Party Membership and Activism in a New Democracy: Evidence from the Portuguese Case

Santo, Paula do Espírito; Lisi, Marco; Costa, Bruno Ferreira

doi:10.1590/001152582018165

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Original Article • Dados rev. ciênc. sociais 61 (4) • Oct-Dec 2018 • https://doi.org/10.1590/001152582018165 copy

Party Membership and Activism in a New Democracy: Evidence from the Portuguese Case ^* * This work was supported by Portuguese national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, under project UID/CPO/00713/2013.

Filiação Partidária e Ativismo em uma Nova Democracia: Evidências do Caso Português

Appartenance Partidaire et Activisme dans une Nouvelle Democratie : le Cas Portugais

Afiliación partidaria y activismo en jóvenes democracias: evidencias del caso portugués

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

ABSTRACT

While the analysis of party models and types of party members has been widely discussed at the theoretical level, empirical research has not attracted similar attention. This study contributes to filling this gap by examining an understudied case, namely party members in Portuguese political parties. The key objective of this article is to make a contribution to the study of activism and dedication to the party, in a comparative perceptive, considering different types of parties. The survey applied was based on an on-line questionnaire conducted within the MAPP (Members and Activists of Political Parties) research network. The dataset included members of several parties ranging from typical catch-all parties (PS - Socialist Party; PSD - Social Democratic Party) to elite-based types (CDS-PP - Social Democratic Centre-Popular Party), as well as 'movement' party types (BE - Left Bloc; LIVRE). The study covers four main dimensions of party membership: party members' socio-demographic profile, ideological attitudes, reasons for joining the party, and activism levels and types. We show that party membership in Portugal follows similar trends to other advanced European democracies, albeit with important differences between parties. These results are an important barometer for measuring the quality of democracy, especially one as young as Portugal's.

party membership; activism; political parties; political representation

Party*	Votes (%, 2011 general elections)	Type of members	Collection date	(N) (universe)	(n) (valid answers)	Response rate (%) (only valid answers)	Institutional position (at the Parliament and Government)
BE	5.2	Rank-and-file	November 2014	9,600	669	7.0	Opposition
Livre	2.2**	Rank-and-file	October 2014	2,000***	143	7.2	Without parliamentary representation
PS	28.1	Rank-and-file	January/ February 2014	83,524	1,347	1.6	Opposition
PSD ****	38.5	delegates	February 2014	1,000***	313	31.3	Government
CDS-PP	11.7	delegates	January 2014	900***	443	49.2	Government

Party		PS	PSD	CDS-PP	BE	LIVRE
Gender	Male	75.4	82.7	72.6	69.0	79.7
	Female	24.6	17.3	27.4	31.0	20.3
	Total (N)	(1,347)	(313)	(441)	(696)	(143)
Age	<35	16.9	25.6	12.2	27.5	39.9
	36-64	66.2	67.0	81.3	62.7	53.85
	65>	16.9	7.4	6.5	9.8	6.3
	Mean	49.7	44.5	43	45.7	40.8
9240	Total (N)	(1,346)	(312)	(441)	(697)	(143)
Education	None/Elementary	9.4	0.3	2.8	10.2	1.4
	High school	26.0	19.6	20.1	23.8	14.0
	Higher education	64.6	80.1	77.0	66.0	84.6
	Total (N)	(1,347)	(312)	(441)	(686)	(143)
Professional Status	Active	64.3	81.2	82.9	57.3	77.6
	(Early) retired	21.3	8.0	5.6	16.6	5.6
	Student	3.2	2.9	3.1	5.9	7.0
	Unemployed	7.4	3.2	4.9	13.9	3.5
	Other	3.8	5.7	4.5	5.8	6.3
	Total (N)	(1,243)	(313)	(441)	(696)	(143)
	Public sector	41.9	43.3	28.5	31.5	28.3
Professional sector	Private sector	30.7	33.4	46.8	48.9	46.0
	Voluntary sector	27.4	23.3	3.8	19.6	25.7
	Total (N)	(1,243)	(305)	(425)	(691)	(113)
	Every week, or more	8.1	17.6	27.5	2.9	1.4
	A few times per month	8.2	27.3	21.4	2.0	0.7
Religious practice	A few times per year	35.0	46.0	35.9	10.0	16.2
	Hardly ever, or ever	48.8	19.2	13.1	85.1	81.7
	Total (N)	(1,347)	(313)	(441)	(690)	(142)
Religiosity	Not at all religious	24.4	7.3	n.a.	67.2	69.0
	Not religious	30.7	17.9	n.a.	18.5	18.3
	Fairly religious	40.9	65.8	n.a.	13.4	9.9
	Very religious	4.0	8.3	n.a.	0.9	2.8
	Total (N)	(1,347)	(311)		(686)	(142)
Trade Union Member	Member	25.6	22.0	8.5	46.9	16.1
	Total (N)	(1,337)	(313)	(425)	(542)	(124)

I became a member ...	PS	PSD	CDS-PP	BE	LIVRE
I wanted to meet politically like-minded people	3.1 (1.2)	3.0 (1.2)	3.4 (1.2)	3.2 (1.3)	2.8 (1.2)
I wanted to become politically active	3.9 (1.1)	3.9 (1.1)	3.7 (1.2)	4 (1.1)	3.9 (1.1)
I wanted to contribute to the realisation of the political aims I supported	4.4 (0.8)	4.4 (0.8)	4.5 (0.8)	4.6 (0.8)	4.6 (0.7)
I wanted to influence the selection of candidates for political office	3.2 (1.2)	2.9 (1.2)	3.5 (1.2)	3 (1.3)	3.7 (1.2)
I wanted to pursue a career in politics	2.1 (1.1)	2.2 (1.1)	2.3 (1.2)	1.5 (0.9)	1.7 (0.9)
I wanted to support the party financially	2.0 (1.0)	1.7 (0.9)	2.1 (1.0)	2.2 (1.1)	2.2 (0.9)
I expected that party membership would be advantageous for my career	1.5 (0.8)	1.4 (0.7)	1.7 (1.0)	1.2 (0.6)	1.1 (0.5)
I was influenced by relatives or friends	2.0 (1.2)	2.1 (1.2)	2.2 (1.2)	1.6 (0.4)	1.4 (0.9)

Party	PS		PSD		CDS-PP		BE		LIVRE
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
Left-Right (Self-Placement 1-10)	3.7	2.2	6.7	2.2	7.7	1.8	3.8	2.6	3.3	1.5
Left-Right party (1-10)	4.7	1.9	6.9	1.9	7.5	1.6	2.8	2.4	3.0	1.6
Economic Freedom (1-5)	2.8	1.3	3.7	1.2	3.5	1.2	1.2	0.6	1.5	0.8
Strong state (1-5)	1.5	0.8	2.8	1.3	2.6	1.3	1.4	0.8	1.6	0.9
Protectionism (1-5)	2.8	1.2	3.5	1.1	3.3	1.2	2.9	1.3	2.9	1.1
Welfare state (1-5)	2.0	1.2	3.1	1.3	3.2	1.2	1.6	0.8	1.7	1.0
Religion (1-5)	2.7	1.7	3.5	1.5	3.9	1.3	2.0	1.4	2.2	1.5
Moral values_a (1-5)	2.4	1.5	3.1	1.5	3.4	1.5	1.6	1.1	1.7	1.0
Moral values_b (1-5)	2.5	1.4	3.9	1.5	4.1	1.3	1.5	1.1	1.6	1.0
Law & Order (1-5)	1.4	0.9	1.6	1.1	1.7	1.2	1.2	0.7	1.4	0.8
Immigration (1-5)	2.6	1.4	2.8	1.4	3.0	1.4	1.8	1.2	1.8	1.1
Environment (1-5)	2.4	1.1	2.8	1.1	2.7	1.1	1.7	1.0	1.9	1.0

Party		PS Column %	PSD Column %	CDS-PP Column %	BE Column %	Livre Column %
Time devoted to party activities per month	0-5 hours	79.4	n.a.	71.3	76.8	78.0
	6-10 hours	13.2	n.a.	14.5	13.9	10.6
	More than 10	7.4	n.a.	14.2	9.2	11.4
	Total (N)	(1,216)	-	(394)	(595)	(123)
Participation in party events in the last 12 months	Once a week or more	16.8	35.5	n.a.	9.4	10.9
	Twice a month or more	19.2	33,3	n.a.	5.0	13.5
	Once a month	17.0	12.1	n.a.	15.2	19.3
	More than 6 times a year	17.2	9.9	n.a.	16.4	10.4
	0-6 times per year	24.1	9.2	n.a.	44.2	45.8
	Total (N)	(1,092)	(313)	n.a.	(669)	(143)
Perception of party involvement	Very active	19.4	41.2	33.0	18.7	21.6
	Fairly active	50.4	56.9	52.3	43.7	44.6
	Not very active	24.0	1.6	12.5	27.9	27.3
	Not at all active	6.2	0.3	2.3	9.7	6.5
	Total (N)	(1,346)	(313)	(352)	(638)	(139)

Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Políticos (IESP) da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) R. da Matriz, 82, Botafogo, 22260-100 Rio de Janeiro RJ Brazil, Tel. (55 21) 2266-8300, Fax: (55 21) 2266-8345 - Rio de Janeiro - RJ - Brazil
E-mail: dados@iesp.uerj.br

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[TFN1] Notes:

[TFN2] * The criteria used to include the parties in the survey was to have parliamentary representation (though we accepted the participation of Livre, a newborn party, with an apparently strong public base). The Communist party (PCP), as well as the Green Party (PEV) did not answer several requests and invitations to participate in this survey.

[TFN3] ** results for Livre are for the 2014 European elections.

[TFN4] *** Estimates.

[TFN5] **** XXV PSD congress, February 2014.

[TFN6] Source: Based on an on-line questionnaire conducted within the MAPP (Members and Activists of Political Parties) research network.

Brasil

Brasil

Party Membership and Activism in a New Democracy: Evidence from the Portuguese Case * * This work was supported by Portuguese national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, under project UID/CPO/00713/2013.

Filiação Partidária e Ativismo em uma Nova Democracia: Evidências do Caso Português

Appartenance Partidaire et Activisme dans une Nouvelle Democratie : le Cas Portugais

Afiliación partidaria y activismo en jóvenes democracias: evidencias del caso portugués

ABSTRACT

Party Membership and Activism in a New Democracy: Evidence from the Portuguese Case ^* * This work was supported by Portuguese national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, under project UID/CPO/00713/2013.