Multi-Level Relations in Political Parties

Abstract

Most political parties operate on several territorial levels, but we have only limited theoretical understanding of multi-level party dynamics. This article presents a delegation framework for studying the interaction between the national leadership and regional branches in state-wide parties. Assuming a principal—agent relationship, the national leadership can obtain benefits from delegating tasks to a regional branch, but also faces possible costs in doing this. The rules and conventions regulating the multi-level interaction in parties are possible mechanisms by which to control the actions and policies of regional branches. These include formal party rules, informal party procedures and conventions, and state laws affecting party organizations. The framework provides an agenda and hypotheses for empirical research, research that should focus on crisis situations in parties, on what regional branches cannot do (instead of just documenting the activities of branches), and on the role of parties in shaping state laws and regulations.