How and why do political parties differ in their spending patterns? An empirical analysis of expenditure on party payroll staff
| Date | 01 March 2019 |
| Published date | 01 March 2019 |
| Author | Bart Maddens,Jef Smulders |
| DOI | 10.1177/0192512117744677 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512117744677
International Political Science Review
2019, Vol. 40(2) 215 –230
© The Author(s) 2018
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0192512117744677
journals.sagepub.com/home/ips
How and why do political parties
differ in their spending patterns?
An empirical analysis of expenditure
on party payroll staff
Jef Smulders
KU Leuven, Belgium
Bart Maddens
KU Leuven, Belgium
Abstract
Despite the pivotal role of payroll staff within political parties’ central offices, research on the staff expenses
of parties remains scarce. In this article, we study the relative staff expenses of political parties, that is staff
costs as a percentage of total annual expenses. We analyse which factors explain the differences between
parties’ relative staff expenses, based on a dataset of 590 individual observations representing 52 parties
from seven European countries. The multivariate model shows that relative staff expenses are higher among
left-oriented parties and that they increase with party age, party membership figures and the number of years
a party has been in government, while they decrease with party income. Relative staff expenses also decrease
with the effective number of parties in the party system, and they are lower in election years.
Keywords
Party staff, staff expenses, party organisation, professionalisation, generalised linear mixed models
Introduction
There is a growing consensus among scholars that staff constitutes one of the most important
resources for modern political parties. As parties have turned into professional organisations, they
often rely heavily on a large and permanent workforce. These staff members not only support the
party in its basic organisational functions, such as administration and intra-party coordination, but
also help to guarantee the party’s organisational survival. In sharp contrast to the consensus on the
importance of party staff, however, it remains a remarkably under-researched subject.
Corresponding author:
Jef Smulders, Public Governance Institute, KU Leuven, Parkstraat 45, Box 3609, Leuven, 3000, Belgium.
Email: jef.smulders@kuleuven.be
744677IPS0010.1177/0192512117744677International Political Science ReviewSmulders and Maddens
research-article2018
Article
216 International Political Science Review 40(2)
Thus, despite its importance, we know hardly anything about the personnel of political parties.
This general absence of research on party staff can mainly be attributed to a lack of data: such stud-
ies are highly dependent on the willingness of parties to share information on their employees, yet
they appear to be reluctant to provide such figures (Webb and Keith, 2017). As a result, staff data
are generally highly fragmented and only partially available – for only a specific group of parties
or over a certain time period. We consequently hardly know how staff levels differ between parties
and how these differences can be explained.
In this article, we propose an alternative approach. Instead of analysing the number of party
employees, we rely on more robust data, namely the level of relative staff expenses, that is, staff
expenses expressed as a share of total annual expenses. These data are retrieved from the parties’
official annual financial statements, which have become widely available in recent decades. We
particularly analyse the determinants of parties’ relative staff expenses based on financial informa-
tion from 52 parties in seven European countries.
The first part of this article introduces the topics of party staff and staff expenses. The subsequent
part offers an overview of the central variables and hypotheses of this study. After a discussion of
our case selection and methodology, we focus on data and operationalisation. Next, the results of the
analyses are presented. Finally, the discussion puts the main findings into broader perspective.
Political party staff and staff expenses
Political parties need resources, most notably money, members and staff, to maintain their organi-
sational structure and to achieve their electoral and policy goals. Without financial and human
resources, a party would be ‘an empty shell, a hollow device lacking the means of political action’
(Webb and Keith, 2017). When it comes to the relative importance of these resources, however, we
find that parties have changed considerably during the past century, gradually evolving towards
more professional and capital-intensive organisations.
The traditional mass parties were described as mass membership organisations, in the sense that
they were equipped and financed by their members. In the second half of the 20th century, how-
ever, a decline in party membership emerged, as electorates became more volatile and partisan
dealignment occurred (Kölln, 2014). This not only implied a drop of membership fees, but also a
decrease of human resources. Since members served as voluntary workers, parties lost an impor-
tant share of their human capital, compelling them to hire paid professionals instead (Krouwel,
2012). At the same time, the professionalisation of political communication, with the development
of modern campaigning and marketing techniques, also required parties to attract additional
resources and professional skills (Farrell and Webb, 2000).
Following these evolutions, parties gradually transformed into professional organisations, as
described by the evolution towards catch-all, electoral-professional and cartel parties (Krouwel,
2012). They no longer relied on a strong membership base and voluntary activism, but instead
became professional, capital-intensive and state-funded organisations aided by paid and skilled
employees (Kölln, 2014; Mair et al., 2004; Tan, 2000). Parties thus increasingly hired staff as one
of their main resources to support their professionalised organisation.
As a result of this trend, party staff are now more important than ever before. Parties generally
rely on three types of staff workers (Webb and Kolodny, 2006; also see Farrell and Webb, 2000;
Schutz, 1964). The first category includes the personnel within the party in public office; this is
state-paid staff, such as parliamentary party workers and ministerial advisors. Second, professional
consultants are hired by parties on a temporary basis for specific services, for instance marketing,
accounting and legal advice. Finally, the party payroll staff refers to the personnel employed and
paid by political parties, primarily active within the party in central office. These extra-parliamen-
tary staff members constitute a party’s full-time and permanent workforce.
To continue reading
Request your trial