Party Membership in France: Measures and Data-Collection

Billordo, Libia

doi:10.1057/palgrave.fp.8200023

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Any estimates of party membership should always be treated with caution, since parties have numerous reasons to overstate membership levels. Nevertheless, party‐derived estimates are at least as reliable as those arrived at by other methods (Mair and van Biezen 2001; Billordo 2003). At national level, the party's own figures between 1992 and 1995 indicate that the Scottish Liberal Democrats' pre‐devolution membership was just under 6,000, a fall from around 7,250 at the time of the SDP/Liberal merger in 1988 (Lynch 1998, 23).…”

Section: Membership Developments and Constituency Penetrationmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…Raw membership numbers are only one indicator of a party's societal penetration. Alternative measurements are also possible (Bartolini 1983, 182–191; Katz et al 1992, 330–334; Widfeldt 1999, 108–109; Scarrow 2000, 87; Billordo 2003, 137– 138). M/V is the number of members expressed as a proportion of the party's voters.…”

Section: Membership Developments and Constituency Penetrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Community Politics? Grassroots Liberal Democrats and the 2003 Scottish Parliament Elections

Clark¹

2007

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

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The Liberal Democrats have become synonymous with the idea of 'community politics'. This means being active in communities between elections in order to build a profile from which the party benefits at subsequent elections. This article examines the constituency organisation of the Scottish Liberal Democrats in order to ask how deserved the reputation for 'community politics' is in the Scottish context. It assesses how extensive the party organisation is, and how active that organisation is both between and during election campaigns. The first section of the article assesses the importance of local parties. The second section examines the extent of Scottish Liberal Democrat membership and societal penetration. The third and fourth sections address levels of activity between and during elections. The article concludes with a short assessment of the implications for the party.With media-oriented forms of political communication and campaigning perceived to have replaced traditional party activities in communities, some have argued that local parties are now of declining importance (for instance Webb 1995, 312). A 'revisionist school' of researchers has nevertheless restated the importance of local parties and activism to healthy democracies. Hans Geser (1999,(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16) sets out a list of functions which local parties perform that contribute to a healthy representative democracy. In Britain, albeit by utilising different approaches, three groups of researchers have argued that local parties remain important to communicating with and mobilising the electorate (for instance Seyd and Whiteley 1992; Whiteley et al.

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Section: Membership Developments and Constituency Penetrationmentioning

confidence: 83%

Section: Membership Developments and Constituency Penetrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community Politics? Grassroots Liberal Democrats and the 2003 Scottish Parliament Elections

Clark¹

2007

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

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“…4 4 On the particular difficulties faced when looking for reliable data for France, see Billordo (2003). The remarkably low British figure (which excludes Northern Ireland) is probably more accurate and comprehensive than that reported in Mair and van Biezen (2001).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Going, going, . . . gone? The decline of party membership in contemporary Europe

Biezen¹,

Mair²,

Poguntke³

2011

European J Political Res

724

339

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This article offers an overview of levels of party membership in European democracies at the end of the first decade of the twenty‐first century and looks also at changes in these levels over time, comparing party membership today with figures from both 1980 and the late 1990s. While relying primarily on the direct and individual membership figures as reported by the parties themselves, the fit of the data with survey data is explored and it is concluded that the two perform well in terms of convergent validity. The differences between large and small democracies are examined, as well as old and new democracies, and it is found that levels of party membership are related to both the size and age of the democratic polity in question. Finally, the implications of the patterns observed in the membership data are discussed, and it is suggested that membership has now reached such a low ebb that it may no longer constitute a relevant indicator of party organisational capacity.

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“…If the 'membership' party ever existed, there is little evidence that it has evolved as the party model in any of today's world democracies (Diamond and Gunther, 2001, ix-xxxiv). Thus with respect to party membership, the figures cited by Billordo (2003) for party membership in France and in other European democracies reveal only a small fraction of the electorate consider themselves party 'members'. Membership figures claimed by the parties are clearly unreliable.…”

mentioning

confidence: 95%

Maurice Duverger and the Study of Political Parties

Schlesinger

2006

Fr Polit

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Party Membership in France: Measures and Data-Collection

Cited by 8 publications

References 1 publication

Community Politics? Grassroots Liberal Democrats and the 2003 Scottish Parliament Elections

Community Politics? Grassroots Liberal Democrats and the 2003 Scottish Parliament Elections

Going, going, . . . gone? The decline of party membership in contemporary Europe

Maurice Duverger and the Study of Political Parties

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