Home / Summaries / Class notes - Theories of comparative politics / organizational-disruptive-combining

Political parties - Kitschelt and movement parties

5 important questions on Political parties - Kitschelt and movement parties

Where do political movements and protests differ?

Political movements are more disruptive. They want to achieve a collective interest

What are some characteristics of a movement party?

- little investment in a formal organizational party structure
- lack an institutionalized system for creating a cohesive preference schedule
- They attempt a dual track by combining activities within the political arena

What are functional criteria of a political movement/party?

- collective action -> coordination requires human labor and capital equipment -> to build an organizational structure
- social choice -> construct a single collective preference schedule commonly pursued objective

Why do social movements become movement parties?

- the formal and informal thresholds of political representation are moderate to low
- large established parties make no effort to embrace these interests
- collective interests are intensely held by a large constituency willing to articulate their demands through disruptive activities

What does Kitschelt conclude about movement parties?

Movement parties are unstable because a variety of incentives nudge politicians and their constituents towards accepting organizational structures and strategic appeals inconsistent with those

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

Theories of comparative politics

View summary