Linkage in Multi-level Party Organizations: The Role(s) of Norwegian Regional Party Branches

Abstract

The article explores the role of regional party branches in a unitary state: Norway. The regional (county) party secretaries' capability for implementing national organizational strategies is explored, and their roles in bottom-up and top-down intra-party communication are mapped. The study confirms the important role of the county level in Norwegian parties: county branches co-ordinate local branches, assist the national party headquarters, and deal with regional issues and regional attempts to influence national policies. The structure of Norwegian parties mirrors the state structure, but the regional level has a stronger position in the party organizations than in public administration.

Party bureaucrats, independent professionals, or politicians? A study of party employees

“…In multi-level party organisations, such as the Norwegian ones, it is important to provide a link between the local branches and the national party organs. The staff at the regional party branches play an important role in this respect (Aarebrot and Saglie 2013;Allern and Saglie 2012). A party often has only one employee in a county, and he or she must therefore carry out both political and administrative tasks.…”

“…Employees in the regional organisation are involved to a greater extent than others, especially in developing campaign strategies. The regional secretaries serve as a key nexus between the levels of the party (Aarebrot and Saglie 2013). The regional branches are not only important in local election campaigns but also in parliamentary elections, where the regions (counties) are the constituencies.…”

Do party organizations integrate multi-level states? The case of the Norwegian Local Government Reform

“…At the regional level, I selected two counties and interviewed each party's county secretary. 4 These secretaries play important roles in bottomup and top-down intra-party communication (Aarebrot and Saglie 2013) and should therefore be well informed about how their party handled the NLGR process.…”

“…Earlier studies tend to map the general organizational structure and patterns of communication within multi-level parties. This is also the case with Norwegian party research (Allern and Saglie 2012;Aarebrot and Saglie 2013). We know little about how organizational linkage works with regard to specific policy issues: how do parties link and integrate policy across levels (cf.…”

Financing party branches: Evidence from the German federal system

“…However, for this integrative channel to work, regional branches require sufficient resources to run regional party offices properly and express regional interests in the decisionmaking process within the statewide party. And yet, while research has already investigated the role of regional parties in federal systems (Aarebrot and Saglie 2013;Deschouwer 2003;Detterbeck 2012), we still know relatively little about the determinants of branches' income in federal contexts. This article aims to address this understudied aspect of party organisations in federal systems.…”