The crisis of party democracy, cognitive mobilization, and the case for making parties more deliberative

Accetti, Carlo Invernizzi and Wolkenstein, Fabio (2017) The crisis of party democracy, cognitive mobilization, and the case for making parties more deliberative. American Political Science Review, 111 (1). pp. 97-109. ISSN 0003-0554

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Abstract

The much-discussed crisis of political parties poses a challenge to democratic theorists as institutional designers: how can the capacity of parties to mediate between society and state be resuscitated? In this paper, we suggest that parties need to become more internally deliberative, allowing partisans to debate policy and more general visions for the polity. We outline a prescriptive model of deliberative intra-party democracy, drawing on the empirical literature on the changing structure of civic and political engagement. We argue that deliberative reforms are the most appropriate response to the demands of an increasingly more cognitively mobilized citizenry which seeks self-expression and non-hierarchical forms of political engagement. We highlight the model’s distinctive strengths and defend it against several objections.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://www.apsanet.org/apsr
Additional Information:	© 2017 American Political Science Association
Divisions:	European Institute
Subjects:	J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General)
Date Deposited:	14 Mar 2016 13:54
Last Modified:	12 Dec 2024 01:21
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/65718

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