Table Of ContentMovement Parties Against Austerity
Movement Parties
Against Austerity
Donatella della Porta,
Joseba Fernández,
Hara Kouki and
Lorenzo Mosca
polity
Copyright © Donatella della Porta, Joseba Fernández, Hara Kouki and Lorenzo Mosca
2017
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First published in 2017 by Polity Press
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Names: Della Porta, Donatella, 1956- author. | Fernández, Joseba, author. |
Kouki, Hara, author. | Mosca, Lorenzo, author.
Title: Movement parties against austerity / Donatella della Porta, Joseba Fernández,
Hara Kouki, Lorenzo Mosca.
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Contents
Acknowledgements vi
1 Movement Parties in Times of (Anti-)Austerity:
An Introduction 1
2 The Genesis of Movement Parties in the
Neoliberal Critical Juncture 29
3 Organizational Repertoires of Movement Parties 67
4 Framing Movement Parties 102
5 Comparing Movement Parties’ Success and
Failures 140
6 Movement Parties: Some Conclusions 181
Appendix: List of Interviews 199
Notes 202
References 209
Index 232
Acknowledgements
The idea for this book came to us, at the beginning of 2015, during a
casual conversation over a lunch with colleagues in Berlin, in the obser-
vation of a relevant but unexpected dynamic of emergence of parties
from within a social movement and, at the same time, a strange lack
of, first, conceptualization of them and, second, comparative research
on them. These gaps suggested not only theoretical thinking but also
empirical investigations. In theory, our aim has been to build an ideal-
typical definition of movement parties, locating it within social move-
ment studies and party studies. In reality, we have triangulated various
sources on party actors, who, while writing this book, became more and
more visible and successful, achieving power at local and even national
level. While their evolutionary paths are still developing, we thought that
the time was certainly right for first analysis.
Ideas mature in context under favourable circumstances. First and
foremost, our work was made possible by an Advanced Scholars
Research Grant from the European Research Council for Donatella della
Porta’s project of ‘Mobilizing for Democracy’. Some parts of this volume
have been presented at a conference on Movement and Parties at the
Centre for Social Movement Studies of the Scuola Normale Superiore in
Florence. We are grateful to Daniela Chironi, Jonas Draege, Sven Hutter,
Frank O’Connor, Martin Portos, Ken Roberts, Anna Subirats and Sidney
Tarrow for their comments. We also wish to thank Sarah Tarrow for
her careful editing.
The authors are listed in alphabetical order; they contributed equally
to this book.
1
Movement Parties in
Times of (Anti-)Austerity:
An Introduction
1.1. Parties and movements: An introduction
During austerity policies and the cycle of protest against them, while the
downward trend in party-movement relations had pushed towards an
expectation of further separation between institutional and contentious
actors, a new wave of parties emerged that took inspiration (and strength)
from social movements. This first became visible in Latin America in the
1990s, with a parallel move in Europe (particularly in Southern Europe)
more than a decade later. The stunning electoral success of movement
parties like SYRIZA in Greece, Podemos in Spain, and the Movimento 5
Stelle (M5S) in Italy challenged expectations of an increasing separation
of movement and party politics in social movement studies, as well as
anticipation of a decline of the radical left in studies of political parties.
This volume presents a social-science analysis of these topical socio-
political phenomena, within a cross-national comparative perspective.
A first contribution of our research is in the bridging of concepts and
theories developed in two quite successful subfields in the social and
political sciences: studies on social movements and on political parties.
In particular, focusing on movement parties that have been successful in
electoral politics, we will address the relevant issues of social movement
effects as well as party system changes. Bridging both traditions of study,
we will reflect on the genesis of movement parties within broad transfor-
mations in social conflicts induced by the neoliberal critical juncture and
contemplate the organizational changes that, from social movements,
2 MoveMenT PArTIes In TIMes of (AnTI-)AusTerITy
spilled over into party politics. Rather than searching for structural
determinants, however, we will take a processual stance, considering
the emergence and success of movement parties within an approach
that is relational, as it looks at repeated interactions of various actors;
dynamic, as it addresses these interactions through trials and errors;
and constructed, as it considers those actors’ construction of their social
reality (della Porta 2014).
