2024/12/16 by Endre Borbáth, Fred Paxton · 1 voice · 14 citations
Social Sciences · #Comparative politics #Computer science #Discipline #Economics #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Epistemology #Law #Movement (music) #Operationalization #Order (exchange) #Political economy #Political science #Politics #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #Positive economics #Public relations #Set (abstract data type) #Social Media and Politics #Social movement #Social science #Sociology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1057/s41269-024-00381-3
published in Acta Politica 60(1), 1-16 (Palgrave Macmillan)
openalex publication_date 2024/12/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Abstract Research on political parties and social movements has long developed independently, separated by the disciplinary boundaries of political science and sociology. We see the recent successes of ‘movement parties’ as a push to bridge the two disciplinary traditions in order to describe this new hybrid party type accurately. To this end, we ask to what extent and under what conditions do we observe movement parties in European party systems, and how can we define the various subtypes? In the introduction to the special issue, we make three contributions. First, we identify existing definitions and empirical examples in the study of movement parties based on a systematic review of the emerging literature. Second, we operationalize Herbert Kitschelt's influential definition of lower levels of programmatic and organizational investment coupled with a higher degree of protest mobilization. Third, we introduce the individual contributions to the special issue and situate them within the relevant theoretical debates. Utilizing a new set of quantitative indicators, we empirically assess how parties identified as movement parties in the existing literature score on programmatic, organizational, and protest dimensions. The analysis underscores the heterogeneity of movement parties, with only a few cases aligning with Kitschelt's comprehensive definition.