Evolving membership strategies in Australian political parties

Like parties elsewhere, the Australian parties have witnessed a decline in membership activism in recent years and some have suggested that near memberless parties may become the norm. Drawing on elite interviews, party documents and examination of recent organisational reforms, we argue that parties continue to need members and view their involvement as essential to achieving their objectives. In response to declining rates of activism parties have begun to experiment with different forms of membership, such as policy branches, and to expand the traditional notion of membership to include ‘supporters’. We show that membership is a flexible concept that is used by parties to fulfil their institutional functions and electoral objectives, and is defined in unique ways in each sphere of activity. We suggest that accounts of party decline relying on formal membership numbers may be inaccurate.

同其他国家的政党一样,澳大利亚的政党近年来也经历了党员参与的滑坡,以至有人认为无党员政党会成为常态。笔者根据对精英的访谈、政党的文献以及对近年组织改革的考察,指出政党还是要有党员的,党员的参与对于实现政党的目标至关重要。针对参与率走低的情况,一些政党开始尝试不同的参与形式,如政策支部,并延展传统的党员概念,把支持者也包括进来。党员是一个灵活的概念,一些政党用它来实现其体制功能和竞选目的,在每一个活动范围内都有独特的定义。根据正式成员人数统计出来的政党参与走低,是不准确的。     

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Designing candidate selection methods: Exploring diversity in Australian political parties

The processes political parties use to select their candidates for public office constitute a crucial element of political recruitment in representative democracies and provide important insights into how power is distributed within party organisations. In this article, we develop a typology for understanding the diversity of preselection mechanisms in Australia's major parties that is based on degrees of influence between the central and local components of the party organisation. The typology in turn reflects preselection rules as public expressions of intra-party power sharing arrangements. We also identify the institutional, strategic and normative factors (including electoral systems, the accommodation of intra-party groups, candidate quality, efficiency and social norms) that influence the choices parties have to make when selecting and implementing a particular system.

政党用以选举候选人出任公职的过程构成了代议制民主国家政治遴选的一个关键因素,并提供了理解政党组织内权力分配的一个重要角度。本文根据中央和地方党组织之间影响的不同程度,提出了一种分类法以理解澳大利亚主要政党预选机制的多样性。这种分类法本身反映了作为表达政党内权力分享安排的预选规则。我们还找到了体制、战略以及规范性因素（包括选举制度、党内不同群体的相互适应、候选人品质、效率、社会规范等等）,这些因素会影响政党选择和实施某种制度时的决策。     

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Review article： COEDES, George. 2011. Texts of Greek and Latin Authors on the Far East： Texts Revised and Translated by John Sheldon with Contributions by N. Samuel, C. Lieu Faha ＆ Gregory Fox, （XL＋185 p., 4 b/w ill.,     

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