From the constraint membership party to the "network party": aspects of the organizational reconstruction of political parties in late modernity

No abstractIn late modernity the project of the organizational reconstruction of the center- leftist parties, which are in power, aims at their opening and their broad networking with civil society, in a final analysis. During the first post-war period the catch all parties were dominant in the political sphere. This kind of political party is already changing to that of a network party; but this change raises new fears, which might devalue the significance of political parties generally within a partyless democracy. In this article, we hold the following thesis. The project of organizational reconstruction of political parties in Europe is already manifested either by the majoritarian/competitive model of democracy, which is followed in United Kingdom or, by the corpratist/consensus model of democracy, which is cultivated in Germany. This sort of reconstruction might belittle party alienation and strenghtens party democracy. However, all these could take place under the condition that parties would not constrain themselves merely to modulate heterogeneous groups of voters. The network party could emerge as an influential factor of political process; and this is so, because it is capable to co-ordinate different claims, to bring together stakeholders, leading them to mutual understanding as well as to forward and approve policies, based upon a consensus or accepted by civil society, mainly