Political parties in Western Europe have suffered a loss of members in recent decades. On average, about 1.9 per cent a year between 1960 and 2010, as shown by the research of Ann-Kristin Kölln of University of Twente's IGS research institute. . The greatest decline has been amongst parties founded before 1945, while 'green parties' are not affected. The consequences of declining membership are that party organizations have taken on more staff, they are more dependent on state subsidies, and their work puts particular emphasis on elections and much less on the periods in between. Kölln will defend her doctoral thesis on 21 February 2014.
It has been known for some time that political parties in the Netherlands have been losing members. However, this study is the first to investigate declining membership in individual political parties in countries of Western Europe on a larger scale and over such a long period of time. During the past few years, political scientist Ann-Kristin Kölln of the University of Twente examined party membership figures of 47 political parties in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom between 1960 and 2010. Her main interest was to study how parties coped with declining numbers of members.
1.9 per cent
The research shows that membership fell on average by 1.9 per cent per year. This amounts to an average reduction of more than forty per cent over fifty years. Approximately 75 per cent of the parties studied suffered a considerable loss of members. The largest decline occurred in the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. It is noteworthy that the decline was most severe among the 'older' political parties (parties that were established before 1945), while ‘green parties’ are not affected. The number of party members seems to be part of the life-cycle of parties: the more established parties are in a political system, the fewer members they have.
Increased dependence on government funding
Due to the reduced number of members, and the resulting loss of people who could act as both volunteers and funders, party organizations were confronted with both financial and organizational challenges during the past decades. In response to these challenges, political parties employed more staff (who are paid less). In addition, local offices were closed and the party organizations became increasingly dependent on government funding. Party organizations also increasingly started to focus on elections and less on the periods in-between. According to Kölln, the consequence is that organized participation decreased and political parties started to focus more on representing the voters than on encouraging participation.
One of Kölln’s recommendations for avoiding too large a gap between political parties and a country's citizens is to ensure that the level of party funding depends not only on the number of voters a party attracts but also on its number of members. The Netherlands is the only country of the six studied in which this is already the case.
Research
Ann-Kristin Kölln carried out her doctoral research at the Department of Public Administration of University of Twente's IGS research institute. Her supervisors were Professor Kees Aarts and Professor Jacques Thomassen. The research was facilitated by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). As of May 2014, and with the help of a grant from the FAS Marie Curie International Postdoc Fellowship Programme, Kölln will commence work as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden).