This introduction will review the existing research on relations
between parties and social movements, setting the theoretical stage for
the empirical analysis that will follow. First, we review existing litera-
ture on the relations developed between movements and parties in an
attempt to conceptualize movement parties as based upon a specific type
of relations with movements. Movements have developed special links
with political parties or party families by targeting parties, allying with
parties, founding parties. Movement parties are defined with reference
to these different types of relations (Kitschelt 1989). Second, we will
single out some conditions under which social movements are expected
to influence parties, up to the foundation of movement parties (Tarrow
1989; 2015; Goldstone 2003; della Porta and Diani 2006). Following
existing literature in social movement studies and party studies, explana-
tions for movement party emergence will be located within the structure
of political cleavages, the representative capacity of existing parties, the
characteristics of electoral competition and party systems, the degree of
electoral volatility and institutional trust as well as electoral laws. Third,
we will address the evolution of party models over time – from parties
of notables to personal/cartel parties putting particular emphasis on the
characteristics of an emerging type of party organization: the neoliberal
populist party. Hegemonic party models in specific historical periods
play an important role in providing environmental imprints affecting
newborn parties – such as movement parties – despite their aim to chal-
lenge and change the existing party systems. In particular, neoliberal
populist parties tend to be organizationally thin, highly personalized,
post-ideological and mediatized – characteristics that to a certain extent
can also be found in contemporary movement parties. Fourth, we will
focus on the evolution through time of movement party types that
emerged from some social movement families (i.e. labour movements,
environmental movements) focusing particularly on the Green parties.
Our aim is to shed light on the relations developed between parties and
movements in history and on the different ways some movements have
interacted with the existing party system. We shall add to this analysis
the characteristics of social movements that can lead to the founda-
tion of a party. We will also reflect on movement parties’ strategies (in
frames, organizations, and forms of action) by mapping the trade-offs
MoveMenT PArTIes In TIMes of (AnTI-)AusTerITy 3
that a close relationship between movements and parties creates for
both actors. The last part of this introductory chapter presents the
research design of the book, including the case selection and the methods
for data collection and data analysis. Building on the knowledge of
party/movements relations presented above, we have chosen SYRIZA,
Podemos and the M5S for in-depth analysis throughout the volume, as
these political actors represent cases of movement parties that emerged
during the crisis of neoliberalism and which achieved electoral success.
We will finally present the structure of the volume.
1.2. Conceptualizing relations between movements
and parties
While it has often been noted that parties are important for movements
and vice versa, the literature on relations between the two is at best
sparse. Reciprocal indifferences have been further fuelled as research on
parties moved away from concerns with the relations between parties
and society – focusing on parties within institutions – and social move-
ment studies mainly framed them as a social phenomenon whose political
aspects had to be located outside of the political institutions. Research on
contentious politics has indeed become too movement-centric, dismissing
the existing reciprocal relationship between electoral and protest politics
(Hutter 2014). At the same time, literature on political parties grew more
and more biased towards institutions, forgetting about the linkages with
the society (della Porta 2015a).
Critiques of a vision of movements as outsiders have been voiced,
however, within social movement studies. As Jack Goldstone suggested,
institutional politics is permeated by social movements considered as
‘an essential element of normal politics in modern societies’, which do
not necessarily institutionalize or fade away. Rather, ‘parties and move-
ments have become overlapping, mutually dependent actors in shaping
politics to the point that long-established political parties welcome social
movement support and often rely specifically on their association to win
elections’ (2003, 4). Relations between the two are various: ‘Movements
compete with parties. Movements infiltrate parties . . . . Movements
become parties’ (Garner and Zald 1985, 137). Social movements have
often addressed programmatic challenges to parties, by proposing new
issues; organizational challenges, by promoting a participatory model;
electoral challenges, by raising support for some emerging topics in
public opinion (Rohrschneider 1993), and even succeeded in changing
parties’ programmes and organization (della Porta 2007). In a recent
contribution, McAdam and Tarrow (2010, 533) singled out six types of
