Measuring vertical integration in parties with multi-level systems data

Abstract

Vertical integration is an important concept for political parties. In multi-level or federal contexts, it is said to affect party strength, national integration and federal stability. Despite this, difficulties with the conceptualization and operationalization of vertical integration and a lack of cross-national data impede research. This article clarifies the concept of vertical integration, distinguishing it from related concepts of strength, centralization and autonomy and distinguishing the indicators of integration from the effects of integration. It introduces the measures of vertical integration and autonomy used in the Party Organization in Multi-Level Systems (POMLS) dataset comprising data from survey responses from 204 state-level parties in eight countries. The data confirm the theoretical distinctions among forms of vertical integration and between vertical integration and autonomy and show that not all forms of vertical integration are mutually reinforcing.

Bicameralism, intra-party bargaining, and the formation of party policy positions

“…Thorlakson, 2009Thorlakson, , 2013. Most research has to date treated political parties as unitary actors when trying to explain the policy positions they adopt (e.g.…”

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

“…in some parties in Switzerland), therefore perhaps it is worth following on this idea. However, the use of the variables suggested by Thorlakson (2013) or Fabre (2011) and the rigid setting of them to numerical values can, at first glance, lead to the conclusion that national structures are totally autonomous and exercise full control over the European structures; in other words, the autonomy and influence of national structures in each case can obtain maximum values, and this does not allow one to capture the differences between Europarties. Nevertheless, a closer look at the individual Europarties reveals that while some of them are based on national parties, others are more advanced in the elaboration of a model based on power delegation to the European structures by the national parties.…”

“…These studies are devoted to the analysis of relations between the national and subnational (regional) party structures. Scholars developed even a special framework for analysis (Thorlakson, 2009(Thorlakson, , 2013Fabre, 2011;Detterbeck, 2012). In order to research Europarties it is important to answer the question as to whether it is adequate to use this framework to investigate the rela-tion between the national and European party structures.…”

“…11 need noting: Thorlakson (2009Thorlakson ( , 2013, Fabre (2008Fabre ( , 2011, Hough and Jaffrey (2006), van Biezen and Hopkin (2006), van Houten (2009), Detterbeck (2012. Less attention has been paid to the relations between the European and national as well as the European and regional party structures.…”

Latin American Traditional Parties, 1978-2006. Electoral Trajectories and Internal Party Politics, de Laura Wills-Otero

“…Esta literatura relativamente nueva en la ciencia política europea ofrece un marco teórico y analítico precisamente para comprender cómo está distribuido el poder dentro de los partidos y cómo se organizan estos entre los niveles del sistema de partidos y del sistema político en general. De esta manera, los partidos son considerados cada vez más como "estratarquías" o "federaciones" (Eldersveld, 1964;Carty, 2004;Bolleyer, 2011), más que jerarquías, o son analizados desde la perspectiva de la "integración vertical" (Fabre, 2010;Thorlakson, 2011). En ambas versiones, se pone énfasis en entender dónde está radicado el poder dentro de los partidos y cuánta autonomía tienen las unidades subnacionales de los partidos políticos o, en términos más generales, cuál es la relación vertical entre los niveles dentro de los partidos.…”