Democracy within - and without - Parties

Abstract

This article briefly reviews discussions about relations between unmediated decision-making procedures and political parties. Late-19th-century debates about institutional reform established the idea that direct democracy undermines parties' power. A century later, proponents of direct democracy and intra-party democracy still promote them in these terms. However, prior research indicates that neither direct democracy nor intra-party democracy automatically weaken the importance of parties, though both the availability and use of unmediated procedures often affect patterns of political competition.