Party Organization

Angelo Panebianco

To study party organizations it is essential to draw all necessary analytical suggestions from organization theory and to adapt them to the special case of parties. Of course, this is not the only way of studying political parties. Many different points of view can be adopted. But this particular way provides the opportunity to explore the different ways in which the internal rules of the game, that is, the system of organizational incentives and opportunities, influence the actions of party members at the top levels, at the grassroots levels, and at the intermediate hierarchical levels. An innovative definition of party organization is not needed. Political parties are formal organizations . Therefore, we can begin with a standard definition of formal organization as a group of people formally constituted and endowed with an official mission, a hierarchy (more or less elaborated), as well as a structure of internal coordination, boundaries (more ...

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