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Concept information

Preferred term

party membership  

Definition

  • Early cadre or elite political parties included members of legislative chambers who met to choose leaders, participate in the organization and management of the chamber, and perhaps to coordinate or procure resources for their electoral campaigns. With the expansion of the right to vote, the attendant need for extensive campaign organizations, and particularly the rise of parties of extraparliamentary origin, the concept of party membership is now applied less to elected officials (who remain members of party caucuses or other similar organizations, but who are more often identified simply as “Social Democrats” or “Conservatives”) than to those who have joined an extragovernmental organization. [Source: The Encyclopedia of Political Science; Party Membership]

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URI

http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/N9J-VN9NTS6H-4

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