Susan E. Scarrow’s research while affiliated with University of Houston and other places

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Publications (54)


The ‘paradox of enrollment’: Assessing the costs and benefits of party memberships
  • Article

January 1994

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60 Reads

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145 Citations

European Journal of Political Research

SUSAN E. SCARROW

From Duverger onward, students of party organization have failed to address systematically the question of what party members actually do for ‘mass’ parties. This article argues that a clearer understanding of the particular reasons why parties want to have members can help us better interpret ongoing changes in relations between specific party organizations and individual party members. This article lists a wide range of arguments that parties are most likely to make concerning the costs and benefits of memberships. Which of these types of arguments a specific party highlights has implications about the types of members it is looking to attract, and about what the party will be willing to offer to attract such members. The article concludes with a discussion showing how the perspective developed here can be used to illuminate recent changes in several German and British political party organizations, changes which, by themselves, may appear to be isolated and meaningless organizational details.


Does Local Party Organisation Make A Difference? Political Parties and Local Government Elections in Germany

December 1993

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13 Reads

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13 Citations

German Politics

Do large and locally organised memberships represent an electoral asset for political parties in a mass media age? Years of political science discussions of different models of party organisation have produced little evidence about whether, or in what way, alternate models matter. This article examines a survey of 549 SPD and CDU local party organisations for evidence of whether ‘mass’ characteristics are associated with electioneering differences. The study finds that mass‐style organisation is associated with more active local campaigns. Local parties which are active throughout the year and which can draw on relatively large membership bases run more active and more varied campaigns.


Reforming the Parties from within? Intra-Party Democracy and Changing Representative Narratives

9 Reads

Who is the intra in intra-party democracy, and why does it vary so widely? This paper argues that it is useful to evaluate the details of parties’ “democratizing” reforms in terms of their avowed strategies of representation. Parties’ representational narratives generate predictions about how inclusively or narrowly parties will define their internal demos. Relating party balloting practices to their representational narratives also shows how expansions in intra-party democracy have different implications in different settings. This paper uses evidence from recent intra-party ballots in 13 established parliamentary democracies to illustrate the range and impact of inclusion in the party demos, and then tests some of the predictions based on recent experiences in Canada, France, Germany and the UK.


Carrots and Sticks, Chickens and Eggs: Understanding Variations In Party Finance Regulatory Regimes

30 Reads

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8 Citations

The past four decades have witnessed a widespread growth in state intervention in political party finance, both in the "carrots" of direct public subsidies for political parties, and in the "sticks" of political finance regulation. What is the relationship between the growth of legislation in both areas? Why do some countries adopt strict limits on party fundraising and party spending, whereas others take a much lighter regulatory approach? This paper examines the spread of regulations and subsidies, looking first at patterns of usage in 66 electoral democracies, and then investigating the sequence of adoption in the current EU member states. The examination of usage finds little support for theories that have linked political finance regulation to institutional and social factors, but it finds evidence that the adoption sequence for subsidies and regulations has a long-term effect. Despite pressures for regulatory convergence, countries that start with the carrot of public subsidies are much less likely to subsequently impose regulatory sticks. The paper concludes with a discussion of the wider effects of state intervention into party finance: while established parties derive some obvious benefits from this new "public utility" status, like traditional telephone companies and electricity providers they also face new risks in a deregulatory age. Paper prepared for the IPSA/ECPR conference, Sao Paolo, Brazil, February 16-19, 2011.


Citations (45)


... In fact these two dimensions shaped the very birth of mass democracy, seen as a transition from closed hegemonies to polyarchies (Lipset and Rokkan, 1967;Dahl, 1971): the gradual legitimation of opposition marked a transition from an ideal of monism to full acceptance of pluralism; and increasing opportunities for participation realized the inclusion of ordinary citizens into goal definition (Dahl, 1971). With the advent of mass democracy and pluralist party government (Katz, 2020) these dimensions became less prominent: but still with a relevance of the vertical, elite-mass dimension, especially for conflicts among and within parties. ...

Reference:

Roads to Rome: how visions of elitism and pluralism shake up the goal repertoire of electoral competition
The Oxford Handbook of Political Representation in Liberal Democracies
  • Citing Article
  • July 2020

Robert Rohrschneider

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Jacques Thomassen

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Jane Mansbridge

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[...]

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... We understand party institutionalisation as the complex process by which political parties consolidate stable organisational structures in the territory and enduring patterns of behaviour, establishing durable electoral support bases that facilitate political representation in the institutions(Mainwaring 2016;Scarrow, Wright & Gauja 2023).8 J. ROCH AND G. CORDERO ...

