IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/poango/v9y2021i4p263-274.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

No Strong Leaders Needed? AfD Party Organisation Between Collective Leadership, Internal Democracy, and “Movement-Party” Strategy

Author

Listed:
  • Anna-Sophie Heinze

    (Trier Institute for Democracy and Party Research (TIDUP), Faculty of Political Science, University of Trier, Germany)

  • Manès Weisskircher

    (Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, Norway / Center for Research on Extremism (C-REX), University of Oslo, Norway)

Abstract

This article analyses the formal and lived organisation of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD, Alternative for Germany). We show that the party is exceptional among what is usually understood as the populist radical right (PRR) party family, at least from an organisational perspective: The AfD sharply contradicts the “standard model” of PRR party organisation, which emphasises “charismatic” leadership and the centralisation of power as key features. Instead, studying the AfD’s efforts to adopt some elements of a mass-party organisation and its relatively decentralised decision-making underlines the importance of “movement-party” strategy, collective leadership, and internal democracy—concepts that are usually associated with Green and left-wing parties. Our analysis shows how the party’s organisation is essential for understanding its development more broadly as it reflects and reinforces sharp intra-party conflict. From this perspective, the case of the AfD sheds new light on the relationship between PRR party organisation and electoral success, indicating the importance of strong ties to parts of society over effective internal management as long as demand for anti-immigration parties is high. We conclude that even though AfD quickly built up a relatively inclusive organisational structure, the role of both its leadership and its rank-and-file is still a matter of controversy.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna-Sophie Heinze & Manès Weisskircher, 2021. "No Strong Leaders Needed? AfD Party Organisation Between Collective Leadership, Internal Democracy, and “Movement-Party” Strategy," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(4), pages 263-274.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v9:y:2021:i:4:p:263-274
    DOI: 10.17645/pag.v9i4.4530
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4530
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17645/pag.v9i4.4530?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Caramani, Daniele, 2017. "Will vs. Reason: The Populist and Technocratic Forms of Political Representation and Their Critique to Party Government," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 111(1), pages 54-67, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stijn van Kessel & Daniele Albertazzi, 2021. "Right-Wing Populist Party Organisation Across Europe: The Survival of the Mass-Party? Conclusion to the Thematic Issue," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(4), pages 365-370.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Natascha Zaun & Ariadna Ripoll Servent, 2023. "Perpetuating Crisis as a Supply Strategy: The Role of (Nativist) Populist Governments in EU Policymaking on Refugee Distribution," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(3), pages 653-672, May.
    2. Nikitas Konstantinidis & Konstantinos Matakos & Hande Mutlu-Eren, 2019. "“Take back control”? The effects of supranational integration on party-system polarization," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 297-333, June.
    3. Fernando Filgueiras & Pedro Palotti & Graziella G. Testa, 2023. "Complexing Governance Styles: Connecting Politics and Policy in Governance Theories," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(1), pages 21582440231, March.
    4. Antonino Castaldo & Luca Verzichelli, 2020. "Technocratic Populism in Italy after Berlusconi: The Trendsetter and his Disciples," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 485-495.
    5. Elena Semenova, 2020. "Expert Ministers in New Democracies: Delegation, Communist Legacies, or Technocratic Populism?," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 590-602.
    6. Petra Guasti, 2020. "Populism in Power and Democracy: Democratic Decay and Resilience in the Czech Republic (2013–2020)," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 473-484.
    7. Geschwind, Stephan & Roesel, Felix, 2022. "Taxation under direct democracy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 536-554.
    8. Maria Snegovaya, 2020. "Different Strokes for Different Folks: Who Votes for Technocratic Parties?," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 556-567.
    9. José Joaquín Brunner, 2018. "Sobre las contradicciones culturales del liberalismo y sus malestares," Estudios Públicos, Centro de Estudios Públicos, vol. 0(150), pages 161-233.
    10. Marion Reiser & Jörg Hebenstreit, 2020. "Populism versus Technocracy? Populist Responses to the Technocratic Nature of the EU," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 568-579.
    11. Kovanic, Martin & Steuer, Max, 2023. "Fighting against COVID-19: With or without politics?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 337(C).
    12. Rodrigo Barrenechea & Eduardo Dargent, 2020. "Populists and Technocrats in Latin America: Conflict, Cohabitation, and Cooperation," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 509-519.
    13. Thomas König & Bernd Luig, 2017. "The impact of EU decision-making on national parties’ attitudes towards European integration," European Union Politics, , vol. 18(3), pages 362-381, September.
    14. Braun, Benjamin & Hübner, Marina, 2017. "Fiscal fault, financial fix? Capital Markets Union and the quest for macroeconomic stabilization in the euro area," MPIfG Discussion Paper 17/21, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    15. Federico M. Ferrara & Donato Masciandaro & Manuela Moschella & Davide Romelli, 2023. "What do politicians think of technocratic institutions? Experimental Evidence on the European Central Bank," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 23201, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    16. Kittel, Rebecca C., 2024. "Let's talk populist? A survey experiment on effects of (non‐) populist discourse on vote choice," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue Early Vie, pages 1-25.
    17. Lenka Buštíková & Pavol Baboš, 2020. "Best in Covid: Populists in the Time of Pandemic," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 496-508.
    18. Marion Reiser & Jörg Hebenstreit, 2020. "Populism versus Technocracy? Populist Responses to the Technocratic Nature of the EU," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 568-579.
    19. Ernesto Ganuza & Joan Font, 2020. "Experts in Government: What for? Ambiguities in Public Opinion Towards Technocracy," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 520-532.
    20. Giebler, Heiko & Werner, Annika, 2020. "Cure, Poison or Placebo? The Consequences of Populist and Radical Party Success for Representative Democracy," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 56(3), pages 293-306.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v9:y:2021:i:4:p:263-274. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira or IT Department (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.