Conceptualising party-driven movements
| Published date | 01 August 2020 |
| Date | 01 August 2020 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1369148120919744 |
| Subject Matter | Original Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148120919744
The British Journal of Politics and
International Relations
2020, Vol. 22(3) 485 –504
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1369148120919744
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Conceptualising party-driven
movements
James Muldoon1 and Danny Rye2
Abstract
This article contributes to scholarship on the relationship between political parties and social
movements by proposing the concept of ‘party-driven movements’ to understand the formation
of a new hybrid model within existing political parties in majoritarian systems. In our two case
studies – Momentum’s relationship with the UK Labour Party and the Bernie Sanders-inspired ‘Our
Revolution’ with the US Democratic Party – we highlight the conditions under which they emerge
and their key characteristics. We analyse how party-driven movements express an ambivalence in
terms of strategy (working inside and outside the party), political aims (aiming to transform the
party and society) and organisation (in the desire to maintain autonomy while participating within
party structures). Our analysis suggests that such party-driven movements provide a potential
answer to political parties’ alienation from civil society and may thus be a more enduring feature
of Anglo-American majoritarian party systems than the current literature suggests.
Keywords
British labour party, momentum, our revolution, political parties, social movements, US
democrats
Introduction
An important body of literature seeks to bridge the divide between the study of political
parties and social movements, examining the interface between the two (Kitschelt,
1993; Kruszewska, 2016; McAdam and Tarrow, 2010; Schwartz, 2010). Recently,
Donatella Della Porta et al. (2017) have analysed new ‘movement-parties’, hybrids
which have emerged from left-wing, anti-austerity movements and shaken up the party
system in Greece, Italy and Spain. The prospect of a similar development in majoritar-
ian, two-party-dominated systems like the United Kingdom and the United States, is far
less likely. Indeed historically, a more fruitful strategy for movements in these systems
has been to form mutually beneficial relationships with existing party organisations
(Schlozman, 2015).
In this article, we argue that the differing dynamics of two-party systems has resulted
in the appearance within existing parties of an alternative form of hybrid organisation,
1Department of Politics, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK
2Department of History and Politics, Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool, Merseyside, UK
Corresponding author:
James Muldoon, Department of Politics, University of Exeter, Penryn TR10 9EZ, UK.
Email: j.muldoon@exeter.ac.uk
919744BPI0010.1177/1369148120919744The British Journal of Politics and International RelationsMuldoon and Rye
research-article2020
Original Article
486 The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 22(3)
which we call ‘party-driven movements’. We aim to provide a conceptual framework for
understanding the emergence of this new organisational hybrid. Two questions guide our
research: first, under what specific conditions do party-driven movements emerge?
Second, what are their key features and to what extent are they a distinctive kind of
organisation?
On this basis, we aim to advance the literature along two lines. First, rather than social
movements that have evolved into parties, our two case studies represent movements that
have emerged from the party itself: initiated by internal actors who co-opt existing net-
works of movement actors to create a movement-wing. Thus, rather than movements
adopting more formal organisational structures and methods of political contestation, we
seek to explain how, in this process, parties have adopted certain aspects of movement
organising, while at the same time maintaining many of the traditional structures and
functions of political parties that underpin success in parliamentary politics.
Second, we turn attention from continental European multi-party systems to Anglo-
American two-party systems. We claim that there are specific factors in the emergence of
party-driven movements that are more evident in two-party systems. They may, further-
more, represent an attempt by party actors to reforge the links with civil society undone
by professionalisation and centralisation (Mair, 2013), and which have inspired attempts
to restructure them (Yishai, 2001), or to explore alternative representative vehicles
(Dommett and Rye, 2018).
Sometimes this process is initiated by party leaders, such as Obama’s community
organising initiative, ‘Organising for America’, and Labour’s past experiments with simi-
lar techniques (Geary and Pabst, 2015). In contrast, our two case studies concern move-
ments that emerged in opposition to mainstream party leaders, articulating dissatisfaction
with the failure of party elites to adequately represent members’ interests and political
goals. At the same time, they appeal beyond current members to disillusioned former
members and participants in social movements who have never been members before.
In each case, a window of political opportunity was opened by a sudden upsurge of energy
in support of a candidate and a policy agenda. Forming a movement was a means by which
actors, within the party, could harness it to serve longer-term left-wing goals, drawing in new
support from new, non-traditional sources. This party-movement dynamic, we argue, is the
basis of a potentially transformative relationship, producing a new kind of organisation.
We argue that this latest evolution in political party organisation is one avenue through
which political parties could seek to reconnect with civil society. While at this stage it is
not clear the extent to which this hybrid model could spread to other political systems, our
analysis suggests that its most fertile ground appears to be in majoritarian two-party sys-
tems. The successes of Momentum and Our Revolution as organisations capable of mobi-
lising supporters shows clear potential, although these movements have not yet
demonstrated clear payoffs with national electoral victories.
Structure of the article
After exploring existing literature on the topic, we proceed by examining four key condi-
tions for the emergence of party-driven movements, (1) unrepresented claims, (2) pre-
existing social movement networks, (3) political opportunity structures, and (4) leadership.
We then identify from our case studies four shared characteristics which illuminate the
distinctiveness of the party-driven movement: (1) insider/outsider status, (2) the nature of
its agenda, (3) independence/autonomy, and (4) digital organising.
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