Party statutes and party institutionalization
  • Citing Article
  • March 2022

Party Politics

... There is an increasing appetite among citizens for direct and deliberative practices (Bedock & Pilet, 2021;Gherghina & Geissel, 2019) while several political parties now include such practices in their manifestos Scarrow et al., 2022;Wuttke et al., 2019). Recent studies showed that populist parties refer to direct and deliberative practices differently than do non-populist parties Gherghina & Pilet, 2021;. ...

Intra-party decision-making in contemporary Europe: improving representation or ruling with empty shells?
  • Citing Article
  • Full-text available
  • March 2022

Irish Political Studies

... In a political system dominated by such parties, there is less reason for voters to abandon parties and to consider newcomers (Gherghina 2015;Tavits 2013). The smaller magnitude of "homeless" and "wandering" voters is helpful for systemic-level stability: abrupt shifts in electoral balance from one election to another can easily undermine the consolidation of inter-party competition (Ponce and Scarrow 2022). ...

Party Institutionalization and Partisan Mobilization
  • Citing Article
  • February 2022

Government and Opposition

... In the US presidential election of 2016, for example, approximately five percent of voting-age Americans in Canada cast a ballot. Over the last several decades, the two major US political parties have sought to mobilize Americans living abroad, with the Democratic Party investing far more than the Republican Party in transnational outreach(Dark, 2003;Klekowski von Koppenfels, 2020;Kalu and Scarrow, 2020). One recent survey of Americans living in Canada found that approximately one in four were exposed to political ads from the US via social media, text messaging, or email (McCann and Rapoport, 2023). ...

US Parties Abroad: Partisan Mobilising in a Federal Context
  • Citing Article
  • October 2020

Parliamentary Affairs

... In other words, it's a form of member decision-making filtered through the hands of MPs. In sum, our findings suggest a different trajectory of digitalization for conservative mainstream parties like the Spanish People's Party, contrasting with newer parties that may genuinely view digital platforms as the most democratic means and effective solutions for conflict resolution (see Scarrow 2021). This reflects the "if it isn't broken, don't fix it" philosophy that has characterized the PP since its foundation (Astudillo & García-Guereta 2006). ...

Intra-Party Democracy and Party Unity: Varied Rules, Varied Consequences
  • Citing Article
  • June 2020

Representation

... Given that party members generally tend to be men (Bale et al., 2020;Heidar and Wauters 2019;Van Haute and Gauja 2015), we would expect that imbalance to be replicated in youth wings. While one might imagine that younger generations of party members may be more representative, since the number of women in elected office who can act as 'role models' (Ponce et al., 2020) is increasing, the scarce evidence we have about young women members is mixed. In Norway, Kolltveit (2022: 7) finds a situation of youth wing gender parity in his survey. ...

Quotas, women's leadership, and grassroots women activists: Bringing women into the party?

European Journal of Political Research

... Parties also function as democracy's transmission beltthat is, connecting voters to government by representing their interests in the policymaking process and holding policymakers accountable (Hicken 2020: 3). Effective party organizations influence voters' attitudes towards democracy (Webb et al. 2022). Intra-party workings also affect citizens' perceptions of democracy. ...

Party organization and satisfaction with democracy: inside the blackbox of linkage
  • Citing Article
  • December 2019

Journal of Elections Public Opinion and Parties

... Many political parties have experienced a decline in membership for decades. Consequently, party research primarily deals with the extent, reasons for and consequences of membership decline (Scarrow, 2019;Van Biezen et al., 2012). Only recently has awareness been growing that party membership trends are not uniform (Sierens et al., 2022). ...

Multi-Speed Parties and Representation: The Evolution of Party Affiliation in Germany
  • Citing Article
  • August 2018

German Politics

... If parties wish to continue this practice when recruiting women candidates, their candidate-recruiting process must start with recruiting women as party members and then enabling and encouraging them to be active at the local party-level, where they can develop and demonstrate their leadership qualities. Pressures to recruit women candidates could also have indirect participatory effects if the women who are elected due to these efforts then inspire and even actively encourage other women to increase their involvement with parties' grassroots activities (Caul, 1999;Atkeson, 2003;Liu and Banaszak, 2017;Hinojosa and Kittilson, 2020;Achury et al., 2020). ...

The consequences of membership incentives: Do greater political benefits attract different kinds of members?

Party Politics