PARTY, PEOPLE, POLITICS

THE NEED FOR ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE

Dr Henning Meyer

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)Social Europe Journal

STRUCTURE

• Movement and catch-all party

• Parties and society

• Recent Reforms in Labour and SPD

• Discussion

MOVEMENT AND CATCH ALL PARTY

• Social democratic parties lost movement character

• Cultural dimension is key

• Social roots have been lost

MOVEMENT AND CATCH ALL PARTY II

• Decline of support for catch-all parties not just a social democratic phenomenon

• Transition from catch-all parties to electoral professional parties

• Centralisation of power experience hard to break through

MOVEMENT AND CATCH ALL PARTY III

• What used to be a bottom-up movement has become a top-down professional structure in many cases

PARTIES AND SOCIETY

• Parties are perceived as having lost touch with the live of people

• Party membership is not representative of society

• Party structures are perceived as narrow-minded and old fashioned

PARTIES AND SOCIETY II

• Population open for social democratic arguments but parties activities do not fit lifestyle

• New sociology of working lives with more location moves and urbanisation

• Also need to reach out to traditional electorate often attracted to right-wing parties

PARTIES AND SOCIETY III

• Need to reach out to layers of society completely disconnected from politics (migrant families, …)

• In a nutshell parties have become narrow and top-down and not representative of society

REFOUNDING LABOUR

• Party decline connected to turnout decline

• UK in 1950: 84% UK in 2001: 59%

• In the same period of time party membership has fallen from 4 million in Labour and Conservatives to under 500.000 in Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in 2005

REFOUNDING LABOUR II

• Refounding Labour was a consultation process for how to open up party structures

• Finding new ways to engage with members – taking their opinions seriously

• Finding new ways to bridge the divide between members, supporters and voters

REFOUNDING LABOUR III

• Local party structures are often perceived as old-fashioned

• Attending party meetings often perceived as boring

• Help local parties to adopt the best structure for their local needs

SPD REFORMS

• Driving force is to re-connect to citizens and their concerns

• Three Challenges

• 1. Citizen’s expectations of political participation have grown (want to shape things not just ‘fit’ into an existing organisation)

SPD REFORMS II

• 2. Working conditions have changed and have become more flexible. Time and place is not certain anymore

• 3. Role models have changed and some groups of society retreat from political discourse altogether

SPD REFORMS III

• Therefore party reform should concentrate on more democracy and participation

• Parties need to open up to society (taking members more seriously and open up to non-members)

• Cooperate more with unions, NGOs, social movements and community organisations

CONCLUSION

• The challenges seem similar:

• New ways of participation and being taking seriously

• Bridging the gap between members, supporters and voters

• Reconnect with society (for instance with new alliances)

• Adjust to new forms of professional and private life

DISCUSSION

Thank you very much for your attention!