Parties and Participation: Evolving Australian Party Membership

The decline of party memberships is usually equated with the death of parties as participatory organisations and the erosion of their crucial role as vehicles for democratic linkage. Yet, the concept of membership itself is often taken for granted. Applying a new theoretical framework integrating individual, party and state perspectives, this project will examine how membership is structured, how it is practiced and what it means today. Combing organisational analysis with survey and focus group data in an innovative mixed-methods research design, it aims to explain how engaging with parties is evolving, why membership is declining, and to evaluate what parties can, and are, doing to secure their future role in Australian democracy.

The project will make a substantial social impact by providing new insights into how membership is evolving and how citizens and parties engage with each other today. The project outcomes will provide a direct national benefit by creating a better understanding of how parties foster democratic participation through new modes of partisan engagement. At a time when many are reluctant to join political parties, these developments have significant implications for the health of Australian democracy.

This project is funded by the Australian Research Council from 2016-2018. Project ID: DP160103110

Sydney University SOAR Fellowship: Better Engaging Women and CALD Australians in Political Parties

With the award of a Sydney University SOAR Fellowship (2017-2018) I will be expanding my research on party reform and contemporary membership to better understand how political parties in Australia can better engage Australians of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, as well as increasing the participation of women in their organisations.

The Politics of Party Reform: Who Benefits from the Democratisation of Political Parties?

In a climate of widespread public disaffection and unprecedented membership decline, political parties in Australia and the United Kingdom are attempting organisational reforms designed to strengthen democracy in their internal decision-making processes. But do these reforms, which include implementing US-style primary elections to select candidates, really reflect how people want to engage with parties today? By analysing who (or what) drives party reforms and how they relate to actual patterns of political participation, this research will advance our understanding of the consequences of organisational change, who benefits, and how the current democratisation of parties might significantly alter the structure of political decision-making in society.

This project was funded by the Australian Research Council from 2013-2015. Project ID: DE130100309

Selected publications from this research include:

• Party Reform: The Causes, Challenges and Consequences of Organizational Change (Oxford University Press, 2017).
• ‘The Construction of Party Membership’. European Journal of Political Research 54(2): 232-248.
• ‘The Individualisation of Party Politics: The Impact of Changing Internal Decision Making Processes on Policy Development and Citizen Engagement’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations 17(1): 89-105.