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A concluding chapter considers evolutionary, generational, & genetic interpretations of trends revealed in the essays regarding the role & importance of parties in democracies. The functions of parties can be categorized as either "representative" (interest articulation, aggregation, & policy formulation), or "institutional," (leader recruitment & government organization). There has been a shift in the balance of party functions from the combined representative & procedural roles that were typical of mass parties, to more exclusively procedural functions. This historic shift can be seen as a strategy of adaptation rather than an indication of decline. Three challenges facing contemporary parties are pointed out: (1) Political parties need to be capable of producing a relatively coherent internal hierarchy that can be "exported" in order to integrate different institutional arenas. (2) Parties must secure their institutional integrity by recovering their autonomy & coherence. (3) Parties have to regain their legitimacy in the eyes of the citizenry by conforming to legal/moral standards; relating to popular concerns; & emphasizing the authority of party politicians as opposed to technical experts. J. Lindroth

This article studies a model of political parties as informative "brands" to voters. Voters are assumed to be risk averse & incompletely informed about candidate ideal policies, & candidates are unable to commit to a declared policy platform. In this environment, parties can play a critical role by aggregating ideologically similar candidates & signaling their preferences to voters. This signaling is effective because party membership imposes costs, which screen out candidates whose preferences are not sufficiently close to the party's platform. We find that when party labels are very informative, the parties' platforms converge. When party labels are less informative, however, platforms diverge, because taking an extreme position allows a party to reduce the variance of its members' preferences. As parties become less able to impose costs on their members, or less able to screen out certain types of candidates, their platforms move further apart. 1 Table, 3 Figures, 1 Appendix, 45 References. Adapted from the source document.

Demonstrates that both change and apparent stability arise from interaction within each party as well as between them and the social organizations to which they are linked. These must be related to general processes, such as social and cultural transformation; they cannot be solely explained by specifically political competition. (Abstract amended)

In this article we have attempted to improve our understanding of the influence of various factors, such as the level of organizational resources, age, ideology and values, on the digitalization of political parties oriented towards participation and resource mobilization. To do this, we use version four of the Political Party Database Round (PPDB) (2022), which covers 187 parties in 26 European countries. We focus on 10 of the largest party families. The data and variables have been analyzed using various descriptive and inferential statistics. The results indicate an important level of similarity between political parties in the adoption of digital instruments. The level of resources, age and ideology, and values associated with the different party families present important explanatory and predictive limitations. We consider that the indicated results may be a consequence of a process of institutional isomoformism.

"Political Parties in the European Union" published on by Oxford University Press.

Introduction: Analysing and categorising political parties in the Pacific Islands /Roland Rich --Primordial politics? Political parties and tradition in Melanesia /Steven Ratuva --Political consequences of Pacific Island electoral laws /Jan Fraenkel --Anatomy of political parties in Timor-Leste /Joao M. Saldanha --Political parties in Papua New Guinea /R.J. May --parties, constitutional engineering and governance in the Solomon Islands /Tarcisius Tara Kabutaulaka --The origins and effects of party fragmentation in Vanuatu /Michael G. Morgan --Parties and the new political logic in New Caledonia /Alaine Canter --Fiji : party politics in the post-independence period /Alumita Duruntalo --The establishment and operation of Samoa's political party system /Asofu So'o.

We argue that anti-corruption laws may provide an efficiency rationale for why political parties should meddle in the distribution of political nominations and government contracts. Anti-corruption laws forbid trade in spoils that politicians distribute. However, citizens may pay for gaining access to politicians and, thereby, to become potential candidates for nominations. Such rent-seeking results in excessive network formation. Political parties may reduce wasteful network formation, thanks to their ability to enter into exclusive membership contracts. This holds even though anti-corruption laws also bind political parties.

This is a study of Kentucky political parties: how they are organized and how they nominate and elect candidates. Because state politics in Kentucky is dominated by the Democratic Party, a major portion of the study is devoted to the Democratic primary candidates, campaign techniques, funding, of elections, and voting patterns.As in other slates, campaign techniques in Kentucky are changing. During the 1950s and 1960s the Democratic Party had two dominant factions, and candidates for statewide office sought factional allies among local party organizations. Now factional alignments have disappe