Parties with Limited Resources?

On the Social Structure of the Membership of Small and Marginal Parties

authored by

Jan Eric Bartels, Frederik Springer

Abstract

Small and marginal parties (SMPs) are a constant feature of the party landscape in Germany’s political system. Some of these parties have failed to enter parliament for a long time, with many already dissolving soon after they were founded. One reason for this lack of political clout may be a lower level of resources at the individual level. Using data from the Forsa-Bus, we show that the socioeconomic makeup of members of SMPs differs from that of members of large parties. SMP members take up the middle ground between members of large parties and non-members, which means that these parties encourage the political participation of a more diverse socioeconomical group. This leads to a broader public being involved in the democratic process of elections than initially anticipated.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Political Science

External Organisation(s)

University of Göttingen

Type

Article

Journal

Representation

No. of pages

20

ISSN

0034-4893

Publication date

25.06.2024

Publication status

E-pub ahead of print

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Sociology and Political Science

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1080/00344893.2024.2365678 (Access: Closed)