Party Members and Activists [Hardcover]

Membership of political parties is diverse. Not everyone participates and those who do, do not participate in the same way.

This book engages with the debate over the significance and future of political parties as membership organisations and presents the first broad comparative analysis of party membership and activism. It is based on membership surveys which have been administered, gathered and collated by a group of prominent party scholars from across Europe, Canada and Israel. Utilizing this rich data source together with the insights of party scholars, the book investigates what party membership means in advanced industrial democracies. In doing so, it provides a clearer picture of who joins political parties, why they do it, the character of their political activism, how they engage with their parties, and what opinions they hold.

This text will be of interest to scholars and students of comparative politics, particularly to those interested in representation, participation, political parties and elections.

 1 Introduction: Party membership and activism Emilie van Haute and Anika Gauja2 Spanish party members and congress delegates Montserrat Baras, Oscar Barber?, Astrid Barrio, Patricia Correa and Juan Rodriguez-Teruel3 Party membership in Belgium: From the cradle to the grave? Emilie van Haute4 Party membership in Canada William Cross5 Party membership in Denmark: Fluctuating membership figures and organizational stability Karina Kosiara-Pedersen6 Party membership in Germany: Rather formal, therefore uncool? Tim Spier and Markus Klein7 Party membership in Israel: The era of party primaries Gideon Rahat and Ofer Kenig8 Party membership in Italy Giulia Sandri, Antonella Seddone and Georgia Bulli9 Party membership in the Netherlands Josje den Ridder, Joop van Holsteyn and Ruud Koole10 Party meml“Å