Party Membership in Europe Exploration into the anthills of party politics - Emilie Van Haute - Universite De Bruxelles Eds - broché - Etude

European political parties have been recruiting members for over a century. However, "parties without partisans" are conceivable today. Clearly, parties are changing, whether they are mutating, adapting or declining. In this context, it is crucial to understand the changes which affect party membership. It may indirectly affect the capacity of parties to perform their various functions in representative democracies. This book aims at contributing to three major topics related to the study of party membership. The first part of the book is dedicated to the analysis of the general trends in party membership across Europe in a comparative and longterm perspective. It tackles some questions which have not received clear answers yet : Can we attest a decline in the long term ? How can we interpret the changes over time ? What are the potential explanations for the trends observed ? In the second part of the book, the contributions focus on the demand side, i-e on parties and their assessmen