Descriptif d enseignement / Course descriptions Cycle Master 1 (4ème année) / 4th year Semestre 2 Titre du cours - Course title Party members and activists Type de cours : Cours magistral Langue du cours/language of instruction : english Enseignant(s) Professor(s) Emilie van Haute Associate Professor Contact : evhaute@ulb.ac.be Résumé du cours Objectifs - Course description Targets This seminar aims at providing students with an understanding of one specific form of political participation: party membership and activism, or partisan participation. First, this course will discuss the definition, measurement and evolution of party membership over time. Here we study what party membership and activism is, and what forms it can take. We also evaluate how to measure partisan participation in a comparative perspective. This connects to the debate on declining levels of party membership and activism, and models of democracy. Second, we discuss the incentives and barriers to membership and activism and look at the various explanatory models of partisan participation. Third, we analyse the role that members and activists play in modern party organisations. Fourth, we look at the other side of the coin and investigate why would parties need members and activists, and how they organise membership recruitment and retention. Finally, the course opens the debate on current challenges for parties and their members, such as the development of multi-speed membership and affiliation. The course adopts a comparative perspective and mobilises current data from a wide range of democracies. The course touches upon major questions such as: - What does it mean to be member of a political party? - How do we measure membership and activism? - How has party membership evolved over time in advanced democracies? - Which factors stimulate or decrease citizens involvement in political parties? Are there institutions or specific incentives that favour partisan participation more than others? - To what extent is party membership and activism biased across age, gender, or class? - Why do people join, abstain from joining, or leave political parties? - Are low levels of partisan participation a danger for democracy? - Do parties need members? - How do parties recruit and retain their members and activists?
Evaluation - Assessment Students performances will be assessed as follows: Paper: 80% Participation in class: 20% Instructions for the Paper (80%) Topic A list of topics will be distributed at the first seminar. Deadline Friday February 22, 2019. Format 1. Overall, the final paper should not exceed 5,000 words (appendixes and references NOT included), TNR 12, 1.5 spaced, justified text (alignment on the left and right sides), in English. 2. Academic honesty is fundamental to the activities and principles of a university. Academic dishonesty is a violation of SciencesPo Lille s policy and is regarded as an extremely serious matter, with serious consequences. Please refer to SciencesPo Lille s rules regarding plagiarism. 3. Formal presentation of your work matters. Follow strict guidelines to present your bibliography, style, quotes, references, and footnotes. Evaluation The final paper will be evaluated on the following criteria: - Introduction (research question, hypotheses, method, outline) - Body text descriptive part (presentation of the case) - Body text analysis (test of hypotheses): mobilization of theoretical framework and application to the case study - Conclusion: summary of the paper and main findings - Presentation: style, format, references, etc. Policy regarding deadlines Deadlines matter. All assignments must be submitted on time before the deadline. Assignments that are submitted after the due date will not be considered. Only serious and documented circumstances will be accepted as excuses (e.g. serious matters of health or other personal emergencies). Instructions for the participation in class The grading will be based on active participation to the discussion of the readings. In order to prepare the discussion, it is strongly advised that students prepare a critical assessment of each reading. A critical assessment is more than a mere summary of each reading. It is also not students opinion about them. This exercise aims at determining whether each reading is an effective discussion of the subject, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the piece. A critical assessment is a comparative analysis of a group of articles. For each article or book chapter, the assessment must emphasize: the question(s) raised by the author, their theoretical approach and related hypothesis, their data collection method, their data analysis method, and their main conclusion. The assessment should not be a collection of individual assessments, but an integrated assessment. Students are expected to compare the readings, identify common questions, divergences and convergences among authors, etc.
