracterizam esta diversidade em um dado momento do tempo. O presente estudo tem por objetivo descrever o processo de (i) presença partidária nos municípios brasileiros, e (ii) a organização desta ocupação, entre os anos de 2007 a 2015. Ao final do trabalho, verifica-se elevada variação destas estruturas entre o período observado. Algumas hipóteses iniciais são associadas a estas mudanças. Entre elas estão o perfil das cidades que influenciariam a decisão do partido político entre firmar compromisso naquela localidade para o longo prazo ou apenas concorrer pela disputa dos cargos públicos locais. Outra hipótese é que partidos menos organizados nos municípios são os que menos mudam a sua direção partidária estadual. Estas questões estão associadas tanto à capacidade organizativa que o partido possui para buscar seus múltiplos objetivos, quanto à democracia interna destas instituições, a depender do grau em que permitem o acesso das bases no processo decisório.

This essay examines the recent electoral success of the Sweden Democrats (SD) in the Swedish municipal election in 2006 and 2010. By using statistical methods it aims to explain which of three contradicting theoretical frameworks best can explain how a populist radical right party could penetrate one of the most stable party systems in the world. The theoretical approaches tested in this essay are: a demand-side, an external supply-side and an internal supply-side approach. By using theoretically anchored proxies to determine the effect of the contradicting theoretical approaches this essay concludes that the internal supply-side explanation measuring the local party organizational ability of the SD had the most substantial effect when it comes to explaining their recent electoral success in the Swedish municipalities, as opposed to a more commonly believed demand-side driven explanation.

Most recent literature that analyzes parties from an organizational perspective focuses often on the concepts of intra-party democracy and party organizational democratization (Scarrow, 1999a; Scarrow and Kittilson, 2003; LeDuc, Niemi and Norris, 2002; Bosco and Morlino, 2007). Le Duc (2001) and Rahat and Hazan (2007) underline that the most used instrument for implementing this ‘democratization’ process is the enhancement of the inclusiveness of the methods for candidate and party leadership selection. The actors endowed with candidate and leader selection powers are the central actors in the functioning of the party according to many authors (Gallagher and Marsh 1988, Marsh 1993; Massari, 2004; Hazan and Rahat, 2010). At the moment, the most inclusive method identified by the literature for selecting candidates for elections or the party leader is represented by party open or closed primaries, i.e. internal direct elections by party members and, in the case of open primaries, supporters and voters (Cross and Blais, 2011; Kenig, 2009b).<p>In this study, we explore two specific dimensions of party politics: membership and internal activisms, on the one hand, and on the other hand the internal democratization processes and in particular those dealing with broadening the inclusiveness of leadership selection procedures. Therefore, this study integrates in particular the debate on the nature and consequences of party organizational democratization. The debate finds its origins both in the influential work of Michels on the “iron law of oligarchy” thesis but has been more recently boosted by the theories of May (1973), Mair (1994) and also the studies on intra-party democracy in the British Labour (Shaw, 1994; Russell, 2005).<p>However, we are interested in the point of view of members themselves on the consequences of internal democratization. We are interested on how members perceive these organizational changes, in whether they are frustrated form the actual consequences on their role and powers and whether they perceive them as a potential threat that could undermine their organizational position within the party. In order to respond to the debate on the consequences of intra-party democracy at individual level, we rely mainly on three questions. The main research questions of this study are thus the following: to what extent party organizational changes in the sense of greater democratization affect the membership role at individual level? How are these organizational changes perceived by members? To what extent members’ perceptions of their own role affect their behaviors and in particular their internal activism?<p>The aim of this study, thus, is to empirically assess the impact on members’ activism of party internal democratization and in particular of the perception of membership role. We are interested in whether party members’ attitudes are changing as a result of parties’ organizational changes, particularly if these changes are giving members more say over outcomes. This is a study of how (and whether) perceived roles affect behaviour. The independent variable is constituted by the members’ perception of their own role within party organizational structures and in particular with regard to the leadership selection methods, whilst the dependent variable is represented by the level of activism of party members, in terms of participation to party activities in general. In fact, the impact of party rules at individual level will be addressed, as well as how the perception of organizational rules affects individual attitudes and behaviors. In particular, the focus is on leadership selection methods that integrate party members at some point in the overall process (Lisi, 2009), such as direct elections (Hazan and Rahat, 2006). The case selection is thus implemented on the basis of the research question: the comparison is developed across parties (and not across time) using different instruments for enhancing intra-party democracy.<p>Therefore, we analyze the role perception, attitudes and behaviors of grass-roots members of three contemporary Western European parties: the Belgian French-speaking socialist party (Parti Socialiste, PS), the British Labour and the Italian Democratic Party (Partito Democratico, PD). Among the selected parties, one (PD) holds primaries open to all voters for selecting their leader and one (Belgian PS), on the contrary, has chosen the closed primary (OMOV) system. The British Labour Party uses an electoral college for electing its leader since 1981. The Electoral College method refers to a system in which specific groups are allocated a specific share of the leadership vote. In the case of the UK Labour, the votes are equally divided among its constituency members, the parliamentary caucus and the trade union members.<p>Concerning the first research question of our study, our empirical results underline that in the three selected cases organizational changes affect indeed the membership role at individual level and that grass-root members perceive very clearly this impact on their status and organizational rights, obligations and privileges. When grass-roots members evaluate their role within the party, in particular with regard to the procedure for selecting the leader and the involvement of non-members and passive members within party organization, their perceptions take into account their organizational power as defined, among other factors, also by their share of votes in leadership selection. Thus, we expect that PD members perceive their role as more blurred than Labour members and particularly than PS members. In the case of parties, such as the PS, adopting direct elections of the party leader only by the affiliates, the majority of the members are expected to perceive clearly the distinction of the position, privileges and functions between members and non-members and the extensive role reserved for the affiliates.