Membership of Political Organisations

Abstract

Due to the fact that European parties have a growing number of older members, some parties have institutionalised organisational substructures to give special representation to older people. An example of such a sub-organisation is the German Senioren-CDU that was established in 1988. Other German parties followed suit and set up comparable structures: the SPD (AG 60 Plus, 1991), the Liberals (Liberale Senioren, 2001) and the Greens (Grüne Alte, 2004). The membership of these caucuses is on the rise, whereas the membership of most parties in Western Europe is declining. For example, in 2008 the senior caucus of the German Christian Democrats had more than 50,000 members (about 10 per cent of their overall membership) and was represented organisationally all over Germany. Overall, the proportion of CDU party members who were more than 60 rose from 29 per cent in 1990 to 48 per cent in 2007 (FAZ 2008).

At the moment, we [the senior caucus of the CDU] have 58,000 members and are represented in 360 districts all over Germany … Parallel to the growing importance of older people as a target group, older people themselves have the experience and the motivation to make themselves heard and to make things happen. The senior caucus of the Union [Christian Democratic Union] … wants to make policies not only for older people, but with them as well.

(Senioren-Union 2008)