Conceptualising the Multi-Level Party: Two Complementary Approaches

Abstract

While party research has seen a number of conceptual developments in recent years, it has not kept pace with parties becoming more territorial as a result of the increasing importance of sub-national and supranational governance. This article lays down a framework for conceptualising and analysing multi-level parties (MLPs). We propose a synthesis of the formal and non-formal aspects of power; the former highlighting party rules and procedures, the latter focusing upon the ideational structures -norms and competing ideologies/discourses -within which party members operate. For empirical research on the MLP we propose to focus on autonomy and influence to measure the extent of (formal and non-formal) multi-levelness and to grasp better the strategies of regional branches vis-à-vis the centre.

Why the Welsh Said Yes, but the Northerners No: The Role of Political Parties in Consolidating Territorial Government

“…Furthermore, a party operating across multiple territorial levels relies upon not only formal organisational structures but also on a set of non-formal aspects, such as consolidated regional identities and horizontal identification to the regional party. 77 In order to add flesh to the bone of these structures, conscious efforts are required on each of the territorial levels. Effective political groundwork must translate identities and ideas rooted in the region into bread-and-butter issues of consequence to the region itself.…”

“…This is where the concept of the MLP becomes significant. 5 The institution of formal systems of multi-level governance pushes even the most unitary of parties to develop to match them. However, the way in which parties adapt varies with, among others, party competition at the regional level (spurred, in particular, by autonomist parties), the cleavage structure at the regional level, as well as party-specific features such as government-opposition role and inherited organisational and ideational structures.…”

“…The structures of relevance are formal and nonformal, thereby necessitating closer scrutiny not only of how the parties are organisationally disposed but also the way in which ideas and discourses open or close opportunities for deepening territorial autonomy at the regional level. 11 The Wales and North-East are both cases where one party -namely Labour -is overwhelmingly the protagonist. In the case of Wales, it can be convincingly argued that the Labour Party was the chief driving force in bringing about the devolution of power to an Assembly.…”

Uk Devolution and Constituency Association Adaptation in Scotland and Wales

“…Thorlakson (2009) and Deschouwer (2006: 294) frame this as a question of 'vertical integration': when parties organise at two or more levels, what are the mechanisms (if any) through which these two components of the party are coordinated? Others explore the extent of organisational regionalisation within multi-level systems (for example, Moon and Bratberg 2010). Regionalisation involves a loosening of strict organisational hierarchies within parties in order to grant sub-national organisations the autonomy and freedom necessary to respond to distinctive regional demands.…”

Are the Europarties Real Political Parties? National Parties’ Involvement in Multi-level Structures of European Political Parties

“…This does not concern the new division of power between the leaders, activists and ordinary members, about which a lot of studies have been devoted (Katz, Mair, 1995;Poguntke, Webb, 2005;Dalton, Wattenberg, 2002;Luther, Muller-Rommel, 2005), but rather the distribution between the different levels of structure -European, national, regional. This has resulted in a kind of multi-level party, which is "a party of multiple territorial levels, representing competing sources of formal power as well as discursively structured antagonisms between the party's centre and its constituent parts" (Moon, Bratberg, 2010).…”