Variations in the Meaning of Party 'Membership'
In some political parties, the membership card is like a passport held by the citizens of a country. An individual pays a set subscription fee which is valid for a set time period, signs a declaration of support for the principles of the party, receives a membership card, a membership number, and a place on the party's national membership roster. In return, the member receives certain rights as a 'card-carrying member' - a citizen of the party.
In fact, this classic model of membership is far from universal. In the United States, for example, the Democratic and Republican Parties have nothing approaching the above system of 'card-carrying membership'. In Britain, the method adopted in the past by the Conservative Party has been far less formal than that described in the previous paragraph. Since there has been no set membership subscription, it has been impossible to make a clear distinction between money received as membership subscriptions and as donations.
According to Maurice Duverger, the main distinction in membership is between Socialist parties (the German Social Democrats are the classic case) and Centre and Centre-Right 'cadre' parties. It is in the Centre-Left parties, argued Duverger, that membership subscriptions played the most important role in fund-raising. This was because such parties relied mainly on the backing of the working-classes. They had to rely on building their finances through a large number of small subscriptions. By contrast, Centre-Right parties could often obtain support from wealthy local notables. Therefore, a strict system of collecting subscriptions was unnecessary.
Plausible though this hypothesis seems to be, it corresponds only loosely with modern realities. Variations in the nature of party membership are most notable between countries rather than between different parties within a single country. For example, membership is particularly well-organised, well-defined and a source of considerable funds for a range of parties in Germany and Austria.
Membership Subscriptions as a Source of Party Income
In most countries, membership levels have been falling. Income from subscriptions is rarely a major constituent of overall party income. A comparative study of political financing in European countries concluded that membership subscription play 'only a limited role' in present-day party funding. 'According to the financial statistics of parties - which are, however, not fully comparable - parties raise less than a quarter of their total income from members' contributions.'29
State Aid and its Impact on Individual Subscriptions
Opponents of state financial aid to political parties have often argued that such aid will have the effect of removing parties' incentives for collecting membership subscriptions. Supporters of state aid have pointed out that, in some countries where parties receive handsome public subsidies (such as Germany) levels of income from subscriptions have nevertheless remained relatively high.
Changing Methods of Collecting Membership Subscriptions
With the advent of credit cards, computerised address lists, and direct mail, there has been a change (seen, for instance, in Britain) in the way in which the political parties collect membership subscriptions. In the past it was the job of party activists to travel from door to door to collect subscriptions from existing members and to recruit new members. This face-to-face method has given way to automatic techniques. Modern technology has led to computerised address lists and records of payments. Subscriptions are typically renewed through appeals sent by direct mail and members are given the opportunity to pay by credit card.
There is some evidence that the modern, impersonal method of collecting subscriptions has resulted in larger subscriptions and, in some cases, to an increase in the number of members. At the same time, members recruited by direct mail are considerably less likely to participate in party activities than those recruited on their doorsteps in the traditional manner.
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