Explaining Membership Growth in the Norwegian Progress Party From
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives Explaining Membership Growth in the Norwegian Progress Party from 1973 to 2008 Hilmar Langhelle Mjelde Master Thesis November 2008 The University of Bergen Department of Comparative Politics Abstract This thesis is concerned with explaining the membership growth in the Norwegian Progress Party, Fremskrittspartiet, from its founding in 1973 to 2008. Two major studies, Katz and Mair (1992) and Mair and van Biezen (2001), have demonstrated that West-European parties, including Norwegian ones, are losing members, and have been doing it for several decades. Although this development was not as pronounced in the first study, it had become clear by 2001. The Progress Party has clearly deviated from both the national and the international trend of dwindling mass membership with its relatively stable growth in this respect. Through the application of relevant academic literature, I set forth seven theoretically informed hypotheses about the causes of the Progress Party’s membership growth. At the macro-level, I examine the impact of electoral success and public subsidies on membership growth. At the meso-level, the efforts of the Progress Party leadership, the party’s organizational network, and its executive structure are considered. Finally, at the micro-level, I study support in the electorate for the Progress Party’s policies and the availability of political positions for members in the party as possible causes of membership growth. The central finding of the thesis is that leadership efforts appear to be the key component in the explanation, although it may depend on several other factors to be successful. i List of Contents Abstract........................................................................................................................................i List of Tables.............................................................................................................................iv List of Figures............................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgements.....................................................................................................................v Chapter 1: Introduction...........................................................................................................1 1.1. Theme...................................................................................................................................1 1.2. Why Study the Progress Party? ...........................................................................................1 1.3. Motivation and Contribution................................................................................................1 1.4. The Organization of the Thesis............................................................................................3 Chapter 2: Method....................................................................................................................5 2.1. Introduction..........................................................................................................................5 2.2. The Case Study....................................................................................................................5 2.3. Document Analysis and Data Reliability............................................................................8 2.4. Qualitative Interviewing....................................................................................................11 Chapter 3: Party Membership Development in a European and National Context........14 3.1. Introduction........................................................................................................................14 3.2. The History of the Progress Party in Numbers and Names...............................................15 3.3. Partisan Decline and Party Membership............................................................................16 3.4. Membership Measurement.................................................................................................18 3.5. Party Membership Development in a European Context...................................................19 3.6. Party Membership Development in Norway.....................................................................25 3.7. The Exception: the Progress Party.....................................................................................29 Chapter 4: Explaining the Progress Party’s Membership Growth....................................31 4.1. Introduction........................................................................................................................31 4.2. Macro-Level Variables......................................................................................................32 4.3. Meso-Level Variables........................................................................................................37 4.4. Micro-Level Variables.......................................................................................................46 4.5. Interdependence of Variables............................................................................................51 Chapter 5: Testing the Hypotheses About the Progress Party’s Membership Growth...52 5.1. Introduction........................................................................................................................52 5.2. Macro-Level Variables......................................................................................................52 5.3. Meso-Level Variables........................................................................................................58 ii 5.4. Micro-Level Variables.......................................................................................................74 Chapter 6: Conclusion............................................................................................................78 6.1. Introduction........................................................................................................................78 6.2. Contribution of the Thesis..................................................................................................78 6.3. Central Findings.................................................................................................................78 6.4. Suggestions for Further Research......................................................................................81 iii List of Tables Table 1: The Progress Party’s Election Results........................................................................15 Table 2: Progress Party Leaders...............................................................................................16 Table 3: Party Membership Change in Europe 1960-1990: M/E Ratios..................................19 Table 4: Party Membership Change in Europe 1980-2000: Absolute Numbers and M/E Ratios........................................................................................................................................20 Table 5: Norwegian Party Membership 1950-2006: Absolute Numbers and M/E Ratios.......25 Table 6: Party Membership in the Progress Party 1973-2007..................................................29 Table 7: Party Membership as a Dependent Variable: A Multilevel Analysis.........................31 Table 8: The Progress Party: Votes and Members....................................................................53 Table 9: The State Subsides’ Share of the Progress Party’s Income........................................56 Table 10: Norwegian Municipalities with Progress Party Branches........................................70 Table 11: Progress Party Membership Motivations..................................................................75 Table 12: Summary of Hypothesis Test Results.......................................................................79 List of Figures Figure 1: The Progress Party: Votes and Members..................................................................52 Figure 2: Factors Leading to Membership Growth in the Progress Party................................80 iv Acknowledgements First and foremost, a special thanks to Associate Professor Elisabeth Ivarsflaten at the Department of Comparative Politics. She has guided me during the process of writing this thesis with her always structured and very insightful comments. By spending many hours helping me, she has improved the quality of the thesis significantly. In addition, Professor Lars G. Svåsand at the Department of Comparative Politics deserves thanks for letting me borrow all the data he had collected on the Progress Party over the years. Second, I would like to thank Membership Supervisor Anne Grethe Hauan of the Progress Party. By letting me spend almost a day interviewing her and responding to numerous emails, she has generously provided me with valuable information on the membership situation in the Progress Party. Third, thanks to my good friend and fellow student Martin Larsen Hirth, who has provided insightful comments to my thesis. v Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1. Theme The overall aim of my thesis is to increase our common understanding of what contributes to membership growth in a political party. I pursue this research objective through a theoretically informed case study of the Norwegian Progress Party, Fremskrittspartiet. 1.2.