Creating new participatory linkages? Political parties and democratisation in Germany, Austria, and the UK

A modernisation- and individualisation-induced loss of trust, membership, and voters has been addressed in party research for a while. However, social theory authors such as Beck, Bauman, Sennett, and Taylor have pointed to further organisational dilemmas that have not been addressed in depth: a. That demands for flexibility, individualisation and non-bindingness and demands for centralized political leadership might go hand in hand; b. That notwithstanding increasing individualisation citizens might demand new forms of social collectives and belonging. In this article, I compare how different established party families perceive these contradictions and seek to create new party-society linkages. Based on a series of qualitative in-depth interviews with Social Democratic and Conservative party functionaries, I emphasise that different party families and their reform attempts reflect individualisation, flexible and liquid identities differently and thus refashion the way citizens are linked with political parties and representative democracy.