The recent elections in Greece reflect the widespread support that new challenger parties are enjoying across Europe, as well as the threat that the more traditional political forces are facing. Indeed, since the 1970s in particular, established political parties have had to contend with the birth and rise of new competitors that seek to challenge the status quo and that aim to address issues neglected by the mainstream elite. But how do these upstarts appear? And why do only some of them then go on to experience substantial success at the polls?

New Challenger Parties In Western Europe A Comparative Analysis

In an era where millions of people live elsewhere than their country of birth and many hold multiple nationalities, the questions of who and how represents these people becomes imperative. The traditional manner of representation is through political parties, yet the form in which parties have historically existed is within state bounds. Throughout time, we have witnessed the transition from cadre to cartel parties and through them the changing role of the political party. This article argues that with the vast expansion of the movement of people around the world, which has been influenced by the enlargement of the European Union, by globalisation, migration and most recently by the refugee crisis, political parties are reshaping their structures both domestically and internationally, and we are witnessing the development of a ‘new modus operandi’ of political parties—the party abroad. The party abroad is viewed as a natural evolvement of the functions of domestic political parties in their response to a changing civil society and changing competitive space. The article provides a theory of the party abroad, it discusses how it relates to previous models of political parties and offers a framework based on which we can study it.

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The Party Abroad: A New Modus Operandi for Political Parties

How do parties organise for success in engaging with their diaspora? This study investigates the impact Romanian diaspora has had on national political parties. It develops an argument based on diaspora recognition, engagement and policy as implemented by old and new parties. The analysis shows that recognition of diaspora in party statutes is not a guarantee for engagement. The latter increases with the use of new online communication strategies, provided there is a demand for such communication platforms. New parties with a strong anti-corruption stance mobilise diaspora online. The policy strategy emphasises diaspora support rather than diaspora return as incumbent parties take a gradual approach based on rights and identity promotion, which increases the economic utility of the engagement. The results are based on the analysis of party statutes, governmental documents, party online communication strategies and interviews with party members.

Political parties and diaspora: a case study of Romanian parties' involvement abroad

This paper argues that parties abroad are the actors of a new arena for citizenship and party politics. The proliferation of overseas voting and the development of representative institutions for emigrants has transformed and reinforced the civic and political links between sending-states and their diaspora. This has also created new opportunities for political entrepreneurs and political parties tasked with reaching out to citizens living abroad. Yet research on political parties and on transnationalism has almost never crossed paths. This has created a gap in our knowledge on political parties abroad, demonstrating the timeliness of a special issue on political parties abroad. This paper introduces this special issue and presents an overview of the main theoretical questions and debates addressed in the articles. We emphasize existing gaps in the literature and stress the importance of a better understanding of the growing phenomenon of political parties abroad. We also explain why a comparative approach is necessary to tackle the issue of political parties abroad, offering a theoretically-minded framework. Our summaries of the papers in this special issue highlight how they relate to the more general questions discussed in our introduction.

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Political parties abroad as actors of transnational politics

This report gives an overview of the obstacles to political participation among mobile European Union (EU) citizens – people holding the citizenship of one Member State who have used their freedom ...

FAIR-EU Analytical Report : Comparative Overview of the Obstacles to Political Participation

In various countries, the electoral behaviour of citizens who live outside their nation of origin—the diaspora—has played a key role in the success of political parties in their home countries. The research presented in this Discussion Paper looks at the idea of the party abroad and aims to explain how and to what extent national political parties engage with citizens who live outside their country. It considers the legal treatment of how political parties can operate beyond national borders and it presents various models that can be used by parties wishing to engage with their citizens abroad.

The Party Abroad and Its Role for National Party Politics

Living in a globalised world, with its inherent easier movement of people between nations, imposes new challenges for representative democracy and for party politics specifically. Political parties have traditionally operated at a domestic level, yet, with the large number of people moving around the globe, this is now changing. This special section, deriving from a workshop on the topic, is one of the first attempts to systematically address this issue. It offers a theoretical framework and five empirical studies on the party abroad. The collection provides evidence of varied levels of existence of the party abroad in different contexts. It illustrates that the party abroad as a new modus operandi for parties that exist in all corners of the world; yet, it is most distinctly developed where the electoral stimuli and the type and size of the diaspora group give strategic incentive to political parties to do so.

Globalisation and the Movement of People: What It Means for Party Politics? An Introduction

This article presents developments around the party abroad phenomenon within the world of international democracy assistance. It provides an overview of where ‘the party abroad’ sits as a topic within the broader field of democracy assistance, and how democracy assistance providers have addressed it in the past. It argues that even though the party abroad has grown among political parties themselves, it has thus far received scant attention from democracy assistance providers. However, there are reasons to believe that the party abroad will continue to grow among political parties and that assistance providers will also include a stronger focus on the party abroad in their work in years to come.

Sam van der Staak

Papers

The Party Abroad and Its Role for National Party Politics

Globalisation and the Movement of People: What It Means for Party Politics? An Introduction

The Party Abroad, the World of Professional Electoral and Democracy Assistance, and the Way Forward