IPSA-ECPR Panel on Party Regulation (Sao Paulo, 16-19 February 2011)

Section organizers: Ingrid van Biezen and Petr Kopecky (Leiden University)
Panel chair: Matthijs Bogaards (Jacobs University Bremen)

Political parties are indispensable for democracy, but surprisingly, the regulation of political parties has for a long time been neglected by academic research, especially in political science. Only recently has scholarly interest in party regulation increased (See Janda 2005; Müller & Sieberer 2006; Reilly 2006, 2008; Bogaards 2008; van Biezen 2008; Bogaards et al. 2010). This follows an upsurge in party regulation in old democracies and new democracies alike. In established democracies, party regulation tends to focus on the constitutionalization of parties and party finance. In new democracies, party regulation often aims at lowering the number of parties in electoral competition and parliament and at the promotion of national parties. In Sub-Saharan Africa, party regulation is an important instrument in the institutional prevention of ethnic conflict. However, little is known about the different types of party regulation, the conditions under which they were adopted, their aims and objectives, and their consequences. The panel includes papers that address these questions and especially welcomes comparative analyses.

Papers

Ingrid van Biezen & Ekaterina Rashkova – Breaking the Cartel: The Effect of State Regulation on Newcomers’ Entry
Sebastian Elischer, Anika Moroff & Matthijs Bogaards – Does Party Regulation in Africa Create National Parties?
Evangelos Kyzirakos – Law as Politics or the Birth of a New Type of Political Party?
Antonio Otavio Cintra & Marcelo Lacombe – Parties inside the Legislatures: What Kind of Regulation?
Susan Scarrow – The Evolution of Party Finance Rules and Rewards: Carrots and Sticks, Chickens and Eggs

IPSA-ECPR Sao Paulo website