Digital Media, Ground Wars and Party Organisation: Does Stratarchy Explain How Parties Organise Election Campaigns?

Abstract

Campaigning is an essential function of modern political parties. According to some of the most well-known and widely-cited parts of the party scholarship it is also one of the defining features of party organisation. Yet this centrality is not reflected in the recent literature which has analysed the power dynamics within contemporary party organisations. These analyses have focused on a variety of party related functions, but none have considered campaigning. In this article, I apply the theory of stratarchical party organisation to campaigning in two Australian cases. Drawing on extensive interview data with those at the cutting edge of campaigning in these parties, I argue that there is evidence to suggest that the stratarchical model can explain how parties organise a modern campaign. However, unlike recent analyses, I argue that there is evidence of both power-sharing and mutual autonomy.