Beyond the Catch‐All Party: Approaches to the Study of Parties and Party Organization in Contemporary Democracies
Beyond the Catch‐All Party: Approaches to the Study of Parties and Party Organization in Contemporary Democracies
There are good reasons for re‐examining existing classifications of parties and seeing if others can be developed. However, reworking categories is a complex process, requiring further research and interaction between theory and data. This chapter is a preliminary effort, and focuses primarily on parties in established liberal democracies. The first half examines the adequacy of existing party categories in light of the literature in sections entitled: Categories and concepts in the comparative literature; Cadre versus mass parties; and Parties of mass integration, catch‐all parties, and beyond’ (to the cartel party). The second half considers ways in which contemporary parties might be compared in sections entitled: New bases for classification? Vote‐seeking, office‐seeking, and policy‐seeking parties; and Patterns of change in Western European parties.
Keywords: cadre party, cartel party, catch‐all party, contemporary democracies, contemporary parties, liberal democracies, mass party, office‐seeking parties, party categories, party change, party classification, policy‐seeking parties, political parties, vote‐seeking parties, Western Europe
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