Perspectives on political party death: Theorizing and testing Downsian and sociological rationales
Perspectives on political party death: Theorizing and testing Downsian and sociological rationales
Which of the new political parties that emerged in advanced democracies faded away and which ones managed to survive and why? Considering a party as dead once it ceases to nominate candidates in any elections, we develop two sets of hypotheses to account for party death derived from two conceptions of political parties. One conceptualizes parties as vehicles formed by career-oriented politicians eager to maximize individual rewards. Failure to deliver seats or government access is therefore expected to predict an earlier death. The other conceptualizes parties as societal organizations that serve representational functions valued in themselves by elites and members alike. This conception stresses the importance of roots in society or ideological novelty. Using survival analysis, we test our hypotheses in 17 advanced democracies based on a new data set covering 144 new parties from birth until their (potential) death. Arguments derived from both conceptions have significant support stressing the complexity of the drivers underpinning parties' very existence.
long-lived democracies, new parties, party death, party failure, party organization
Bolleyer, Nicole
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Ibenskas, Raimondas
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Bischoff, Carina
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Bolleyer, Nicole
3f3eb3d7-092b-43cb-99ae-e7d51e0c988e
Ibenskas, Raimondas
160594d0-2151-4be5-8d77-90418186dbc1
Bischoff, Carina
86cc8495-b53f-434e-bb5d-36efd11dc4f6
Bolleyer, Nicole, Ibenskas, Raimondas and Bischoff, Carina
(2018)
Perspectives on political party death: Theorizing and testing Downsian and sociological rationales.
European Political Science Review.
(doi:10.1017/S1755773918000176).
Abstract
Which of the new political parties that emerged in advanced democracies faded away and which ones managed to survive and why? Considering a party as dead once it ceases to nominate candidates in any elections, we develop two sets of hypotheses to account for party death derived from two conceptions of political parties. One conceptualizes parties as vehicles formed by career-oriented politicians eager to maximize individual rewards. Failure to deliver seats or government access is therefore expected to predict an earlier death. The other conceptualizes parties as societal organizations that serve representational functions valued in themselves by elites and members alike. This conception stresses the importance of roots in society or ideological novelty. Using survival analysis, we test our hypotheses in 17 advanced democracies based on a new data set covering 144 new parties from birth until their (potential) death. Arguments derived from both conceptions have significant support stressing the complexity of the drivers underpinning parties' very existence.
Text
EPSR Bolleyer Party_Survival_epsr_Revision_R1_Final july 18
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 18 July 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 16 November 2018
Keywords:
long-lived democracies, new parties, party death, party failure, party organization
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 427082
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/427082
ISSN: 1755-7739
PURE UUID: e0259104-c8ba-421b-8552-1624d83be98a
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Date deposited: 21 Dec 2018 16:31
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 23:15
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Contributors
Author:
Nicole Bolleyer
Author:
Raimondas Ibenskas
Author:
Carina Bischoff
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