Declining memberships, changing members? European political party members in a new era

TLDR

Political party membership in Europe has declined, yet remaining members now wield greater influence over candidate selection, leadership, and policy. The study seeks to determine whether shrinking parties attract a different mix of members with distinct political priorities. The authors analyze longitudinal data from two European survey series to assess changes in party membership composition. Results reveal an increasing age gap between party members and the general population, but otherwise members are becoming more similar to the broader electorate, indicating that smaller parties can still broaden their electoral reach through empowered memberships.

Abstract

In recent years, membership in established political parties has been shrinking, but at the same time members of some parties have received increased powers to help select candidates, leaders and party policies. These twin trends make it important to re-examine who is joining today’s smaller parties. As parties shrink, do they attract a changed mixture of members, possibly with different political priorities? Using data from two sets of European surveys, our study investigates this question to study longitudinal change in party membership. The data show a growing gap between the age of party members and the general population. In most other respects, however, party members seem to be becoming more, not less, like their fellow citizens. This suggests that today’s smaller but more powerful memberships still have the potential to help link their parties to a wider electoral base.