• Citer

Party membership and intra-party democracy: How do members react to organizational change within political parties?: The case of Belgium

par Sandri, Giulia ;Amjahad, Anissa
Référence Partecipazione e Conflitto, 8, 1, page (190-214)
Publication Publié, 2015

Article révisé par les pairs

• Détails
• Contenu

Résumé :

Facing a crucial legitimacy crisis, many Western European political parties have recently undergone various forms of organizational changes by adopting procedures for increasing intra-democracy: internal ballots, internal referenda, primary elections and so on. Direct democracy is now used in a wide range of decision-making procedures such as candidate and leadership selection (Cross and Katz, 2013). These reforms have provided new opportunities for participation to party members. What happens to more traditional elements of party internal structures when such instruments of intra-party democracy are adopted? And more specifically, how are such changes perceived by the party base? This paper explores the attitudes and behaviors of members with regard to intra-party democracy procedures. On the basis of a case study (Belgium) and of an original dataset, the paper explores the political consequences of intra-party democracy. We show that members' satisfaction with the party and their degree of previous internal activism affect the level of involvement in intra-party de-mocracy activities. However, the dissatisfaction of the party base vis-à-vis of the membership role is growing. Intra-party democratization seems to limit the organizational function of the grass-roots membership to a 'cheerleading' role.