35: Political Organizations and Parties

David Karol, University of Maryland, dkarol@umd.edu

The 2012 conference theme highlights core concerns of the POP Section.

Scholars have long asked who it is parties and interest groups represent and how. Many American scholars have held that parties empower voters and that party government is the chief alternative to the dominance of lobbies representing elites. Yet in recent decades a seeming revival of parties has coincided with growing inequality and an explosion of corporate lobbying. Much discussion of the alleged ills of polarization has also been heard in the U.S. while divisions between traditional parties are said to be waning in other countries.

Questions of renewal are also relevant for students of parties and interest groups. A resurgence of party organizations and partisanship in American legislatures coexists with voter disaffection from party labels in the U.S. Other democracies have seen a decline in party membership along with new efforts by parties to connect to voters, e.g.
open primaries. Interest groups and other political organizations have also changed. Some stress the absence of grass-roots organizations and the decline in union density, especially in the private sector, while others emphasize the role of social networking technologies fueling participation in new movements on the left and right in both affluent democracies and developing countries.

Students of parties and interest groups have too often conducted separate debates when in reality the phenomena they study are closely intertwined, especially when the concept of party is understood broadly to encompass more than the formal structure. I encourage proposals exploring party-interest group connections and conflicts. Finally, students of American political parties have long been especially prominent in the POP Section, but we are emphatically open to both interest group scholars and to those focused on other political systems.

Papers and panel proposals are welcome.