To reform or not to reform? Parties’ differing interests in institutional reforms in established democracies
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2023-08-14
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en
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Today we find ourselves in a perceived legitimacy crisis of representative
democracy. A possible solution can be to institutionally reform democracy. This thesis
research whether political parties express an interest in institutionally reforming
representative democracy and if proposals for institutional reform differ in sort and direction
among various party groups. Research on political parties and institutional reform is outdated,
often merely focused either on the actual implementation of the institutional reform, on just
electoral reform, or just on one party group's interest in institutional reforms. By examining
the mention of institutional reform in party manifestos from the Netherlands and the United
Kingdom in 2017, this thesis analyses different types of institutional reform, across different
institutional contexts and between parties. This thesis concludes that institutional context is
the greatest determinator of parties’ interest in reforming democracy. Parties in the UK are
mainly interested in inclusive representative reforms, while parties in the Netherlands are
more interested in direct democracy reforms
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen