Asset or liability? An analysis of the effect of changes in party membership on partisan ideological change

Bibliographic Data

ID6316708
AuthorsIngo Rohlfing (0000-0001-8715-4771, University of Cologne, Köln, Germany, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume21
Issue1
Pages17-27
Publication date2015-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueParty Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1354-0688 • E-ISSN: 1460-3683
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1354068812472405
OpenAlexW1975001262
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited43

The role of members of political parties is ambiguous because it entails both benefits and costs. In order to shed light on the question of whether members are an asset or a liability for parties, I examine whether parties use their ideology on a left–right dimension as a collective incentive for the appeal to actual and potential party members. A quantitative analysis of the effects of changes in membership on partisan ideological change, covering 61 parties in 11 Western democracies from the 1950s to the early 1990s, shows that there is a weak, but statistically significant, effect. An additional analysis of two mechanisms by which membership has an effect refutes the alternative explanation that positional changes of the median member account for partisan ideological change. In total, the results indicate that members are both an asset and a liability and that parties try to keep the two in balance

Appeal · Asset (computer security · Economics · Ideology · Incentive · Law and economics · Liability · Market economy · Order (exchange · Political science · Politics · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Gender Politics and Representation · Law · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Finance

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