Deliberative democracy in contemporary political parties: Longitudinal evidence from Norway

Abstract

Parties lose members, and organizational measures adopted to counter the alleged “crisis of parties” have often turned out to be counterproductive. In response to this development, scholars have argued that parties need to strengthen their deliberative capacity. Despite this (normative) claim, we know very little about levels of deliberation in contemporary parties. Based on unique longitudinal surveys among Norwegian party members between 1991 and 2017, the article analyzes levels of deliberative capacity across time and parties. The study finds a substantial level of deliberative capacity and that this capacity has been strengthened in recent decades. There is some inter-party variation, but it reflects the organizational origin of the parties only to a limited degree. The findings suggest that the deliberative capacity of political parties is far better than often assumed in the literature. Therefore, the study argues that “crisis” is a term unfit to describe recent developments in contemporary parties in Norway, and that membership figures alone are an insufficient indicator to measure the linkage potential of party organizations in democracies.