Party institutionalism is an approach that sees political parties as having some capacities for adaptation, but also sees them as being "prisoners of their own history as an institution". Aspects of the ideology that a party had when it was founded, persists even though the conditions and the party-base in society have changed. Scholars of this approach claim that the party's history determines how the party adapts to modern day challenges.
[Panebianco, Angelo (1988) ''Political parties: organization and power''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press]
Google Books
/ref>
The left–right is still central in order to understand a party's policy, but the core of these theories is to compare the party's beliefs and values today with the ones at their founding. In analyzing a party's ideological orientation we must begin by analyzing the very origin of the party.
One framework within this tradition is offered by Klaus von Beyme who identifies nine party-groups, or "familles spirituelles", that can be found in Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
an liberal democracies today:
# Liberal and Radical parties
# Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
parties
# Socialist
Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
and Social Democratic
Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...
parties
# Christian Democratic
Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics.
Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...
parties
# Communist
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
parties
# Agrarian parties
# Regional
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...
and ethnic
An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...
parties
# Right-wing extremist parties
# Ecology
Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...
movement
Von Beyme claims that at the time of their founding these parties reflected the needs to defend a particular kind of interests, but recognized that not every Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
an party could be fitted into this schema. He has been criticized of being tempted to try to fit too many parties into this schema, when in reality there is not grounds for doing so. It needs to be said as well that quite many of the European parties classified into the categories above are regarded as having more or less lost contact with their original "famille spirituelle".
Consequently one can wonder what, eg, the British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
* British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
Conservatives today have in common with their founding fathers hundreds of years ago, taking into account New Right ideas and certain aspects of liberalism
Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. ...
applied by the party. Likewise the Norwegian Social Democratic party is widely held to have moved away drastically from its inception as a socialist party in 1889. Today this party has assumed more of a centralist role (regarding for instance issues like state ownership as well as abandoning their corporatist ties with the Norwegian Trade Association).
One might ask what the point is of classifying the parties into these categories when they do not fit. The answer would be that one should look at the broad picture, and use von Beyme’s tool to make sense of certain tendencies in Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
an politics.
However, it would also be important to recognize the fact that western Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
an societies have changed tremendously in course of the last decades regarding a number of issues. Therefore, by identifying these factors one might also broaden the understanding of the generally changing patterns of party ideology in Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
today, compared to the 1950s.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Institutionalism In Political Parties
Institutionalism
Political parties
Political science theories