Political Party Structure
Reported By:
CJ Bulawe
❖ Three criteria of Political Parties (Gunther and Diamond,
2003):
1. Nature of the formal organization of the party
2. Nature of the party’s programmatic commitments
3. Strategy and behavioral norms of the party
❖ Nature of the formal organization of the party
✓ Organizationally thin, while others develop large mass
membership bases with allied or ancillary institutions;
✓ Some rely on particularistic networks of personal interaction
or exchange, while others are open and universalistic in
membership and appeal;
✓ Some rely heavily, if not exclusively, on modern techniques of
mass communication and ignore the development of primary,
face-to-face channels of communication or secondary
associations
❖ Nature of the party’s programmatic commitments
✓ Some parties derive programmatic stands from well-articulated
ideologies rooted in political philosophies, religious beliefs or
nationalistic sentiments;
✓ Others are either pragmatic or have no well-defined ideological or
programmatic commitments;
✓ Others are committed to advance the interests of a particular
ethnic, religious or socio economic group, or geographically
defined constituency, in contrast to those that are heterogeneous
if not eclectic in their electoral appeals to groups in society
❖ Strategy and behavioral norms of the party
✓ Some parties are fully committed to democratic rules-of-the-
game, are tolerant and respectful towards their opponents, and
are pluralistic in their views of polity and society;
✓ Others are semi-loyal to democratic norms and institutions, or
are explicitly anti-system, favoring the replacement of the
existing pluralistic democracy with a regime that would be
more uniformly committed to the achievement of their
programmatic objectives
❖ Structures of Political Parties
1. Elite-based parties
2. Mass-based parties
❖ Evolution
In the nineteenth century:
✓ Traditional elites, or ‘local notables’, exercised considerable
influence
✓ Hence, organizationally thin elite-based parties emerged
✓ A few decades later, urbanization, industrialization:
o political mobilization of the working class
o expansion of suffrage required the development of different
kinds of parties.
✓ The electoral mobilization of these newly enfranchised voters
was most effectively performed by parties with large mass
membership bases and an extensive organizational
infrastructure
✓ By the final four decades of the twentieth century:
advent of media and television
o Had made it possible for political elites to
communicate with voters directly, and massive party
organizations appeared to be relatively less effective as
the principal vehicle for electoral mobilization
❖ Cadre Parties or the Elite Parties
✓ Principal organizational structures are minimal and based
upon established elites within a specific geographic area
✓ Alliance among locally based elites
✓ In programmatic terms, these parties are not ideological
✓ Involves the distribution of particularistic benefits to
residents of a geographically defined constituency
✓ Such parties do not have ambitions of hegemony, and are
tolerant and collaborative towards one another
❖ Two types of Cadre Parties:
1. Traditional local notable party
2. Clientilistic party
The traditional local notable party
✓ Conditions:
: Limited suffrage in semi-democratic regimes
: Right to vote and hold office was restricted in most of these
countries to males owning substantial property
: And given that election to office required appeals to a small number
of enfranchised voters, campaigns did not require an extensive
organizational effort
✓ Characteristic:
: Local notables could often count on their traditionally-
based prestige or personal relationships with their few and
socially homogeneous constituents to secure office
The clientelistic party
✓ Condition:
: Began to emerge because of the new challenges from newly
enfranchised segments of the electorate within societies
✓ Characteristics:
: Confederation of notables, each with his own geographically-
based support
: Its principal function is to coordinate the individual campaign
efforts of notables, usually indirectly or loosely, for the purpose
of securing power at the national level
❖Mass-based Parties
✓Emerged as a manifestation of the political mobilization of
the working class in many European states
✓It is characterized by a large base of dues-paying members
who remain active in party affairs even during periods
between elections
✓In an effort to disseminate the party’s ideology and
establish an active membership base, the party seeks to
penetrate into a number of spheres of social life
✓Affiliated trade union, religious and other social organizations
serve as political allies (helping to mobilize supporters at
election time)
❖ Types of Mass-Based Parties:
1. Pluralist mass-based parties
2. Proto-hegemonic mass-based parties
3. Leninist parties
4. Ultranationalist parties
❖ Pluralist mass-based parties (Duverger, 1954)
✓ Seek to win elections as the principal avenue towards achieving
their programmatic objectives
✓ Vote-mobilizational strategy relies heavily on the development
and activation of a mass-membership base
✓ Recruitment of militants to the party is open
❖ Proto-hegemonic mass-based parties (Duverger, 1954)
✓ Place greater emphasis on discipline, constant active
commitment and loyalty on the part of party members for the
conduct of political conflict in electoral arena
✓ Recruitment of members is highly selective, indoctrination is
intensive, and acceptance of the ideology and short-term
party line is demanded of all members
❖ Leninist parties
✓Objective is to the overthrow of the existing political system and
the implementation of revolutionary change in society
✓Adopts a closed structure based on the semi-secret cell
✓Membership is highly selective, and the party demands strict
loyalty and obedience on the part of members
✓Ideological indoctrination of party members is intense and
uncompromising, and the party penetrates into key sectors of
society (especially trade unions and the intellectual middle
class in Western countries, and the peasantry in Asia)
✓The party sees itself as the ‘vanguard’ of the proletariat, and even
though the party portrays itself as representing the working class,
it performs an explicitly directive and top-down role of leading
the class that it represents and defining its interests
✓The ultimate objective of the party is the seizure of power, by
force if necessary.
❖ Conclusion:
✓ Maurice Duverger, 1954
✓ Cadre Parties: Political power precedes formation of cadre
parties
✓ Mass-based Parties: Formation of mass-based parties precedes
the acquisition of political power
: Formal membership; signing of
undertaking; payment of annual subscription
fees
✓ Richard Katz and Peter Mair, 1990
✓ Response of the Cadre Parties: cannot accept the ideologies of
the mass-based parties
1. Parties represent other segments of the society
2. Material resources are necessary
✓ Result
: Creation of organization that looked like mass-based parties
✓ Emergence of Political Parties is evolutionary
✓ 1st Stage: Cadre Party
✓ 2nd Stage: Mass-based Party
✓ The creation of a mass-based party: reaction against the ruling
structures
Cadre Mass-Based
Relied of quality of supporter Relied on quantity of supporters
- Emergence of new franchise of
voters
- Organizationally thick so as to
make up to their weaknesses:
1. Influence
2. Commercial Press
✓ The emergence of mass-based parties re-defined what
political party is
✓ Important Contribution of Mass-based Parties:
o Link between the civil society and the state
❖ Constitutional Party vs. Revolutionary Party
✓ Constitutional Party
: Acknowledges the legitimacy of the Constitution
: They operate within the framework and rules of the system
✓ Revolutionary Party
: Anti-system and anti constitutional party
: Aim to seize power through a revolutionary action
❖ Left Wins Party vs. Right Wins Party
✓ Left Wins Party
: Characterized by their commitment to change and reform
✓ Right Wins Party
: Characterized by their commitment to maintain existing social
order (status quo)
