To join or not to join? Reasons for and barriers to political participation in a party

Abstract

Many traditional political parties have been facing the challenge of declining membership numbers for some time now. This research examines barriers to and reasons for joining from an ex-ante perspective. While barriers remain an under-researched area anyway, this study investigates reasons without the participants having already been socialized into political parties, thereby offering a novel and unbiased perspective. Based on the results of a representative survey of non-members of parties in Germany, the barriers to joining can be divided into three categories: People (categorically) rule out joining a party for political, non-political or personal reasons. However, an analysis of the different reasons for joining a party using PCA revealed different types of potential new party members. Shapers primarily want to participate in political content. Networkers are predominantly interested in their own political career and aspects of internal party cooperation. In addition, the data also reveal purely financial supporters, as well as mixed types who are particularly sympathetic to the pursuit of a political career.