In order to conduct a critical assessment effectively, students have to ask themselves many questions. Here are some examples: - What is the thesis of the work? Was it clear? Why or why not? - Does the author make an argument? Is it valid? Why or why not? - What kinds of evidence does the author use to back up his or her argument? Is it effective? Why or why not? - (If appropriate) Does the author use both primary and secondary sources? Does he or she use them effectively? Why or why not? - What is the overall organization of the piece? Is the structure effective? Why or why not? - Does the article or book contribute to the scholarly discussion, or to topics in your course? Why or why not? - Does the author set out plans for future discussion? What are they? - Does the author have a bias? Is it problematic or explicable? Why or why not? - What are the credentials of the author? Plan Séances - Course outline Seminar Topic 1. How to define and measure partisan participation? How has party membership evolved over time in advanced democracies? 2. Who joins political parties? Profiles and attitudes of members and activists 3. Why do people join, abstain from joining, or leave political parties? The motivations of partisan (non)-participation 4. Do parties need members? The role of party members and activists in party organizations 5. How do parties recruit and retain their members and activists? The role of incentives and intra-party democracy 6. What are the main challenges for parties and their members? Bibliographie - Bibliography : Course medium and Readings Class PowerPoint presentations are posted each week on the class web page. They emphasize the structure of the presentation, but they do not constitute an exhaustive course content. Readings A copy of the compulsory readings will be made available to students. Compulsory readings are expected to be read for the corresponding class. Part of the grading for this seminar is based on students active participation in class, based on the preparatory readings. List of compulsory readings Seminar 1 Definition and measurement Gauja A. (2015), The construction of party membership, European Journal of Political Research, vol. 54, n 2, pp. 232 248. Kölln A.-K. (2016), Party membership in Europe. Testing party-level explanations of decline, Party Politics, vol. 22, n 2, pp. 465-477. Van Biezen I., Mair P., Poguntke Th. (2012), Going, going, gone? The decline of party membership in contemporary Europe European Journal of Political Research, vol. 51, n 1, pp. 24-56.
Seminar 2 Profiles and attitudes Achury S., Scarrow S., Kosiara-Pedersen K., van Haute E. (2018), The consequences of membership incentives. Do greater political benefits attract different kinds of members?, Party Politics, Published Online First. Faucher F., Boy D. (2017), Fifty Shades of Green? Political differences between elites, members, and supporters of Europe Ecologie Les Verts, Environmental Politics, Published Online First. van Holsteyn J.J.M., Den Ridder J.M., Koole R.A. (2017), From May s laws to May s legacy: on the opinion structure within political parties, Party Politics, vol. 23, n 5, pp. 471 486. Seminar 3 Motivations and reasons Paulis E., Gagliolo M., van Haute E. (2017), Social Influence and political participation. The diffusion of participatory behaviors through social networks, paper prepared for the Third European Conference on Social Networks (EUSN), Mainz. Polk J., Kölln A.-K. (2017), Electoral infidelity: Why party members cast defecting votes, European Journal of Political Research, Published Online First. Whiteley P., Seyd P. (1996), Rationality and party activism: Encompassing test of alternative models of political participation, European Journal of Political Research, vol. 29, pp. 215-234. Seminar 4 Role Scarrow S. (1994), The paradox of enrollment : Assessing the costs and benefits of party memberships, European Journal of Political Research, vol. 25, pp. 41-60. Young L. (2011), Party Members and Intra-Party Democracy, Cross W., Katz R.S., The Challenges of Intra-Party Democracy, Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp.65-80. Webb P., Poletti M., Bale T. (2017), So who really does the donkey work in multi-speed membership parties? Comparing the election campaign activity of party members and party supporters, Electoral Studies, vol. 46, pp. 64-74. Seminar 5 Recruitment and retention Cross W., Pilet J.-B. (eds) (2015), The Politics of Party Leadership. A Cross-National Perspective, Oxford, Oxford University Press (Conclusion) Gauja A. (2011), Policy development and Intra-Party Democracy, Cross W., Katz R.S., The Challenges of Intra-Party Democracy, Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp.116-135. Katz R.S. (2011), Should We believe that Improved Intra-Party Democracy Would Arrest Party Decline?, Cross W., Katz R.S., The Challenges of Intra-Party Democracy, Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp.49-64. Seminar 6 - Challenges Gibson R., Greffet F., Cantijoch M. (2016), Friend or Foe? Digital technologies and the changing nature of party membership, Political Communication, Published Online First.
Gomez R., Ramiro L. (2017), The limits of organizational innovation and multi-speed membership. Podemos and its new forms of party membership, Party Politics, Published Online First. Kosiara-Pedersen K., Scarrow S., van Haute E., Rules of Engagement? Party Membership Costs, New Forms of Party Affiliation, and Partisan Participation, Scarrow S., Webb P., Poguntke Th., Organizing Political Parties. Representation, Participation, and Power, Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 234-258. Date de création du descriptif : 19/07/2018-16:06