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How do today's political parties relate to other organisations? Do
they prefer rather distant relationships with a wide range of
interest groups - or have they virtually detached themselves from
civil society altogether? Scholars seem to agree that traditionally
close relationships - such as those between social democratic
parties and trade unions - have grown weaker since the 1960s. But
to date only limited systematic research has been conducted. While
parties and interest groups attract a great deal of attention from
political scientists, the links between them have been largely
overlooked. This book is an attempt to bridge the gap, starting
from the party side of the relationship. It throws new light on the
topic by presenting a theory-driven, comprehensive study of
Norway's seven major political parties and their relationships with
interest groups at the beginning of the new millennium. Based on
original and extensive data, including party documents, in-depth
interviews with key players and a survey of national party elites,
Elin Haugsgjerd Allern paints a nuanced picture of the nature and
significance of these relationships and the factors that shape
them. A major conclusion is that Norway's parties tend to maintain
rather distant but wide-ranging relationships with interest groups
today. However, some parties still have fairly strong links with
their traditional associates and a narrower network of links with
other groups. Hence, Allern also shows that significant differences
exist between parties that are apparently exposed to the same
social, political and institutional environment.
This book examines whether parties' ability to channel voter
interests into political institutions has in fact declined in the
wake of decline of party membership figures and the increase of
state finance of parties. It first looks at relevant empirical
studies to summarize what we already know. Second, it presents an
in-depth study of Norwegian voters and parties, based on a number
of voter, member and parliamentarian surveys conducted between 1990
and 2010. The existing literature is scarce and indecisive, whereas
the Norwegian parties still seem to represent voters fairly well,
despite the waning of mass parties. The party organizations-the
members, activists, and representatives-continue to channel voter
opinions into the Parliament. This book argues that the high and
persistent policy congruence between voters and parties revealed
might be related to party members and mid-level activists still
resemble voters socially and politically to a large degree. At the
same time, the party competition for votes is also still relatively
efficient, and there appears to be some interaction in terms of
what happens within party organizations and the stimuli offered by
competing parties. Hence, this book challenges the "decline
thesis". It argues that parties can continue to represent, even
"after the mass party". At the same time, it suggests that the
persistence of the formal representative structures and the closed
candidate selection processes that you still find in Norway and
elsewhere could make some parties somewhat more resistant to
representative decline than others.
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