To reform or not to reform? Parties’ differing interests in institutional reforms in established democracies

Abstract

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 Research on political parties and institutional reform is outdated, often merely focused either on the actual implementation of the institutional reform, on just electoral reform, or just on one party group's interest in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