Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T13:06:47.210Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Models of party democracy: patterns of party regulation in post-war European constitutions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2012

Ingrid van Biezen  and
Gabriela Borz
Ingrid van Biezen*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
Gabriela Borz
Affiliation:
Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom
*
*E-mail: i.c.van.biezen@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article investigates the ways in which political parties are codified in modern democratic constitutions, providing a unique cross-sectional and longitudinal overview of the patterns of party constitutionalization in post-war Europe. Although the constitutions of western liberal democracies traditionally have paid little attention to the role of parties, evidence suggests that in contemporary democracies, both old and new, they are increasingly accorded a formal constitutional status. Little is known, however, about the substantive content of their constitutional position or about the normative connotations of their constitutional codification. In this article, we demonstrate that there is a clear correlation between the nature and the intensity of party constitutionalization and the newness and historical experience of democracy and that, with time, the constitutional regulation of the extra-parliamentary organization and the parties’ rights and duties has gained in importance at the expense of their parliamentary and electoral roles. The analysis furthermore suggests that three distinct models of party constitutionalization can be identified – Defending Democracy, Parties in Public Office, and Parties as Public Utilities – each of which is related to a particular conception of party democracy.

Keywords

political partiesconstitutionalizationregulationconceptions of democracy
Type
Research Article
Information
European Political Science Review , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , November 2012 , pp. 327 - 359
Copyright
Copyright © European Consortium for Political Research 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Avnon, D. (1995), ‘Parties laws in democratic systems of government’, Journal of Legislative Studies 1/2: 283–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellamy, R. (1996), ‘The political form of the constitution: the separation of powers, rights and democracy’, Political Studies 44: 435–456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellamy, R. (2007), Political Constitutionalism: A Republican Defence of the Constitutionality of Democracy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
I. van, Biezen (2004), ‘Political parties as public utilities’, Party Politics 10/6: 701–722.Google Scholar
I. van, Biezen (2008), ‘State intervention in party politics: the public funding and regulation of political parties’, European Review 16/3: 337–353.Google Scholar
I. van, Biezen (2012), ‘Constitutionalizing party democracy: the constitutive codification of political parties in post-war Europe’, British Journal of Political Science, 42: 187–212.Google Scholar
I. van, Biezen, Borz, G. (2009), ‘Political parties in national constitutions: a European overview’. Working Paper Series on the Legal Regulation of Political Parties, no. 01-09.Google Scholar
I. van, BiezenKopecký, P. (2007), ‘The state and the parties: public funding, public regulation and rent-Seeking in contemporary democracies’, Party Politics 13/2: 235–254.Google Scholar
Blondel, J.Vile, M.J.C. (1967), Constitutionalism and the Separation of Powers, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Capoccia, G. (2005), Defending Democracy: Reactions to Extremism in Interwar Europe, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Castiglione, D. (1996), ‘The political theory of the constitution’, Political Studies 44: 417–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daalder, H. (2002), ‘Parties: denied, dismissed or redundant? A critique’, in R. Gunther, J.R. Montero and J.J. Linz (eds), Political Parties: Old Concepts and New Challenges, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 39–57.Google Scholar
Elster, J. (1995), ‘Forces and mechanisms in the constitution-making process’, Duke Law Journal 45/2: 364–396.Google Scholar
Epstein, L.D. (1986), Political Parties in the American Mold, Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Flanz, G.H. (ed.) (2004) Constitutions of the Countries of the World, Dobbs Ferry, New York: Oceana Publications.Google Scholar
Fox, G.H.Nolte, G. (1995), ‘Intolerant democracies’, Harvard International Law Journal 36/1: 1–70.Google Scholar
Frankenberg, G. (2006), ‘Comparing constitutions: ideas, ideals, and ideology – toward a layered narrative’, International Journal of Constitutional Law 4/3: 439–459.Google Scholar
Huntington, S.P. (1991), The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Janda, K. (2005), ‘Adopting Party Law’. Working Paper Series on Political Parties and Democracy in Theoretical and Practical Perspectives. Washington, DC: National Democratic Institute for International Affairs.Google Scholar
Karvonen, L. (2007), ‘Legislation on political parties: a global comparison’, Party Politics 13/4: 437–455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, R.S. (1986), ‘Party government: a rationalistic conception’, in F.G. Castles and R. Wildenmann (eds), Visions and Realities of Party Government, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 31–71.Google Scholar
Katz, R.S. (2002), ‘The internal life of parties’, in K.R. Luther and F. Müller-Rommel (eds), Political Challenges in the New Europe: Political and Analytical Challenges, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 87–118.Google Scholar
Katz, R.S.Mair, P. (1993), ‘The evolution of party organizations in europe: three faces of party organization’, American Review of Politics 14: 593–617.Google Scholar
JrKey, V.O. (1964), Politics, Parties & Pressure Groups, 5th edn., New York: Crowell.Google Scholar
Loewenstein, K. (1937), ‘Militant democracy and fundamental rights’, American Political Science Review 31/3: 417–432.Google Scholar
Macklem, P. (2006), ‘Militant democracy, legal pluralism, and the paradox of self-determination’, International Journal of Constitutional Law 4/3: 488–516.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Müller, W.C.Sieberer, U. (2006), ‘Party law’, in R.S. Katz and W. Crotty (eds), Handbook of Party Politics, London: Sage, pp. 435–445.Google Scholar
Ruin, O. (1988), ‘Sweden: the new constitution (1974) and the tradition of consensual politics’, in V. Bogdanor (ed.), Constitutions in Democratic Politics, Aldershot, UK: Gower, pp. 309–328.Google Scholar
Sartori, G. (1994), Comparative Constitutional Engineering: An Inquiry into Structures, Incentives and Outcomes, New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Schattschneider, E.E. (1942), Party Government, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Shapiro, M.Stone, A. (1994), ‘The new constitutional politics of europe’, Comparative Political Studies 26/4: 397–420.Google Scholar
Squires, J. (1996), ‘Liberal constitutionalism, identity and difference’, in R. Bellamy and D. Castiglione (eds), Constitutionalism in Transformation: European and Theoretical Perspectives, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar
Stokes, S.C. (1999), ‘Political parties and democracy’, Annual Review of Political Science 2: 243–267.Google Scholar
Tsatsos, D.T.H. (ed.) (2002) 30 Jahre Parteiengesetz in Deutschland: Die Parteiinstitutionen im Internationalen Vergleich, Baden-Baden: Nomos.Google Scholar
Zovatto, D. (ed.) (2006) Regulación Jurídica de los Partidos Políticos en América Latina, Mexico City: UNSM/International IDEA.Google Scholar