Suchergebnisse

This cumulative dissertation investigates the formation and success of new political parties in developed democracies from the perspective of the programmatic competition between parties (see. introduction in chapter 1). It starts by arguing that the current state of the programmatic supply by existing parties is a central determinant for the likelihood of new party formation (chapter 2). A low programmatic diversity of existing parties creates scope for programmatic innovations by new parties. The dissertation establishes a connection between the literature on new parties and niche parties by analyzing the latter as typical cases of innovating new parties (chapter 3). For this purpose, the author combines two concepts with corresponding measures in order to capture the programmatic profiles of parties. Nicheness refers to differences in the emphasis of topics between a given party and its counterparts while programmatic concentration shows the narrowness of a given policy profile. Chapter 4 investigates how the variation in the programmatic profiles of niche parties affect their long-term electoral performance. Previous studies on niche parties have not fully taken into account the evolutionary aspect of the programmatic profiles of these parties. Acknowledging the variation in programmatic profiles between niche parties and over time, the article argues that the electoral effects of nicheness and programmatic concentration as programmatic features of niche parties vary over their lifecycle. The literature on new parties assumes that they can benefit from the poor representation of parts of the electorate by existing parties. This strand of research provides plausible results, but it operates on the macro level, which is problematic for theoretical and methodological reasons. The study in chapter 5 overcomes these problems through a multilevel analysis of the vote choice between new parties, existing parties and abstention.

Quantitative studies aiming at general explanations for the emergence of new political parties stress the importance of new issues and the programmatic behaviour of other parties. I connect these two aspects by arguing that the programmatic diversity of existing parties is a strong influence on the incentives for new party formation, as it determines the scope for possible programmatic innovations. I use two measures for programmatic diversity in order to capture the programmatic supply by existing parties. It can be shown that the explanatory contribution of programmatic factors is as high as or even higher than that of the factors usually cited in the literature on new political parties, e.g. electoral institutions. Moreover, the results underline the necessity of differentiating between genuinely new parties and splits from existing parties as subtypes of new political parties.

Abstract
Despite its right-wing populist character, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) shows no signs of a strong party leadership. We ascribe this state of the party leadership to the AfD's institutionalization as a new party and show how organizational features interact with the skill set and goals of the party leaders. At the party level, we, firstly, outline the organizational change at the top of the party and the party leader selection rules. Secondly, we depict leadership turnover and competitiveness. At the leader level, we investigate the failure of Bernd Lucke, the key founder and one of the initial party leaders, as a manifestation of the leadership-structure dilemma of new parties. Embedded in a leadership team and faced with a growing extra-parliamentary party structure, Lucke tried to secure his initial autonomy and position of power by an attempt to become the sole party leader. His subsequent exit from the AfD laid bare the fact that he was not able to manage the challenges of the organizational consolidation phase, in which a new party needs a coordinator and consensus-builder. The AfD itself has proven its organizational autonomy from its initial leaders and its distaste for a strong and centralized party leadership. The barriers for the latter remain in place while, at the same time, the party institutionalization is still on-going, especially regarding its place in the German party competition.

Neue Parteien nehmen in Demokratien eine wichtige Rolle ein, indem sie nicht ausreichend berücksichtigte gesellschaftliche Belange aufgreifen. Auf diesem Wege tragen sie zu einem Funktionieren des Parteienwettbewerbs und der Demokratie insgesamt bei – vorausgesetzt, sie stellen nicht das politische System als Ganzes infrage. In vergleichender Perspektive wird deutlich, dass sich die Anzahl neuer Parteien und ihr Erfolg über Zeit und Länder hinweg unterscheiden. Diese Varianz lässt sich auf das Verhalten bestehender Parteien ebenso zurückführen wie auf das institutionelle und rechtliche Umfeld, in dem sich Parteien bewegen. Diese Vielfalt verlangt eine interdisziplinäre Herangehensweise, die dieser Band einnimmt. Er nimmt die Faktoren in den Blick, die das Aufkommen und den Erfolg dieser Parteien prägen. Die vergleichende Perspektive ermöglicht die Untersuchung des Zusammenwirkens dieser Faktoren in unterschiedlichen Kontexten. Mit Beiträgen von: Gregor Zons; Marc Bühlmann; Martin Morlok; Sophie Schönberger; Nicole Bolleyer; Olaf Jandura; Tim Spier; Stijn van Kessel; Christoph Busch