Follow the money: Public subsidies and the changing intra-party balance of power between different faces of the party organisation—the case of Sweden

Abstract

Does the allocation of public funding for parties support the assumptions of cartel party theory about a change in the internal balance of power within Swedish parties? By answering this question, the study tests some of Katz and Mair’s theory about changing party financing that are linked to the changed balance of power within cartel parties. Using data on public party subsidiaries 1966–2011 in Sweden, the result supports these assumptions made by the cartel party theory.