How intra-party referenda re-vitalize party organizations

A quasi-experimental study on the effects of intra-party democracy

Alexander Wuttke, Andreas Jungherr und Harald Schoen

Background

After the country’s reunification German political parties have lost half of their members.

Parties respond by expanding intra-party participation.

The goal: Re-vitalizing party organizations and motivating more citizens to join.

Will political parties appear more attractive after expanding participatory rights?

Will attitudes towards their party change after members participated in an intra-party referendum?

Will the relationship between party elites and the rank-and-file change?

An unexpected referendum as quasi-experiment

We survey members before and after the referendum…

… and analyse attitude changes for each party member.

Issue:
Party position on same-sex marriage
Particularities:

First referendum in history of CDU Berlin.
Surprising reaction by party leadership to a motion in parliament.
Heterogeneous positions among party elites. Party leader stayed neutral. Other elites campaign for pro-/anti-camps.

Members evaluate opportunities for intra-party participation more positively.
Increases higher among members who did not perceive themselves as efficacious before.
Efficacy increased independent of a member’s voting behavior.

Before the referendum: Elite evaluations are independent of a member’s position on same-sex marriage.
After the referendum: Members use issue-positions as yardstick to evaluate party elites, if they took a stance on same-sex marriage.
So, members judge party elites more strongly in terms of issue congruence.