<p>Our data show that the perception of own role vary among members, but also that many members perceive their own role as being rather blurred. They display in fact nuanced but generally negative attitudes towards the integration of voters and supporters within the selection of party leader. On the basis of our survey data, the observed variation in the perception of membership role within and between the three parties seems to correspond to what we expected. A higher proportion of PD surveyed members declare to perceive their role as blurred, while smaller proportions of PS and particularly labour respondents share this evaluation. In general, our data confirm that party members do not evaluate positively the fact that these formal privileges are extended not only to all individual members, not only to activists but even to passive ones, but also to party voters and supporters. Mair’s “activists’ disempowerment” thesis (Mair, 1994) seems to be supported by our data, at least in terms of individual perceptions.<p>Moreover, our data show that the degree of satisfaction with intra-party democracy significantly vary among parties and is generally not nearly as high as could be expected on the basis of party politics literature. If in the British Labour survey the responses of grass-roots members seem to form a more positive picture, with a great majority of member declaring that the party leader is not too powerful, the level of dissatisfaction with party functioning is rather higher in the other two parties. Nevertheless, PS members are fairly more convinced than PS members that the party internal decision-making is democratic. This is what we expected to find on the basis of our first hypothesis. In fact, our first hypothesis postulated that the perception of the role of party membership by affiliates in terms of (lack of) distinction between members and non-members affects inversely their level of satisfaction with the internal functioning of the party and their degree of perceived political efficacy. The stronger the perception of the blurred role of membership, the lower will be the level of political efficacy and specific support for the party. According to our data, among PD members the perception of the blurred, undefined role of members is rather high and so is the degree of dissatisfaction with intra-party functioning. On the contrary, within the other two parties and especially within the Labour, the role perception by grass-roots members is rather positive and well-defined and the level of specific support for the party is also higher.<p>The expectations formulated on the basis of our first hypothesis appear to be supported by the empirical data also with regard to the variations in the sense of external political efficacy of members. Our data seem consistent with the hypothesis, developed by several scholars (Katz and Mair, 1995; Carty, 2004; Bolleyer, 2009), that expanding the leadership selectorate and granting formal powers to party members and supporters may hide, on the other hand, the perception by enrolled members to be actually loosing power. On the basis of our data, it is possible to assert that grass-roots members seem to be aware of the possibility of a trade-off between extreme inclusiveness of decision-making procedures and actual centralization of organizational power in the hands of party elites.<p>With regard to the third research question of this study, our results confirm that indeed members’ perceptions of their own role, in relation to internal democratization, affect their behaviors and in particular their internal participation. The three parties appear to have different features in terms of internal activism, at aggregate but in particular at individual level. Secondly, not only the overall level of intra-party activism of grass-roots members vary between and within the three selected parties, but appears to be influenced by members’ attitudes towards the party. In fact, our second hypothesis postulated that the levels of specific support for the party and political efficacy of party members impact directly on their level of activism. The lower the level of political efficacy and specific support for the party, the lower will be the degree of activism of all members (as well as the quality of the activities they perform) and vice-versa. In a party holding open and direct elections to choose its leader, party membership is thought to be divided between a highly active avant-garde and a larger mass of inactive affiliates, feeling inefficacy, frustrated with intra-party democracy and perceiving their own role as blurred and undefined. Consequently, dissatisfied or low efficacy members are argued to participate less.<p>Our data only partially support the expectations. In fact, the impact of the sense of external efficacy is clear and strong in all the three cases, while on the contrary the relationship between specific support and intra-party activism is less clear-cut than expected. The results are therefore nuanced with regard to the expectations formulated in the second hypothesis of this study. The explanatory power of external efficacy and specific support in terms of internal mobilization is only partially supported by our data. Therefore, the evaluation of the consequences of the implementation of party organizational changes such as the adoption of open primaries depends on what party elites are interested in: if the goal is to assure membership loyalty, adopting open primaries is not a good way to strengthen membership involvment in the party.<p>We believe that real intra-party democracy is normatively impossible with regard to the position of members. Organizational power cannot be too dispersed among different units without jeopardizing not only effective functioning of the party, as the old debated on the trade-off between democracy and efficacy asserted (Duverger, 1951; Panebianco, 1988), but also the incentives for internal participation of the party base. Party members are well aware that internal power cannot be too dispersed. From the point of view of members, a party should have a clear chain of command and should be composed by elites, activists and members. Each one of them should also be endowed with clearly defined tasks and responsibilities. In conclusion, we believe that intra-party democracy is a symbolic element of party organization but not as actually implementable.<p>In sum, intra-party democracy does not mean the same for different party units. For party elites, it represents a process for either legitimizing the party, changing party image, mobilizing electoral support, managing internal faction or even indirectly increasing their own organizational room for manoeuvre. For party members, intra-party democracy represents an incentive for mobilizing and a political identification tool until a certain point. After that, it becomes a threat to their rights and their status. For grass-roots affiliates, intra-party democracy is not a value per se, but it depends on its real intensity and actual implementation. In conclusion, at theoretical level, we can conclude that party organization theories should increasingly take into account membership’s point of view. On the contrary, at practical level, we can conclude that parties should adapt their strategies with regard to intra-party democracy according to their goal. If party elites are interested in tightening their grip on internal decision-making while increasing their room for manoeuvre and legitimizing party image at the same time, increasing intra-party democracy could be the best organizational strategy. On the contrary, if the leadership’s aim is to mobilize members and guarantee a stable and loyal membership, then it should be noted that increasing intra-party democracy is not always the best choice. To this regard, it might be useful for party elites to find other and more effective ways to loyalize member.<p><p> / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished