liberation

[party membership] 25: The decline of linkage between state and society

The shift in New Zealand towards the low-membership electoral-professional model of political parties has had particularly important consequences for the way that the public orientate towards the arena of state power. [Read more below]

The finances of New Zealand First (draft)

In light of the recent exposé of New Zealand First’s dodgy donations from wealthy businesspeople, it’s worth taking an in depth look at the party’s financial history. Such an examination highlights the many dubious and unusual elements of the party’s operations, the extent to which New Zealand First is merely a fiefdom for its leader, the high secrecy involved, but also the extent to which the party is actually largely reliant on parliamentary funding for its existence. [Read an early draft below]

[party membership] 24: Leading to an unrepresentative ‘political class’

There are fears that a declining membership base means that political parties are likely to become increasingly unrepresentative of New Zealand society. It can be argued that as membership declines, candidate selection is increasingly left in the hands of an unrepresentative slice of New Zealanders – or the ‘political class’. [Read more below]

National goes politically correct

Has the National Party become politically correct? Its 2008 election candidate list suggests so, and in a sense it’s been rather PC for some time. Now the party is attempting to diversify itself by becoming ethnically-diverse and more gender balanced to reflect the modern face of New Zealand society. While of course there is absolutely no attempt to make the National caucus reflect the class nature of New Zealand society (which is overwhelmingly working class), it should be questioned whether this form of identity politics borrowed from the liberal-left is anything more than window dressing that obscures more important elements of what the National Party represents. [Read more below]

[party membership] 23: Important consequences for party ideology

Parties in New Zealand have clearly demonstrated that they can exist more than adequately without mass memberships, but the existence of the low numbers still invites the question of how well the parties function with this new arrangement. For instance, the decline of the membership numbers of New Zealand’s political parties has some important consequences for party ideology. [Read more below]

[party membership] 22: Decline in democratic structures

Party membership is made even more meaningless by the lack of internal democracy in the New Zealand parties. Despite supposedly democratic structures, it is the parliamentary elite of the parties that make the most important decisions. [Read more below]

Business says to Labour: “go” but is indifferent towards National

The business community has lost confidence in the Labour Government, yet isn’t convinced that the National Party will carry out the necessary changes that they support. That’s the message from the Independent Financial Review’s triennial pre-election business survey.  In many ways it mirrors the Independent’s pre-election business survey that preceded Clark’s Labour Party coming to power in 1999. That survey of employers reported that they believed the National government should be voted out and that the Labour Party was then the preferred choice of business. [Read more below]

Dunedin free film screening: The Hollow Men

Nicky Hager’s book the Hollow Men has been brilliantly converted into a stage production, and has now been turned into a documentary film. The director, Alister Barry, is in Dunedin for the Film Festival (where the documentary had it’s premier in the weekend) and has very kindly agreed to screen the film for free on campus for anyone who’s interested. [Read more below]

[party membership] 21: Professionalisation

Existing alongside the ‘diminishing supply’ explanations for the decline in party membership is an argument that highlights a ‘diminishing demand’ for membership on the part of party leaders. This is closely related to the shift of parties towards an electoral-professional form of organisation, which involves greater centralisation and professionalisation, all of which increasingly takes place in the parliamentary wing. In this situation, the benefits of a large membership are no longer so great, especially balanced against some of the political and financial costs that also accrue from membership. Party elites therefore have a reduced demand and capacity for involving a large membership, and subsequently expend less effort in recruiting and retaining members. [Read more below]

[party membership] 20: Alternative social activities

In recruiting members, parties face competition from alternative social activities. New Zealand political parties once fulfilled a non-political function that is now no longer required – entertainment. The huge growth in alternative social activities have reduced society’s supply of party membership. [Read more below]

[party membership] 19: Growth of the mass media

The growth of the mass media has also played a key part in superseding political parties. Changes in technology mean that the media now play a strong role in mediating information between politicians and the public, where political parties used to play that role. [Read more below]

[party membership] 18: Declining status, popularity and power of NZ parties

There is now a certain social stigma attached to the membership of a political party. Just as the act of seeking public office or being a politician has lost respectability, so too has the act of being part of an organisation that aids politicians and their electioneering. Added to this, the New Zealand parties – Labour and National especially – have discredited themselves in government, while in general parties and governments have shown themselves to be rather ineffective within today’s globalised capitalism. [Read more below]

[party membership] 17: Class dealignment & atomisation

The class dealignment and individualisation of society (discussed elsewhere in this blog) also influences the level of party membership in New Zealand. As time goes by, the party system is decreasingly based on class cleavages, yet the relationships between other social cleavages and political parties are also particularly weak and unstable. The relevance of parties is therefore diminished. [Read more below]

[party membership] 16: Depoliticisation in society

A general depoliticisation process is underway in New Zealand society, whereby people are uninterested in taking part in any political process, or even joining non-parliamentary political groups. This has clearly reduced the supply of party membership. [Read more below]

[party membership] 15: Ideological decline

There are ideological reasons for the decline of partisanship in society. The act of joinging a political party in New Zealand is now less meaningful because there is less ideological polarisation between the parties,  as well as a lesser emphasis given by the parties to their ideological components. [Read more below]

[party membership] 14:: Supply & demand explanations for decline

There are a number of reasons for the declining party membership numbers in New Zealand – all of which generally fall into two broad categories: (1) reduced supply of members from civil society, and (2) reduced demand for members by the parties. Supply-side arguments revolve around changes in society, such as lifestyle and declining political preferences that make membership less relevant or appealing to citizens. Demand-side arguments are related to changes in the organisation of the parties, and in particular, the shift to the electoral-professional model which has less of a demand for citizen involvement because of a reliance on party professionals and the almost pure focus on elections and the media. The following blog posts will elaborate, first on supply-side explanations, then on demand-side explanations.