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New Parties and the Crisis of Representation: Between Indicator and Solution

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Parties, Governments and Elites

Part of the book series: Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft ((VGPO))

Abstract

The party literature largely agrees on the fact that electoral democracy is not in a good shape. Traditional parties have changed and adapted themselves to become very much parties of government. And because their focus is on government, where for many policies the choices are now limited by past decisions and by the demands of other agents like – in particular – the European Union, traditional parties fail in their role as representatives. This is the gap in which new political parties have developed, very much claiming that they do understand and represent their electorate better than the old parties. Among new parties though the mortality rate is very high. And the research on new parties so far does not reveal important transformations in the way in which they govern. New political parties are therefore more like the canaries in a coalmine. They are very good at signalling the danger. New political parties are good indicators of the malaise with democratic governance, but so far not the remedy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vakgroep Politieke Wetenschappen, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussel, Belgium

    Prof. Dr. Kris Deschouwer

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  1. Prof. Dr. Kris Deschouwer
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Correspondence to Kris Deschouwer .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Politik- und Kommunikation, Universität Greifswald, Salzburg, Austria

    Philipp Harfst

  2. Tel Aviv, Israel

    Ina Kubbe

  3. Politikwissemschaft, Universität Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Thomas Poguntke

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Deschouwer, K. (2017). New Parties and the Crisis of Representation: Between Indicator and Solution. In: Harfst, P., Kubbe, I., Poguntke, T. (eds) Parties, Governments and Elites. Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-17446-0_5

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