New parties,new activism? A generational approach to party linkage in a multiparty system

Abstract

Over the past decades, increasing dissatisfaction with political parties and the rise of far-right populism have undermined the ability of party organizations to fulfill their traditional roles. In this context, new parties have emerged, offering alternatives for voters disillusioned with mainstream parties. This paper proposes a generational approach to examine whether the supporters of new parties exhibit distinct patterns of engagement and varying perceptions of democratic institutions. In order to explore incentives for engagement and compare the political attitudes of members from new and established parties, this paper relies on original data from the first national survey with party members in Brazil. Using multivariate analysis and experimental data, we first evaluate the appeal of enhancing intraparty democracy as a means of fostering party engagement in both old and new parties. Additionally, we assess whether members of new parties hold different attitudes toward key features of party politics compared to their counterparts in established parties. Our findings suggest that members of first-generation parties in Brazil demonstrate greater resistance to anti-democratic values. Furthermore, new members across all generations demonstrate greater skepticism regarding political institutions. These findings highlight the challenges facing contemporary democracies at both the organizational and individual levels.